Negativity of Freedom in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

The freedom anxiety of human being was one the most significant issues during nineteenth Century. As one of the existential writers, Kate Chopin mostly deals with the affairs of human’s freedom, especially female’s freedom in her writings. She in “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the lack of freedom in Mrs. Mallard and challenges her life in it. The aim of this study is to analyze freedom anxiety of Mrs. Mallard character by deploying Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of freedom. Sartre talks more on the freedom of humans and the effect of man’s freedom in existence or the absence of him. This study, also, considers previous studies about the freedom of Mrs. Mallard and challenges their idea that freedom always brings happiness to her. This study highlights negative perspective of freedom in the main character that freedom brings death to Mrs. Mallard, who thought that she is free. Mrs. Mallard’s hastening in freedom result in the loss of that freedom.

کلیدواژه ها:

Kate Chopin ، The Story of an Hour ، Jean-Paul Sartre ، existentialism ، freedom