In the beginning we find out that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble, and news about her husband's death is brought to her "as gently as possible" (605). Her sister Josephine and her husband's friend Richards, who tells her the news, believe that Mrs. Mallard would be very upset to hear it and that it could make her even more ill. The reader expects her to be upset and it is very possible that the sad news can make her feel worse than usual. Yes, "she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment" (605), but it's just a first emotional reaction to the news, without deep thinking of what happened and how it would change her life.
She comprehends the news later, and the author shows us little by little how she comes to realize it and what helps her to understand it. She goes to her room, and "there stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank" (605). Reading these words, the reader suddenly realizes that something turns the story to a more positive way. Many things such as "a comfortable, roomy armchair" and "the open window" are symbols of how newly freed she is feeling. When Mrs. Mallard starts thinking and starts feeling this weird feeling she’s never had before, the reader understands that her soul is starting to fill with happiness of freedom, which is in everything such as sounds and beautiful trees around, in blue sky and in songs of the birds.
However in the end Mrs. Mallard's husband opens "the front door with a latchkey" (607). He enters "composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella" (607) because he doesn't even know about the accident and that his name is on the list of those who died. Mrs. Mallard then dies "of joy that kills" (607). These words carry the absolutely opposite meaning of what they should be. We understand, that the doctors are wrong, thinking that she dies from happiness of seeing her husband again. She chooses to die rather than to live again under her husband's will, especially after experiencing freedom, even just for one hour. This hour in a comfortable armchair in front of the open window made her feel happy and free, made her to understand the sense of her being, and it was the only real hour of her life.
It sounds like this story took a somewhat wierd twist. It sounds sad that she thought she lost her husband but from the way the author describes how free she felt it suggests that she probably did not like living with her husband. he probably beat her. I wonder what kept her from leaving him...
ReplyDeleteI didn't include all the details so if you read the story you probably would understand better. It was written in like the 1920s or something so women never really felt they could leave their husbands or whatever but yeah I agree wth you about the beating. She probably never had a say and felt inclosed.
ReplyDeleteI actually have read this article before in another class. Yes, this story takes a sudden and surprising twist. It sort of confused me how she died when he came back. It could've been possible that she had seemed calm but felt really bad after the bad news, and the surprise when he actually came home was possibly too much for her.
ReplyDeleteI like how you examined the words in this story and how it created the mood of the plot. I seems really interesting, so I will have to read it. Maybe she died because she thought she was seeing a ghost! Ha.
ReplyDeleteHe beat her? Where does that idea come from?
ReplyDeleteGood job using integrating the text and explanation. This is a tricky story in ways.