g hers in the blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.(15)Mrs. Mallard had, "in that brief moment of illumination"(15), stumbled upon a truth: she was now her own person, free from the confines of her husband. She had loved her husband, "sometimes"(15), but that didn't matter: "What could love ....count for in the face of theis possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!(15). THE theme of the story unfolds at this point: Mrs. Mallard, through the death of her husband, is able to experience the joy of the realization that she is in control of her own destiny. She is now "free, free, free!(15. Mrs. Mallard's new-found freedon is not to be, however, as the story takes an ironic, fatal, twist. On the surface, this story appears to be about how Mrs. Mallard accepts the news of the death of her husband; on a deeper level, however, this story examines how Mrs Mallard accepts the possession of her own being which she recognizes as "the strongest impulse of her being"(15). As she looked out of her window, she was looking at life as she had never seen it before: "she was looking drinking in the very elixer of life"(16). SHe had never before looked to the future with any optimisim, only dread. She could hardly live with this new-found joy that she had discovered within herself, and ironically, she would not live with new discovery for long. As the story takes an ironic twist, Mr. Mallard turns the latchkey and walks into the room: he had been nowhere near the scene of the accident. THe realization that her new-found joy was not to be was too much for Mrs. Mallard's weak heart to take, but she had at least lived for a few, brief, shinning momnents in the realization of her new-found freedom...
