In this paragraph, Mrs. Mallard has come out of the shock and dismay which overwhelmed her when she first learned that her husband had been killed in a "railroad disaster." While she loved her husband, she seems to suggest here that she is happier without that love. She is actually overjoyed by being "free, free, free." She is, for once in her life, free of the repression she had been living under during a life...
In this paragraph, Mrs. Mallard has come out of the shock and dismay which overwhelmed her when she first learned that her husband had been killed in a "railroad disaster." While she loved her husband, she seems to suggest here that she is happier without that love. She is actually overjoyed by being "free, free, free." She is, for once in her life, free of the repression she had been living under during a life that had been dominated by her husband. This story is an example of Kate Chopin's attitude that women are much more than simply loving creatures who were intended to be at the beck and call of their husbands. Instead of drifting deeper into depression over the loss of her husband, she is transformed:
The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses best fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
Without the love and repressive protection of her husband, an entire world is opened to Mrs. Mallard. Where she had originally believed that life may be too long, she now knows that it may not be long enough.