"Of Joy That Kills"

Wednesday, 11th May

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I've written but I'm back now and I've got a story to share.

So, I was surfing the net as per usual and I came upon this short story, "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin (of course I would summarise the story for you)

Here it goes...

Mrs. Mallard, who has heart trouble, is gently given the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her husband’s acquaintance Richards found out at the newspaper office, confirmed the name, and went to her sister Josephine immediately.

Mrs. Mallard weeps wildly and then goes to her room alone. She sits in an armchair, tired, and looks outside at the spring day. She sobs occasionally.

While in a stupor, a thought starts coming to her that makes her afraid. As she identifies it, she tries but fails to push it back.

She lets her guard down, realizes she is free, and relaxes. She knows she’ll be sad at her husband’s funeral, but she looks with hope on all the coming years she’ll have to herself.

She won’t have to consider her husband’s opinion on anything anymore.

Josephine urges Mrs. Mallard, whose name is Louise, to open the door, concerned about her well-being. She stays in her room, her feelings of optimism for the future increasing.

She finally opens the door to her sister. They walk downstairs together with Louise feeling triumphant. Richards stands waiting for them at the bottom.

Mr. Mallard walks through the front door. He hadn’t been at the scene of the accident, and didn’t even know there had been one. Josephine cries out. Richards tries to shield him from his wife’s view.

The doctors say Mrs. Mallard died “of joy that kills”.

Now, after reading this story I was at a loss. I couldn't fully understand the story and the deeper I pondered, the more I realised the theme of it. I guess that's why it stuck with me.

You know this takes me back to secondary school when you're given a comprehension passage in English class and you're told to read it aloud in class, discuss amongst ourselves and answer the passage questions. Like honestly, at the time back then, I didn't get the point of comprehension passages and the questions we were told to answer but now, I'm seeing the beauty in it cause nowadays, when I read stories like this, even when there are no obvious questions, I still find myself posing intricate questions and answering them accordingly. Like I feel the need to ask myself these questions and answer them as though I would never fully understand the passage/story without the questions you know.

Anyway, that's by the way. Back to the story, what I know to be the theme of this story is Women's Freedom in Marriage.

This theme has to be examined in the context of when it was written. It was before women had the right to vote, and when being a devoted wife and mother was the feminine ideal.

The sensation that creeps up on Louise after processing her husband’s death is one of freedom. The freedom she feels here isn’t relief because her husband mistreated her, as his face “had never looked save with love upon her.” It’s simply that she’s no longer subject to a “powerful will bending hers”.

Whereas before, Louise shuddered at the thought of a long life of subjection, now she anticipates “all sorts of days that would be her own.”

Indeed, the joy that Louise feels over this freedom is so strong that the sudden loss of it, seeing her husband walk through the door, is too much for her heart—figuratively and literally—to take. Ultimately, she exchanges her imaged freedom for the freedom offered by death. After experiencing freedom, she can’t go back to the way things were.

Additionally, Mrs. Mallard is first identified as a wife. We don’t know her as Louise until later, implying that her role as a wife subsumes everything else about her.

Do you see?

Well, if you have questions or thoughts about the story, don't hesitate to share or leave comments. Thank you for reading.

Ciao.

Image source: pixabay.com