A Story of an Hour

Imagine your husband dying in a train crash. You don’t know whether to be sad because he is dead or happy because you are free. Your marriage was miserable and now you are free. That is what happened to the main character Louise Mallard in the short story “The Story of an Hour.” In this short story by Kate Chopin blue skies, open windows are huge symbols.

First of all, in the story the open window symbolizes new beginnings. After Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband Brently Mallard dies she sits in front of an open window and yells “free, free, free”. She yelled that because her husband was dead and she was happy she was finally free. She didn’t have to be in her unhappy marriage anymore. In this short story, Louise and Brently’s last name happens to be mallard. A mallard is a type of duck that is bound to its mate for the rest of its life. Mrs. Mallard couldn’t divorce Mr. Mallard and she had to stay in her terrible marriage.

The open window symbolizes freedom, but when she looks out the open window she sees blue skies that symbolize happiness. Louise doesn’t have to deal with her husband anymore. Now she can do whatever she wants. When there are blue skies that usually means that it is a nice day, a day of happiness and glee. Louise is unhappy with her marriage, so when she becomes a widow after her husband dies a symbol of her happiness is the blue skies.

Some huge symbols in the short story are blue skies and an open window. Kate Chopin had a hard life and some events in her life probably influenced how she wrote this story. She wrote this story in 1894, just 2 years after her husband died and left her with 12,000 dollars in debt. That was a lot of money back then, and she was probably mad at her husband when she wrote this story. That is why the main character Louise in the story loathed her husband, and was happy when he died.