"The Story of an hour" by Kate Chopin can be found in The Bedford Introduction to Literature by Michael Meyer on page 15. Mrs. Mallard realizes the independence that she gains from her husbands death. The moment she realizes this freedom, and is willing to take this new way of life into her arms, her husband returns, and she dies. Mrs. Mallard has a revelation of all these liberations she is going to live with, than within minutes she came to realization of her confinement.
             Mrs. Mallard seems like a very unhappy woman trapped in a discontented marriage. She was obviously unable to extricate herself from the marriage, so she endured it. The news of the death of her husband seemed like a sign of relief to he, and for a very short moment she got to experience the joys of life she didn't have when her husband was alive. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of the trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life." (15) Looking out the window Mrs. Mallard saw new, happy life outside her dark, unhappy marriage. She feels like she has been reborn, like she is free and can look at life out of her eyes instead of through someone else's thought and opinions on life. She is looking out that window with many thoughts, there is happiness on the other side of that window.
             Mrs. Mallard seems like she is in a dark place, unhappy, depressed. "There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, room armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul." (15) She felt content with her life before, simply because she didn't know any different. She always had someone else's will pushed against her own, whether it was her father or her husband, she has always had someone to control her life for her. As she undergoes this incredible emotional breakthrough, a great amount of weight lifts off her shoulders because she felt how much her opinion impacted o...