"The Story of An Hour" and the eternal

 “Even the Sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.” Psalm 84:3 

    In her September 15th, 2020 article “The Meaning of Sparrows: Symbolism and Identification,” [https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Meaning-of-Sparrows-Identification-and-Folklore] Jennifer Stone takes us through the long history of sparrows as a symbol in art and literature, ranging from the Bible, through Shakespeare and to modern times as “Jack Sparrow” from Pirates of the Caribbean. She notes the wide range of their symbolism: sometimes the symbol of counter culture, noting the common 18th century practice of Pirates receiving Sparrow tattoos to symbolize their disconnection from common society. In China, a sparrow flying into a home  may be a symbol of good luck in marriage, but a sparrow hitting the glass of a window and falling dead can be either a positive or negative omen in Europe, perhaps signaling a rebirth and fresh beginnings, or the loss of innocence and death of a loved one. The invocation of the sparrow in Kate Chopin’s “the Story of an Hour,” to me warrants a closer look at its meaning.

The screw turns with “He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.” “He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram” seems to stow doubt on the worthiness of the information from the get go and creates an aura of suspense surrounding "the truth."  Is it good news? Is it bad news? Should we watch for good or bad omens? Outside the main character’s window are the budding leaves of spring. Outside the breath of the air is living, as described. It seems that just outside the window is life. The main character collapses exhaustingly into an armchair, a piece of furniture that is innately designed for one. It’s as if life is outside and death is inside. She welcomes the living breathe of the wind. I then look to the Sparrows and they are living, twittering together, sometimes a symbol for community. I note that they are lying wait in the eves. And that the main character runs into her room, alone, where the armchair is situated. A refuge.

 The sparrows are twittering in the “eaves." http://karenstollznow.com/eavesdropping/ Karen Stollznow goes over the symbolism of eaves and the origin of eavesdropping. It is believed that King Henry VIII removed the eaves from his court to make sure there is no “unwanted Gossip or dissension from the King,” and I believe such is depicted in Shakespeare. In the otherwise orderly and small world that encompasses the main character's home and the telegraph office, where it just so happens that a close friend is it at work who can quickly be in touch with her sister, is Kate Chopin’s topsy turvy main character contemplating her natural relationship with God? Is God indoors or outdoors? It is raining outside, and the eaves on the building are meant to keep the lively rain from entering the building and the walls. 

Searching the 18th century database on Gala on our KBCC website, I came across an 1893 translation from the Latin of Girolamo Zanchi by Augustus Toplady, a devout Calvinist who argued in favor of the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, and as John Calvin relates in his “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” free will, but only as bondage to sin until it is transformed. In Introduction to Sociology, we studied the protestant work ethic and its roots in writers like Martin Luther, a huge influence on John Calvin, and the lesser known Girolamo Zanchi, a prolific Protestant writer. According to a 1683 anti-catholic publication,"Pacquets of Advice from Rome," also found on KBCC Gala,  Girolamo was by the age of 15  “motherless and fatherless,” quickly studying the liberal arts and then theology at Luca, writing the premise of “de Dei Natura,” Christ is a natural Christ, and Christ is in all things natural. I was struck by his passage on page 63 of the translation:

“Does nothing occur but what he decrees and he decrees nothing which he does not will: and both will and decree are absolutely eternal, though the execution of both be in Time.” There is nothing that is not God and nothing isn’t preordained, but the expression of which is in God’s time, something perhaps hard for humans to grasp.  “God was indifferent and unconcerned, whether man flood or fell.” “But could God be an “idle” spectator? Are not the hairs on our head numbered? Does a sparrow fall to the ground, without our heavenly Father?” Is this about God's presence during the flood and the rain?

The presence of nature and the breathe filled air outside the open window, alongside the solo song and solo peddler working his simple trade independently, and the presence of the twittering sparrows on the eves, and the fact that everything from the telegram, to the train, is a question of timing, all within the orderly presence of an 18th century English household, makes me think that Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” is raising the question of the Protestant work ethic, and the various conceptions of English Christianity that were being debated during her time, contemplating that invisible “natural law,” the “invisible and visible” church that John Calvin described as our contract with God, and that Kate’s main character is having thoughts of breaking the contract of her orderly, good Protestant home, being as Berta Hernandez describes in her blog, "stuck in a relationship that she does not want to be in." The end results in her transformation through death and away from the “free, free, free!” will which is bound to her original sin.