Society's view of women was very different a century ago. Women, in the late nineteenth century, are seen as fragile and dependant upon their husbands for survival. In "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin uses imagery and characterization to show a woman's liberation through the death of her husband. Contrary to society's beliefs at the turn of the century, Chopin shows women are capable of expressing strength and independence. Chopin uses imagery and strength of character to follow one woman's efforts to escape the role society has mandated she accept. Society's views, however, are deeply rooted and not easily swayed.
             Chopin initially describes her protagonist, Louise, as "afflicted with a heart trouble" (Chopin, 170), giving her an immediate appearance of weakness, symbolic of how women of the late nineteenth-century were viewed: weak and frail. This characterization is strengthened as Louise's sister informs her of her husband's death in "...veiled hints that revealed in half concealing" (Chopin, 170). Society does not seem capable of accepting a woman being able to deal with such harsh realities as the death of a husband. Society is quick to underestimate, but Chopin presents a woman disparate from the stereotypical nineteenth-century woman. Louise's strength is soon revealed. Upon hearing the news of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance" (Chopin, 171). Chopin initiates a fundamental change in her character. Rising above society's stereotype, Louise can accept her loss and can see past that loss to the freedom now available to her. True strength is the ability to place human needs and desires above society's expectations, focusing on the positive in the midst of tragedy. Chopin demonstrates this when "... [Louise] did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that beheld her" (Chopin, 172). Chopin does not make a moral issu...