Mrs. Mallard's Freedom

It is difficult to ever feel a true sense of freedom when you live in a society that constantly represses people based on who they are and what burdens they may carry. Freedom is often lost for those whose lives are often revolved around coloring inside the lines. In the short story, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, the reader is exposed to the dark happiness that is Mrs. Mallard, a woman who experience a drastic change in herself and life over the period of an hour. Irony exploits the idea that freedom come few and far between and often with a price to pay.
For Mrs. Mallard her world is on constant watch. Due to the fact that she has a very sensitive heart condition, her husband, family, and friends feel the constant need to coddle her and treat her with delicacy.
Mallard is faced with the news of her husband's death and from this comes her embodiment of freedom. “Great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death”. Chopin elaborates on the idea that Mrs. Mallards family makes her feel trapped through her diction. With words such as break, gently, and great care. This news causes immediate mixed emotions for Mrs. Mallard. Her family and friends are expecting the worst due to her heart condition but for Mrs.Mallard it is almost a sigh of relief and a glimpse of freedom. This is a contrast to the expected reaction from her family, which is developed through irony. After being watched her entire life Mrs. Mallard finally feels that her husband, who is presumed dead, will no longer trap her and suppress her freedom. She is in absolute shock with a mix of emotions clustering her brain, fleeing to her room to contain her feelings. “She would have no one follow her”. It is understood that after the news of a death, someone would desire time to grieve, but for Mrs. Mallards case it is expected that someone would keep an eye on her, as it has been her entire life. It is incredibly ironic that after years of being