MRS. RATHBOURNE AS A NEW WOMAN
In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Rathbourne appears to fit the Victorian mold of ideal womanhood. She silently endures the discomfort of “stagnant air”, lest she awakens her husband by opening a window (Dixon 240). This considerate gesture alone may mislead the reader to think that Mrs. Rathbourne caters to her husband’s needs. However, her actions dispel this assumption. In fact, she flouts Victorian expectations for a married woman throughout the short story, becoming more of a New Woman.

Her chief act of defiance is her affair with her brother-in-law, Colonel Rathbourne. Infidelity is unforgivable in an era where a wife is expected to lionize her husband. Her rebellion is compounded with her unrepentant attitude towards her actions: she is resolute in her feelings for Colonel Rathbourne and thinks of nothing else. The only remorse she harbours stems from arriving too late to say her last farewell (Dixon 240). In fact, she is wholly fixated on her relationship with the Colonel. It is her brazen disregard for her prescribed duty as a wife that makes her actions so earthshattering. Unlike the ideal Victorian wife, she puts her own needs before anyone else’s (Mitchell 268). Kindling forbidden passions, she undercuts the mainstays of Victorian femininity: self-denial and chastity. While women were expected to repress their desires, Mrs. Rathbourne unabashedly pursues them. She goes so far as stealing her lover’s dressing gown to alleviate her grief (246). Mrs. Rathbourne’s transgression dismantles the framework of femininity. Specifically, shows that women are not infallible as they are expected to be. This echoes New Woman writers’ crusade for female sexual freedom (Leger 76). Like men, it is natural for women to have bouts of impropriety and succumb to their appetites.

Yet, how does Mrs. Rathbourne subvert her expected role with impunity? Perhaps she is granted such leeway because the house is not her own. Unfettered by moral and domestic duties, she handles her sorrow as she pleases. However, catharsis does not liberate her. Despite her rebellious fervor, her stealthy movements show that she is riddled with guilt (Dixon 244). Perhaps this remorse stems from a repressed sense of shame. Therefore, she is still thwarted by the crippling gender ideologies. These societal values are represented by Colonel Rathbourne’s chilling house.

SYMBOLISM of the HOUSE
In the eyes of a common Victorian, Mrs. Rathbourne defiles the sanctity of a home. However, it is important to note the distinct way in which the house operates in the story. From the start, the mansion is characterized as a “house of death” (Dixon 239). Unlike the ideal Victorian home, Colonel Rathbourne’s house envelops its inhabitants in “portentous and uncanny” silence (Dixon 239). Here is where Dixon critics domestic duties and the dynamics within in the home. The house does not protect Mrs. Rathbourne but entombs her. While she darts through its cavernous halls, she cannot escape her suffering. Moreover, the sheer vastness of the house dilutes Mrs. Rathbourne’s suffering. It watches in mute indifference as she ransacks its passages. In this way, the house underscores Mrs. Rathbourne’s separation from those around her.

MRS. RATHBOURNE’S ISOLATION
At her brother-in-law’s funeral, Mrs. Rathbourne feels an “impassable gulf lay surely between her and these living, breathing people” (Dixon 241). When she is with her family, Mrs. Rathbourne is inured to pain and unable to process her loss. She cannot outwardly express her grief due to the nature of her relationship with the Colonel. Only when she is alone can she freely mourn over her forbidden love (Dixon 243). Even then, her avenues of release are limited by her circumstances. Mrs. Rathbourne’s pain is exacerbated by the fact that the Colonel is even more unattainable than he was to begin with. Before, it was merely a matter of violating nuptial ties, but now she cannot get the closure she needs because he is dead. Yet, Mrs. Rathbourne is forced to negotiate these conflicting feelings on her own. In the end, she dashes away with the stolen gown, but it is merely a souvenir of her adventurous youth. She cannot fully come to terms with her loss. Her solitary suffering illustrates the hypocrisy in the Victorian axiom, “Keep yourself to yourself” (Mitchell 265). Women were considered emotionally feeble yet they are pressured to internalize their hardships.