Roles Of Women In The Story Of An Hour

The reading “The Story of An Hour” exemplified the suppressed and often unknown unhappiness that some women under strict traditional role-playing experience. These women do what is expected of them based upon what they have been taught and what values have been instilled in them, and passed down from generation to generation. They don’t actually enjoy it but they act unconsciously in accordance to the perceived expectations of society. The protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard was one of those women who just lived her life simply playing a role instead of living her life freely. This was revealed after the untimely death of her husband. Eventually for some women, the boundaries are broken and they go against society’s norms to live their life in …show more content…
In those early times, women weren’t looked at as powerful, free beings. They were taught to be passive, dependent on men, timid and quiet, prude/unsexual, pure, emotional and familial. They were told that their job and purpose was to take care of their husband, their children, and their home. Respectively, when Mrs. Mallard received the news that her husband died in a railroad accident, she was instantly overcome with grief, as any loving wife would be, or at least as any wife was assumed to be. She instantly wept in her sister’s arms until she could cry no more, then excused herself to be alone in her room and mourn her husband’s death. In her room, she sat quiet and motionless, gazing out of a window. Mrs. Mallard had a weak heart, so her sister Josephine believed that Louise would die of sadness, pain and grief, as she said "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven 's sake open the door." However, Mrs. Mallard wasn’t sitting there sulking in sorrow. She was in deep thought. Of course everyone knows that when you lose a loved one you are devastated and everyone assumed that Louise Mallard was heart-broken. Not just because she loved her husband but because she was so dependent on him, and what would she do now that he was gone. As the narrator said “there would be no one to live for during those …show more content…
Their place in the world was spouse and caregiver. They portrayed what they were taught women represented, and that didn’t include independence or power. It wasn’t fair, and women definitely weren’t considered equals. This story served to shed light on the early inequalities and show us how inferior women were. This would have infuriated any modern day feminist. Mrs. Louise Mallard was an example of a woman trapped in a lifeless existence, whose only purpose was to take care of others, or at least that is what she was made to think her purpose