Mallard. Her self-affirmation surpassed the years of marriage and the love she had for him. She is starting to realize that she can now live and focus on herself. The text insists: “There would be no one to live for in the years to come; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will that could bend his into that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have the right to impose a private will on another human being. (Chopin 477.) She can finally live freely and no longer worry about being confined to her marriage and home. She has come to the realization that she is now independent and can think freely and achieve happiness and freedom. She is no longer held back or set back from her marriage. It will no longer be someone's property, it will be free and respected. Her husband Brently returns and is alive, the happiness and freedom she once briefly possessed with the mere image of her deceased husband was quickly stripped away. “When the doctors came they said she had died of a heart, of a joy that kills” (Chopin 477). She was free but still confined without the knowledge of her husband who was not dead. Chopin ultimately explains that she was free because joy killed her. She was happy because she was finally freed, but now she is once again confined to grief knowing that her husband was not killed