Louise's Tragic Death

          In Kate Chopin's short story “The Story of an Hour,” I saw a woman transformed into a new human being after the false report of the death of her husband.  Louise had not wished for this to happen, but through the news of this tragic event, for a brief period of time, she gained a new understanding of herself as a person.  In a sense she became a new person, just as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, not all at once, but through a process in which her old self-image was replaced by a new one.  She would no longer live a life of dependence upon her husband; instead, she would live a life of freedom, individual responsibility, and self-determination.  It is evident from the story that Louise was truly, and not just in appearance, grieved by the supposed death of her husband.  When she was notified of Brently's tragic demise she experienced “a storm of grief” and wept with deep emotion.  It is clear from this episode that she took no joy in the news of his apparent death, and that "she had loved him — [at least] sometimes."  She truly felt a deep sense of loss, and was not simply putting on a show for those around her.  After this initial time of grief she went to her room and began her slow transfiguration.

          Alone, in the chrysalis of her room, she began looking toward the future and its many possibilities.  As she looked out her window she could see the world “aquiver with the new spring life,” and she too began the process of her rebirth.  Albeit not at once and not without initially resisting the change that was about to occur, but just as winter only slowly gives way to spring, so her old life was changed into the new life of her future.

          Louise sat in her comfortable armchair, motionless and calm, with a “dull stare in her eyes.”  She had fixed her gaze on one of the patches of blue sky in the distance, yet she was not experiencing “a glance of reflection, but rather . . . a suspension of intelligent thought.”  It was as if she had entered a suspended state of non-existence.  At that moment she was in a place between her old life and her new life to come.  She had not yet relinquished her old self-image, and in some sense still resisted the change “that was approaching to possess her.”  As her metamorphosis continued “she was striving to beat it back with her will,” but her resistance to the coming change could not stand forever.  Louise was no longer in the world of her past, yet she was still awaiting the world of her future.

          Finally, in spite of her fear, she abandoned herself to the “thing that was approaching to possess her,” and received the spirit of a new life, of a new self-assurance and purpose.  Louise surrendered her old self-image and became a new person.  She would no longer have to bend to the will of her husband, because she believed he was gone; instead, "she would live for herself."  Yet, it was not as if she hated her previous life, for she had loved her husband, but love could not compare to the “new possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.”  She ultimately realized that love was not enough, and that it had limited her freedom.  This was especially true for a woman living in the Victorian era.  She had gained the freedom to choose the direction of her life for herself, and like a butterfly, she could spread her newly formed wings toward the future and fly in any direction she desired.

          By drinking the “elixir of life” she completed the process of transformation.  Now she looked to the future with hope, for she was no longer the same person.  She had become a new human being, and was ready to live a new life.  But when Brently appeared, alive and well, this new self-image was instantly destroyed, and the shock of this spiritual death caused her diseased heart to fail.  Louise did not die “of [the] joy that kills”; instead, she died of despair because the new person she had become, and the future she had seen, was destroyed.

Bibliography

Kate Chopin.

          “The Story of an Hour”

Steven Todd Kaster

San Francisco State University

English 214-35

Professor Richard Sammons

11 March 1998