There is a popular quote among writers to "write what you know".  Writers are typically products of their time and so is their work because they are writing what they know.  That is why to be able to fully understand literary text, sometimes one has to look further into the historical context.  In Kate Chopin's short Story of an Hour, the author highlights the way her character, Mrs. Mallard, goes against the ideals of the Victorian woman as she recognizes her new freedom after the death of her husband using symbolism and various types of ironies.

The Victorian era took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  During this time, women were viewed as domestic creatures who took care of their families and their homes.  They were taught to be sensitive and submissive, often thought of as being the weaker sex.  Many Victorian women felt as though their lives were constricted through their gender role during the time.  The feminist movement came about during the Victorian era as a series of campaigns for reforms on various social issues such as voting, domestic violence, education, equal pay, and reproduction.  Women no longer sat around as the homemakers who only bore children, they started fighting for their rights and freedoms from male dominion. Kate Chopin started writing and publishing her works highlighting women's suffrage near the turn of the century.  Many of her works were heavily influenced by the feminist movement and Story of an Hour is no exception (Tetrault).

At the beginning of Chopin's work, Mrs. Mallard is stated to have a weak heart.  The symbol of the heart represents more than just love of the condition of Mrs. Mallard's health.  It also represents delicacy, which is why Chopin chose to use the heart as part of the description of Mrs. Mallard.  The use of delicate as a way to describe her character really helps one to start off viewing her in the same way women were typically viewed in the Victorian era.  In Story of an Hour, heart also represents love.   Mrs. Mallard loved her husband but felt trapped in her marriage.  She was upset upon first learning of his death until she realized that with her husband gone, she had no one else to live for except herself.  "There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have the right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature." (Chopin 169).  In the end of the story she discovered that her husband was still alive.  She became thrilled with the idea of her independence and died from the initial shock when she realized that it was gone.  The doctor's in the story diagnosed her as having died from "heart disease" believing her to have been so overwhelmed with joy that her heart stopped.  She was given the freedom from male dominance that women during the feminist movement were fighting for.

Kate Chopin uses the window in the isolated room Mrs. Mallard went to to grieve over the loss of her husband in Story of an Hour as another symbol representing freedom or a sort of passageway.  While looking out the window, Mrs. Mallard realized all of her potential and newfound freedom in the death of her husband.  "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air." (Chopin 169)  After the death of a loved one, Mrs. Mallard expected herself to be deeply distressed.  Instead, she found herself surprised at the overwhelming sense of elation as she took in all the new opportunities her future held from his passing.  The open window became a portal through which she could see her future as a free woman.  Not only did she recognize her freedom but, she came to understand all that she was entitled to as a widow.  For example, in the Victorian era, if a man died without leaving a will, the widow was entitled to one-third of his personal property and real estate.  If a woman, Mrs. Mallard, decided she wanted to go to work, all the money earned would now be hers while previously everything she earned would automatically belong to her husband ("The Push for Women's Rights").  Looking out the window, Mrs. Mallard came to the realization that not only could she do what she wanted, but could also own things for herself.

Irony is a situation or event that seems contradictory to what one might think something to be which often produces an amusing result.  Kate Chopin uses lots of situational irony throughout her short story, Story of an Hour.  Richards, a friend of Mrs. Mallard's husband, told her about her husband's death after receiving two telegrams about the incident.  However, when one is thought to be dead, they aren't thought to walk through the door 60 minutes later.  Instead of Mr. Mallard being the one who is dead, it is Mrs. Mallard who dies in the end.  After Richards told her of Mr. Mallard's death, Mrs. Mallard breaks down sobbing and locks herself in a room (Chopin 169).  After sitting in the room for a little while, she starts to sob for a completely different reason.  She realizes she isn't sad about the death of her husband but that she is rather happy about it, elated almost.  Josephine, Mrs. Mallard's sister, is worried about her being locked in a room all by herself because she could be making herself sick.  Instead of making herself ill, Mrs. Mallard is dreaming about how amazing her life is going to be now that she is free from her oppressing marriage.  Not that much later, she comes out of the room and goes downstairs to greet her sister with joy only to find her not-so-dead husband to walk through the door.  Mrs. Mallard dies from the shock and depression at having her new independence taken away from her.  "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills." (Chopin 170)  She wasn't full of joy or relieved to find out her husband was still alive, instead she was the exact opposite.  During the Victorian era, men were typically in charge constricting the freedoms of women.  Once her husband died, Mrs. Mallard experienced how free her life would be without the constricting male figure.  After tasting freedom, the thought of living in a constrained world dominated by the male figure again was so horrible she would rather die.

Historical context often times helps to frame a story and helps the reader to go deeper into the text to understand its meaning and significance since many works are often influenced by the time they're written.  The feminist movement was growing and developing when Kate Chopin wrote her short story, Story of an Hour, which is why it, alongside many of her other works, were so influential at the time.  Her strong use of symbolism with the heart and the window as well as constant irony really exemplified women's underlying desire to be free and independent from the constricting lives they lead during the Victorian era.  The heart symbolized love and desire while the open window represented Mrs. Mallard's newfound independence.  There was also the irony in her reaction to her husband's death as well as her own death.  All of the symbols and ironies in Chopin's piece, Story of an Hour, illustrate the transition away from Victorian ideals of women as Mrs. Mallard finds her freedom after her husband's death.
