Mrs. Mallard looks with delight upon the long years of freedom that lie before her, now that she is no longer married and therefore dependant on her husband: "But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome."(Chopin, 112) the perspective of so many days of freedom that she would spend at her will is clearly dazzling to her. Her need for assertion is obviously urged by the context of oppression in which she lives. At the same time however, this imperative need for independence demonstrates Mallard's strong character that requires a certain space of its own to flourish.
This aspect of Mrs. Mallard's character is furthermore emphasized by her mixed feelings for her presumably dead husband. From her reaction of joy and liberation upon hearing the news, may seem to indicate that she probably hates or despises her husband. Nevertheless, things are clearly not like this. Her feelings are not even that strong as to betray hatred. She loves her husband a little, and characterizes him as gentle and caring. There is no indication that he has actually mistreated her in any way, on the contrary, he seems to have been very generous and loving towards her. Paradoxically however, Mrs. Mallard considers that his kindness, however well-intended, was all the more an intrusion upon her privacy: "A kind intention...
Without freedom, even
love and communion with another human being seem devoid of sense: "What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!"(Chopin, 112) the woman thus willingly trades love for self-assertion. The possession or the union with another cannot be possible without the possession of oneself first. Her imperious desire to be able to manifest her own
personality and have her own space are thus the best indicatives that she refuses to see life in different terms.
Thus, Mrs. Mallard is a very strong and independent woman, despite the fact that she has been obliged to repress her own personality for so long and to
play the
social role of a wife for so long. Significantly her true self seems to emerge only when she feels free, in the brief hour in which she lives with the impression that her husband is dead. Her strong character is all the more outlined by the fact that she feels comfortable in her own world, and does not want the company of the others. Chopin thus gives us the portrait of an strong, intelligent and vivid woman, who is only independent for one hour however.
