Final answer:
Mrs. Mallard's complex response to her husband's death in "The Story of an Hour" reveals her desire for freedom and autonomy, which had been suppressed within her marriage. Her reaction characterizes her as a multidimensional figure confronting the confines of 19th-century marital expectations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mrs. Mallard's passionate response to the news of her husband's death is a complex mixture of grief and a sense of freedom. When she first hears of her husband's passing, she experiences the expected torrent of grief. However, as she reflects in solitude, Mrs. Mallard comes to recognize the liberation from her marriage—a gateway to new opportunities and autonomy that she had been unconsciously long-term cry for. This response reveals her character as being intricately layered, as she balances her private emotions about her marriage with the public face of a mourning widow. It lays bare the restrictions placed upon her by the institution of marriage in her time and her previously unarticulated yearning for self-determination.
The subject of Mrs. Mallard's 'heart trouble' at the beginning of the story can symbolize the constraints she feels in life, particularly within her marriage. After learning of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard's 'heart trouble' takes on a different connotation, where the possibility of freedom gives her a new lease on life, but ultimately becomes an ironic foreshadow to the story's tragic ending.