The Inoscence Of Brently Mallard Essay, Research Paper

The Inoscence of Brently Mallard

After reading “The Story of an Hour”, there seems to linger a feeling in the reader

or readers of disgust, or even hatred towards the ‘man’. This is especially true for those

who have read other popular works by Kate Chopin that also seem to subtly cast the male

character in a dim, evil, negative sort of light. So it is not inexcusable to assume that the

reason Louise Mallard succumbed to such a sad end is because of her husband, causing

oppression or abusing her. However, Louise Mallard is not a victim of oppression caused

by her husband Brently. She is a victim of the victim of the oppression caused by marriage

in the nineteenth century.

Louise Mallard was not introduced as ‘Louise Mallard’. Unlike the other female

Josephine who’s title remains unknown, her first name ‘Louise’ was not mentioned until

very late in the story. Ironically, her first name was mentioned at the point where she feels

that she is married no longer, when her sister Josephine, “Louise, open the door . . . What

are you doing Louise?” (446). This non-recognition of her first name subtly hints to the

type of marriage she was in, or ultimately the way marriages were in that time. They were

the type of marriage in which the women were the homemakers and the men were the

breadwinners. The women had no real social life, that is, no life outside of the home. It

may even be possible that she hardly left the house else her “white slender hands”(445)

may have tanned a little and not have been so white. So Mrs. Mallard’s first name had no

real significance. She is merely Mrs. Mallard, the wife of Brently Mallard.

It becomes apparent that Louise has found herself trapped inside of a seriously

bogus type of marriage. Not long after she finds out about her husbands unexpected death,

she whispers the words, “Free, free, free”(445). This seems at first quite odd, but when

looked at more closely, it plainly states that she is free of the wedlock. And just as a

newly freed slave would be overjoyed with the feeling of freedom, and not think twice

about his master, Louise is happy with her new found freedom and couldn’t care less

about Brently. Chopin writes, “She saw beyond that bitter moment,” which is Brently’s

death or funeral, “a long procession of years to come that would belong to her

absolutely,”(445) Louise Mallard soon realizes that, “There would be no-one to live for

her . . . she would live for herself.”(445). No longer will she be just living for her

husband, Brently Mallard.

Come to think of it, who was Brently Mallard really? Brently as a person has a

very small role in “The Story of an Hour”. He is only there to represent the other half of

the marriage in order to show that Louise is married. He is a flat character, the flattest in

the story. We do not know what he looks like or anything else about him, except that he

is out of town and he carries a “grip-sack” and an “umbrella”(446). He does not even

have any dialogue. He is sort of like a shadow, who only becomes visible at the end of the

story, “It was Brently Mallard who entered”(446). And as Brently as a person has very

little to do with this story, how he treated Louise has little to do with what she

experiences. Chopin writes, “And yet she had loved him . . . What did it matter!”(445). It

mattered not! Her feelings towards Brently did not count for anything “in face of this

possession of self assertion . . . the strongest impulse of her being.”(445).

It is common to come to a quick assumption that Brently Mallard is an abuser, or

that he is the reason for Louise’s ill-being. But closer examination of “The Story of an

Hour” reveals that Brently is none of that. Brently is nothing but a shadow, a role filler.

He is the husband, the breadwinner, certainly not the oppressor. Society’s traditions, the

‘correct’ way to live, the roles of the ‘proper’ husband and wife, those are the reasons, the

oppressors, the “clouds that had met and piled above the other”(445). They are the

reasons that Louise’s “quick prayer that life might be long”(446) was crushed, They were

the silent killers of Louise Mallard.

Bibliography

“Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. 7th ed. Longman 1999.