Reading Reflection - Essay Example

In the same note, applying critical appreciation in the course of the reading, one has to be aware of the historical context of the text. It must be duly noted that the story was written in 1894. Dismissing this fact would yield confusion to the reader if to be taken within the understanding to today’s standards. This significant piece of work can easily be associated to a feminist reading with the patriarchal concept of a traditional family in mind. The story opens with a quick and stimulating fact that was to develop the theme of the text.

The story begins with the disclosure of the heart ailment of Mrs. Mallard and the apprehension to reveal to her the news of her husband’s death in a railroad mishap. Immediately, the audience is revealed to the circumstances of the characters with Louise being married to Brently Mallard with no indication of a child produced between them. The news of her husband’s death was given to her in a very calculated manner as her sister Josephine and close friend Richards were afraid how she will take the news.

Also, they fear that it might cause her to break down and that her heart ailment may get the best of her. The characterization of Mrs. Mallard was established in her reaction to the news. “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance” (Chopin, 1894). This indicates the fact that she is not like everybody else. The author gives the sense that Mrs. Mallard is different from the typical wife as portrayed in society. The conventional depiction is that of a woman who would not be able to get over the grief over the lost of a member of her family particularly of her husband.

Culture tells us that women during those times were subservient to the needs of the husband. Inculcated was the notion of the typical wife who serves as the homemaker ready to serve her husband and to answer for his every need. This is the concept of a traditional family that we know. But Mrs. Mallard was different. Her reaction to the death tells us that there is more to the desires and wants that she would like that transcend the kitchen of her house. Right after the ‘storm of grief’ and her immediate tears, Mrs.

Mallard wanted to go to her room alone. The succeeding scene painted a metaphor for her newfound liberty. A window is opened and she looks beyond it and saw sparrows and the clouds. Suddenly, everything was more vivid. She was made aware of the freedom of the birds and the color of the sky as though she had never noticed them before. The twittering of the birds and the blue sky ahead of the cloud was revealed. She props herself in a chair and looks out, here the author gives a more or less physical description of her.

The narrator of the story speaks of a calm and young woman reflecting a “suspension of intelligent thought” (Chopin, 1894). This builds up the prospect of a woman who has her whole life ahead of her beyond the tragedy of being a widow, a whole life on her own without a husband to think about. The death served as her epiphany. This reinforces the implied truth that their union is not a happy one. There are many ideas that they be attributed to the cause of this. For instance, the marriage may be forced and that there is really no love or the concept thereof that we have, at one point she thought of her love for him as being fleeting at infrequent moments.

The probability of