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Individual freedom makes life worth living.
As “The Story of an Hour” progresses, Chopin continually links the notion of self-assertion to what it means to have a meaningful life. The realization that her husband’s death will allow her to “live for herself” gives Louise a new outlook on her future and inspires her to embrace her personal agency. Ideas of freedom enliven her, reviving her youthful energy and imagination as she sits alone in her room. Losing the possibility of this liberated lifestyle, however, is enough to kill Louise, and this outcome suggests that only a life of independence is one worth living.
Chopin establishes the link between freedom and living early in the story through her descriptions of the setting. The fact that Louise sees a beautiful spring day, a symbol of rebirth, outside her window as she contemplates the meaning of her widowhood foreshadows the opportunity for self-determination that her future holds. She later imagines “spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days” that will belong to her alone, and the choice to reference these particularly vivacious seasons further signifies the connection between freedom and life. The most explicit expression of this concept, however, occurs when Louise admits that she used to “shudder that life might be long.” Her disinterest in the longevity of her relationship with Brently, which she sees as oppressive, reveals her belief that a long life is pointless if she feels disempowered. Louise’s death reinforces this perspective as it literally prevents her from returning to an undesirable lifestyle. Once her freedom disappears, so does she.
Regardless of how loving a relationship is, the institution of marriage is inevitably oppressive.
While numerous writers from Chopin’s era crafted feminist narratives depicting a woman suffering under the control of her heartless husband, she takes her argument about the trappings of marriage a step further by suggesting that oppression exists even within a loving relationship. Louise openly acknowledges that her husband only ever looked “with love upon her” and cared for her kindly, yet his constant presence in her life limited the extent to which she could think and act purely for herself. She most clearly expresses this idea when she explains that, with Brently gone, she will no longer experience “that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” The significance of this statement comes from the fact that it encapsulates all relationships, not just those in which love plays a role. In fact, Louise even exclaims “what did it matter” when considering whether or not she genuinely loved her husband. The broad nature of Louise’s perspective in this moment, and therefore Chopin’s argument, emphasizes that the institution of marriage is inherently oppressive due to the way in which it binds individuals together. No one can fully express their personal agency when connected so closely to another.
Perspective greatly influences the passing of time.
Given the reference to a period of time in the story’s title, it seems unsurprising that the perception of time serves as a key concept throughout Louise’s emotional journey. The singular “hour” to which the title refers denotes the literal passage of time that occurs as the events of the story unfold, but the experiences and epiphanies that she has shapes her perspective in such a way that she feels the passage of time differently. Once Louise realizes how Brently’s death will change her life, she quickly works through her grief and allows herself to move on. This change in perspective allows her to condense the typically long process of recovering from a traumatic event into a brief period of time. From this moment, Louise’s understanding of time becomes dramatically altered. She imagines the future years of her life in an instant, and she looks back on her past as if her marriage had been an eternity. The disconnect between the literal passage of time and Louise’s perception of it makes Brently’s surprise return home even more shocking as it interrupts the new timeline that she has imagined for herself. Chopin’s use of a short narrative structure reinforces this concept by allowing her to emphasize the unpredictable nature of life and the significant role that perspective plays in one’s experience of time.
