A Young WertherThe Power of Masterful Short Stories

learns that Mrs. Mallard is a devoted wife who learns to get in touch with her feelings.

She represents the lonely and restricted 19th century woman who feels trapped in a marriage that has lost its luster and who is raring to actualize her own dreams, and aspirations away from her husband’s shadow.  This is a recurring theme in many works of literature.  As far as Kate Chopin is concerned, depicting her own somewhat feminist views may be said to be emancipating and appealing to readers who like the topic of women trying to obtain freedom from the shackles of love and life.

When Mrs. Mallard feels tremendous relief, following the initial grief, engulfing her after receiving the tragic news of her husband’s death, she draws readers to empathize with her. Mrs. Mallard comes across as a woman who is coming to terms with her own feelings and aspirations, so many readers are able to identify with her.

When the author, after depicting vivid imagery to represent the future which Mrs. Mallard begins to envision herself enjoying, describes her as “young, with a fair calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin, para. 8), readers are able to make out a woman who has matured beyond her years, mainly because she has long been yielding to the wishes and requirements and needs of her husband, at the expense of her own happiness and fulfillment.

Mrs. Mallard’s personality is strong, forward-thinking, and appreciative of the beauty around her. Kate Chopin underscores this point through vivid imagery, as gleaned in several lines, like when she wrote, “She could see

in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air…” (Chopin, para. 5).

Personification and metaphor are employed by the author in these lines.  The phrase “new spring of life” clearly represents Mrs. Mallard’s foreseen opportunity to savor life to the fullest, with no husband to curtail her actions. It is evident that notwithstanding the tragic news, Mrs. Mallard became quite excited about the prospects that were suddenly opened before her.  When her excitement builds up, the author underscores the character’s sentiments by utilizing other figures of speech like repetition, as shown in the following line: “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin, para. 18).

Mrs. Mallard’s strange reaction to news of her husband’s death is unknown to the other characters. It is only the reader who is aware of the tumultuous stirrings within her to be free from societal expectations.  Hence, it comes as dramatic irony when Mrs. Mallard is diagnosed in the story’s ending to have “died of heart disease – of joy that kills” (Chopin, para. 23).