Oppression And Identity In The Story Of An Hour By Mrs. Mallard

Mrs. Mallard in the story “The Story of an Hour” is about a woman who had a good life until the unfortunate event of her husbands death, now she has decided she will change her life and be a successful independent woman. She is now left to deal with the grief and support herself along with her six other children. Her internal conflict is her desire to be independent role for women's feelings of being oppresses through her marriage versus her desire for freedom. The external conflict was the restrictions society placed on women, and the desire for more roles on females during this period of time.

“Story of an Hour” uses Louise Mallard’s repressed life as a wife to elucidate how repression can lead to bottled up depression. Louise Mallard understands the “right” way for women to behave, but her internal thoughts and feelings are anything but correct. This is first illustrated by the initial reaction to her husband’s death, where she cries instead of feeling numb, as she suspects other women would do. The death of her husband acts as a catalyst to alleviate her depression that rooted in her marriage. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to Louise’s heart problem, which shows the extent to which she believes her marriage has trapped her. The author of the story gives a vague description of Mallard’s heart condition just simply calling it a “heart problem” (Choplin 452). This vague description shows how her “heart problem” is both physical and

Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.

Women have strived hard to gain the treatment as men. In the workplace, society, and even at home women were treated as second class to men. In Kate Chopin’s, The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard loses her husband, but her reaction is not what is expected from the reader. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction was from the treatment of her husband and now she finally felt free.

In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.

It takes pride to fight for what you desire, like Mrs. Mallard did in “The Story of an Hour,” she tried to exploit her own freedom. Even though, after traumatic event that caused her to rethink her way of life. Mrs. Mallard shows what it is to bounce back from a traumatic event like the presumed death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard view is that she always waited all her life to explore her new life and to be set free into the world without being the less dominant sex. Freedom is the essence of life and it provides hope and upbringing joy to a person’s life.

In the “Story of An Hour”, the main character, introduced as Mrs. Mallard, is traditional good girl that gets her first taste of freedom leading her diverging into the path that allows her to be free of the subjection she feels, however, these feelings are not lasting as society tries to make her return to her previous status before this taste. From the very beginning, Mrs. Mallard is illustrated as a faint hearted woman that needed to be protected from shocking events in fear of her health. In account of this in a slow way, her sister and her brother in law explains that her husband is in fact dead. Mrs. Mallard listens to this, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would not have no one follow her” ( Chopin 1). This basically uncovers the underlying feelings that Mrs. Mallard has of having to act a certain way in front of society to meet their expectation, considering that within this situation the her sister is society, and she is the suppose to be a good wife that should feel sad about the fact that her husband has just died. With the way she acts specifically exclaiming that “she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance”, it infers that she already has understand what the

today in comparison is unreal. Women were expected to follow every command they were given and to never disagree or share their opinion on matters that would often affect their lives dramatically. Ms. Mallord lived in a time where the men in your life were dominant and gave you little to no say in what happened. Control of her life was scarce and as time passed it slipped completely out of her grip. In The Story of an Hour a young, repressed, and broken spirit got a taste of freedom and then had it snatched from her all in the course of 60 minutes.

Women’s lack of social contact had been a notable fact in nineteenth century. Back then, women were only allowed to stay at home and do their housework. They were locked by “the closed door,” while only men had the “latchkey” to open it left their houses without anyone’s permission (“The Story of an Hour” 76). Even though women “wish” they “could do such things” which are to see the outside world, men responded that “It ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” (“The Chrysanthemums” 200). Once women were married, they would not have too many chances to associate with people besides her family. Moreover, most of the time they need to obey her husband, so they are eager to live independently. In these two stories, John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums,”

Write a critical analysis of any aspect of "The Story of an Hour" which you found of interest and significance.

In the 1800s, women were inferior to men and oppressed by the laws of society. At the time, women who were employed were expected to give up their work and individuality when married; as a matter of fact, they were considered their husband’s property. It was not until the twentieth century that women started getting rights, including having the right to vote which slightly diminished their oppression. According to Thesaurus.com, oppression is the act of subjecting to burdensome, cruel or unjust impositions or restraints. In The Story of An Hour written in 1874 by Kate Chapin, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as an oppressed wife which is seen in her reaction towards the news of her husband’s death, aspiration

In “The Story of an Hour” a woman, Mrs.Mallard, has heart trouble and is in the hospital. While she’s in there, her husband’s friend and her sister are in the room with her gently telling her the news of her husband. She didn’t react as any woman would with balling their eyes out and a paralyzed mindset and emotions everywhere. But Mrs.Mallard displayed a different type of emotion, she remained calm and went into her room and reminisced on the past and her new future ahead of her. She thinks about her newfound freedom and how she’ll be able to live her life as an independent woman and free. While Mrs.Mallard is thinking about her self-asserted life in front of her, until her sister is at the door telling her to open the door. She opens the door to see her sister and together walk down the stairs. There she sees her husband’s friend waiting for them at the bottom of the staircase. Someone was opening the door, and there walked in Mrs.Mallard’s husband who was thought to be dead. The few minutes of a free, independent life came to rest as she herself fell dead. Contradicting the cultural standard of how women react,O’Flaherty portrayed the women as “ strong as well as

Every relationship is not the best relationship because sometimes it is like your trapped and isolated so that makes it harder to adjust and bond. In the story “ The Story Of An Hour” Mrs. Mallard was in an overbearing relationship to where she felt trapped. However, her luck would soon change when she gets terrible news about her husband’s death. Meanwhile, the freedom that she thinks she has at that moment will soon be no more because her husband will not be dead. Furthermore, she will soon lose it once the news is broken to her about Mr. Mallard’s status of health. However, just from that, she will begin losing her sanity and herself all at once. And in the end, will die of a joy that kills or sadness that kills. This relationship can be good or bad because it is not always what the spouse wants (Chopin 720) “The Story Of An Hour” relationships are not for everyone simply because it is a commitment until death and some people aren’t as committed.

The relationship between men and women presented in the short story “The Story of an Hour”, is that men dominated society. A Woman’s freedom was nonexistent. Throughout this short story, women are presented as powerless and dependent while men were considered to be superior. Women were tied down through marriage, such as, having been expected of doing as the man pleased without having any say in the relationship. Through a feminist critical perspective, this short story supports a patriarchal society that is presented though marriage and women’s lack of freedom.

In “The Story of an Hour” and the poem “Still I Rise” Kate Chopin and Maya Angelou have explored the theme of oppression in a variety of different ways. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story based around how dramatically things can change within the space of an hour and how this can affect your life in the short period of time. Within the hour Mr Mallard is presumed dead in a railroad disaster, resulting in Mrs Mallard short lived ‘freedom’ after years of being oppressed, before soon learning that her husband is not dead as she encounters him. This shock triggers an ongoing heart problem and Mrs Mallard is soon confirmed dead. “Still I Rise” is a poem based around Maya Angelou and how she will overcome challenges that are thrown at her.