, but whenlooked at more closely, it plainly states that she is free of the wedlock. And just as anewly freed slave would be overjoyed with the feeling of freedom, and not think twiceabout his master, Louise is happy with her new found freedom and couldn’t care lessabout Brently. Chopin writes, “She saw beyond that bitter moment,” which is Brently’sdeath or funeral, “a long procession of years to come that would belong to herabsolutely,”(445) Louise Mallard soon realizes that, “There would be no-one to live forher . . . she would live for herself.”(445). No longer will she be just living for herhusband, Brently Mallard.Come to think of it, who was Brently Mallard really? Brently as a person has avery small role in “The Story of an Hour”. He is only there to represent the other half ofthe marriage in order to show that Louise is married. He is a flat character, the flattest inthe story. We do not know what he looks like or anything else about him, except that heis out of town and he carries a “grip-sack” and an “umbrella”(446). He does not evenhave any dialogue. He is sort of like a shadow, who only becomes visible at the end of thestory, “It was Brently Mallard who entered”(446). And as Brently as a person has verylittle to do with this story, how he treated Louise has little to do with what sheexperiences. Chopin writes, “And yet she had loved him . . . What did it matter!”(445). Itmattered not! Her feelings towards Brently did not count for anything “in face of thispossession 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, orthat he is the reason for Louise’s ill-being. But closer examination of “The Story of anHour” reveals that Brently is none of that. Brently is nothing but a shadow, a r...
