Oppression In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, a married woman receives news of her husband’s death. The reader follows Mrs. Mallard through her unusual emotional reaction to her husband’s death. In this time period of this story, the late 1800s, it was not unusual for women to marry young and take on all of the household responsibilities. Not many people cared whether the women loved their husbands or their families; the primary focus was on their purpose in the household. The language used throughout the story contributes to the imagery of freedom and life, and shows the reader that marriage is a form of oppression in this time period. Immediately, the reader is presented with the information that “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with …show more content…
Mallard expresses the evidence of her life. She is described as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression” (288). Her youth is intact and draws the idea that she was a young girl, not ready to be tied down when she married. The tranquility of her face, and the later description of her “dull stare” (288) suggests a sense of compliance. Her overbearing marriage has tranquilized her into submission. As the scene goes on, Mrs. Mallard fights against the feeling of freedom, until “a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips… ‘free, free, free!’” (288). The use of the word “escaped” implies that it was an involuntary. This word connects back to her initial reaction to her husband’s death: “wild” (288), in a synonymous way. If one were to talk about an animal escaping, a release from confinement, that animal would be considered loose or wild. There is an element of the untamed, which adds to the idea of freedom from …show more content…
Mallard’s case of marriage may be extreme in comparison to that of other women, but it is likely that she is not far off from the norm. As with many marriages, arranged or not, she feels that “she had loved him-- sometimes” (289). It is not as though she hated her husband, but she did not adore him, or their marriage. Instead, she feels that love is nothing in comparison to the “possession of self-assertion” which was the “strongest impulse of her being” (289). The ability to do what one wants in life is to hold one’s own power. Many housewives were reduced to maids and sexual objects. The standard of marriage and quality of life was much lower in the late 1800s than now, but it is still apparent that her situation was not