The Story of an Hour and The Birthmark present subjective opinions about the concept of happiness. The first story presents happiness as the positive emotions associated with freedom. Although Louise Mallard grieves for her dead husband, she ultimately finds a sense of exhilaration knowing that she is “free” from her husband. The second story draws a relation between happiness and perfection. The second story relates happiness to perfection. Alymer’s goal in the story is to remove his wife’s unsightly birthmark, so that she can attain a state of “perfection.”
The ideas of happiness are not uniform in these two stories. The stories help illustrate that happiness is subjective to personal opinion. For example Louise Mallard’s feelings of happiness relate to her freedom from her husband. The Story of an Hour was written in 1894, when the movement for women’s suffrage was beginning in the United States. The story can be interpreted as a subliminal message in support of women’s suffrage. Alymer finds it in his interest to remove his wife’s unsightly birthmark despite the early protests from his wife. It is possible that his interpretation of happiness is different from Louise’s interpretation because of his occupation. Scientists usually strive to perfect their experiments in addition to their theories. The Birthmark can possibly be interpreted as a satire on the shortcomings of science. Scientists achieve their goals, but it is often at the expense of others. Alymer achieves his goal of removing his wife’s unsightly birthmark, but it came at the expense of his wife’s life.
