Why and How “Story of an Hour” Connects with the Theme of Love

‘Story of an Hour’
Why and How “Story of an Hour” Connects with the Theme of Love
The theme that being discussed in this story is the theme of love. It is about the woman known as Louise Mallard who is experiencing a significant emotional transformation following the death of her husband. Although she is expected to grieve due to the loss of her husband, she feels like she has been relieved from long-life suffering and frustrations which she had been subjected to. Although she had been in love, she did not have freedom. It led to the unending miseries that she had been going through. After her husband dies, she loses the love of her life but gains freedom (Chopin and Gemma 4). She realizes that freedom is way much better as compared to love. In other words, after her new experience, she would rather have freedom and lack of love than have love without freedom.

In the story, Chopin suggests that it is normal to have challenges such as oppression in nearly all marriages. Although she was being oppressed, Mallard admits that Brently- her husband was very loving and kind. “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” (Chopin and Gemma 5). It means that Mallard loved her husband, but at times, the love did not matter due to the oppression. She, however, stayed there hence making it hard to understand what real love is- that she would stick around even in the presence of oppression.

The story points out at the love that exists between a wife and a husband and the challenges they go through. Mallard does not mention how she was being oppressed by the husband (Chopin and Gemma 5). Instead, she mentions that she also oppressed her husband at times and therefore marriage is a challenge to both parties. In this regard, the story highlights love as the main reason as to why a man and a woman come together and live together as husband and wife. Many hurdles will always come their way, but love will always keep them together. At the end of the story, Mallard realizes that Brently was not dead.

Works Cited
Chopin, Kate, and Gemma Correll. The Story of an Hour and Other Stories. Portland, Or: Good Ink, 2011.