Answer:
The significance of freedom in the story is that it means different things to different people and that sometimes, they don't realise that they don't have it until circumstances collaborate to communicate this to them.
Mrs Mallard was content with her life as it was until the misinformation regarding her husbands' death.
She had started to cry but then somehow realised that her husbands' death meant freedom to her. She mulled over the possibilities of this freedom. Freedom from having to do his biding most of the time. Freedom to do what she wanted, how she wanted, when she wanted.
Ironically, Brently Mallard who happened to be alive walks through the door and unintentionally triggers the event that would lead to the demise of this wife.
Could it be said that he too is free of such a woman who regardless of the love he has for her regards him as a restriction on her freedom?
Could it also be said that Mrs Mallard is finally free of her heart condition?
The Author cleverly presents freedom as an interesting dynamic here and makes use of the literary device of "Irony" in depicting the concept of freedom and it's cost.
Whether it is freedom as perceived by Mrs Mallard which she thought had come as a result of her husband's death; or
Freedom as perceived by the reader to Mrs Mallard from her heart condition which comes with her death; or
Freedom that may be inputted on Mr Mallard. "Freedom" from a woman who he loved but who had only him occasionally and who welcomed his death as an opportunity for freedom, in the end, it does appear that the author intends to portray the fact that freedom comes with a price.
Cheers!
