"The Story of An Hour"

What all could happen in just an hour? Death, and life can happen in a matter of seconds; so much more could happen in an hour. This is seen in the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chapin. In this story there are many symbols about tragedy, and other sad things that happen in this story. To most “normal” people the death of your husband would be incredibly sad, but to the main character Mrs. Mallard it is happy. Walking up the stairs into her room she is “mourning” but the distinct symbols around her hint that maybe she is actually happy.

The first symbol is when Mrs. Mallard walks up the stairs. Once she walks up the stairs “good” things start happening to her. Some of the things that happen are her husband dies. You wouldn’t think that Mrs. Mallard is happy because she is crying and doesn’t seem happy, but as you read further into the story and as you, look at the symbols that are hinted at it is looking as though she is happy. How could life seem happy when someone just died?

The second symbol that shows that she is happy is that it is springtime outside. Spring is a time of new life and the beginning of growth. Mrs. Mallard thought that since her husband was “dead” she could start a new life and have a new beginning. Often times in spring it rains. In this particular story it is raining out, but not a hard stormy rain, it is just a nice gentle springtime rain to water the plants. The rain symbolizes washing bad things from her past when her husband was alive away.
When Mrs. Mallard went upstairs into her room she opened a window. The opening of the window represents new opportunities. Now that Mrs. Mallard was a widow she would receive more attention, and was “free.” On page 553 this section shows how she was yelling free. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: Free, free, free!” This displays the freedom that she felt when her husband died and she was alone.

After opening the window the blue skies from outside are seen and let in a clean fresh feeling in Mrs. Mallards’ life. Think of a warm spring day. What is one of the things that first comes to mind? Green grass, flowers, a bright sun, and blue skies. When there is a blue sky outside things are usually happy, and warm.

When Mrs. Mallard found out that her husband “died” things were good, and happy, but now that he isn’t dead things get bad again. Mrs. Mallard starts going down the stairs. Going down the stairs usually symbolizes bad things, just the direction down is a sign of bad things. Maybe things would be different in this story though, maybe when she went down the stairs something good would happen, but no, she reaches the bottom of the stairs and collapses dead. When the doctors came “it was too late.” “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills.” That’s what the doctor’s thought, but could it be the opposite? For Mrs. Mallard it was.