Who or what is responsible for killing Mrs. Mallard?

The short story “The Story of an Hour” opens with the introduction of Mrs Mallard as a woman “afflicted with a heart trouble” and it comes full circle when she “dies of heart disease” at the end of the story. I believe this heart trouble is symbolic of both the physical ailment and the emotional condition which, in Mrs Mallard’s case, is reflective of the inherent oppressiveness of marriage. Despite her recollection of Mr Mallard as “the face that had never looked save with love upon her”, she felt herself being barred from freedom in the institution of marriage and that is why his supposed death stirred a great deal of emotion within her and his unexpected reappearance ironically led to her own death.
Her death was attributed to the “joy that kills” by doctors, however, this was contradictory to the actual cause. Whilst locked inside her room, Mrs Mallard’s grief over the loss of her husband was soon followed by the epiphany that she had been bestowed with the freedom she had so earnestly yearned for. Her spirits were lifted as she chanted "free, free, free!" to herself. She headed down the stairs with an overpowering feeling of a new-found freedom, however, she was in for a shock when she saw Mr Mallard appear at the front door and that shock is what took her life, not because of joy but because of Fate’s sudden and untimely withdrawal of her long awaited freedom and independence.
Another interesting aspect behind the death of Mrs Mallard is that humans may be susceptible to uncertainty or unpredictability. Under the false certainty that her husband had passed away, Louise Mallard was grief-stricken yet trying to cope. However, as soon as that sense of certainty associated with the sad news was shaken by the unpredictable twist of his reappearance, Mrs Mallard felt shattered. In other words, one of the contributors to her death was the unpredictability of life and her lack of ability to confront matters beyond her control.
With regards to “who” killed Mrs Mallard, it can indirectly be attributed to Mr Richards, Mr Mallard’s friend, because he is the one who Louise Mallard relied on to provide reliable news regarding the tragic railroad accident which claimed to have taken Mr Brently Mallard’s life. Mrs Mallard’s belief of her husband’s death was consolidated by Mr Richard’s claim that he had confirmed the news from both the newspaper office and a second telegram. In a way, this overdependence and reliance on someone other than herself led to Mrs Mallard’s death in the end because that news turned out to be false yet that possibility never crossed Louise’s mind.


The doctors say that Mrs. Mallard died of a heart attack, what they also referred to as “the joy that kills." They must think that the heart attack was triggered by her joy at the sudden reappearance of her husband, whom she thought dead. At the beginning of the story, it is stated that Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition. This is why care had to be taken so that the news of her husband’s death could be broken to her as kindly as possible by her sister Josephine. She delivers the sad news using “broken sentences and veiled hints” and has to be accompanied by a friend to Mr. Mallard called Richards. Before delivering the news to Mrs. Mallard, care was taken to verify the truth of it, possibly to avoid unnecessarily distressing her or even affecting her fragile state of health.
On receiving the news of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard cries some but eventually retreats to her room where, alone, she explores her feelings about a future life without her spouse. It is in this kind of setting that she realizes that although she loves her husband, she can't wait to experience life on her own, free from the shackles of marriage. It is after this session of soul-searching that she emerges from her room to witness the unexpected arrival of her husband. Thus the reader, being in knowledge of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts concerning her husband’s death, understands that she dies from the disappointment of losing her newfound freedom too soon.

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