What is the Ideal Marriage?
Although marriage should be an equally enjoyable partnership, for both husband and wife the story of an hour reflects the nineteenth century view that marriage is an oppressive relationship where women are the victims. Even in today’s society, with women rights, ladies are still in their husbands’ shadow. Husbands are the head of the house and bread winner. Wives are the housekeeper. Today even thought a wife have rights she is still her husband’s maid. However, marriage is starting to be a partnership when it comes to household chores and children.
Slavery is an appropriate term for marriage in the nineteenth century. Who was the slave in a marriage? Women, having no rights, were expected to be obedient to their husbands. If a wife was not obedient, her husband had the right to beat her. A husband had a right to beat his wife up until 1978. Wives were oppressed by their husbands. Even if a lady was fortunate to have a husband that did not beat her and treated her well, she still felt oppressed. According to the Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard’s husband, Brently Mallard, was a loving and kind husband. However, Mrs. Mallard still felt as though she was in slavery. She kept repeating the word free when she received the news that her husband died. Mrs. Mallard felt oppressed because in the story she said “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, The Story of an Hour). Though Mrs. Mallard felt oppressed by Mr. Mallard she still loved him. After hearing of her husband’s death, “Ms. Mallard wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister arms” (Chopin, The Story of an Hour). Although the question will arise whether Mrs. Mallard really loved her husband or if she just was acting, the story states that...
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...eenth century a woman did not have a voice, Husbands are starting to realize that their wives do not have to take care of the household responsibilities and appreciate their wives. Marriage has changed since the nineteenth century however there is still a lot of changes that need to takes place.
Work Cited
Hoeflinger, Deborah. "A Brief History of Women in America." Power point found online. A Brief History of Women in America. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Logan, IA: Perfection Learning, 1894. Print.
Muntone, Stephanie. "Women’s Rights in the 19th Century." N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. WIC - Women's History in America. McGraw-Hill Professional, 4 Feb. 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
"The Role of the Wife and Mother." Kate Chopin. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
http://www.loyno.edu/~kchopin/new/women/motherhood.html
MacLean, Maggie. "History of American Women." History of American Women. 5 Jan. 2009. Maggie MacLean. 12 Dec. 2013 .
“The Story of an Hour” and “The Hand” both has remarkable similarities and differences. They share a common theme of women and marriage and the sacrifices they make for their family. The setting in both stories is significant to understand the role of women hundreds of years ago. The symbolism portrayed in “The Hand” is about relationships and marriage. When a relationship is new and everything is wonderful there are not any fears or regrets. As time goes by even the most desirable qualities in someone will begin to be an annoyance rather than a joy.
Harris, Sharon M. "Kate Chopin." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (2006): 1-5. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
In conclusion, “The story of an hour” is a clear depiction that women status in the society determines the choices they make about their lives. In this work, Chopin depicts a woman as a lesser being without identity or voices of their own. They are expected to remain in oppressive marriages and submit to their husbands without question.
In the 19th century women began to take action to change their rights and way of life. Women in most states were incapable to control their own wages, legally operate their own property, or sign legal documents such as wills. Although demoted towards their own private domain and quite powerless, some women took edge and became involved in parts of reform such as temperance and abolition. Therefore this ultimately opened the way for women to come together in an organized movement to battle for their own rights in such ways as equal education, labor, legal reform, and the occupations. As stated in the nineteenth amendment, a constitutional revision that established women’s citizen rights to vote.
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
Davis, Sara de Saussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 12 pp. 59-71. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX. 11 Feb. 2003
the men don’t get everything; both the man and the woman have an equal chance to prove they are worthy enough to obtain assets and children. Usually the female acquires the children and the male acquires the assets. “The Story of an Hour” might inspire some modern-day wives to oppose their husbands if their marriages are not going so well. This story has made me aware of my equal rights as a woman, and how much I take those rights for granted.
19th-Century Women Works Cited Missing Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail, as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so. One of the most common expectations for women is that they are responsible for doing the chore of cleaning, whether it is cleaning the house, doing the laundry.
“The Story of an Hour” is a short story in which Kate Chopin, the Victorian writer; whose writing illustrates her life experience. Chopin presents an often unheard of view of marriage. During the 1800’s women had limited freedom, fewer rights and, were not considered equal to men. Chopin despise the oppressive nature of marriage, she had been a victim of this institution. Kate Chopin often used the original names of people who inspires her stories (Toth 10). In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Louise Mallard, Chopin’s main character, experiences the exhilaration of freedom rather than the desolation of loneliness after she learns of her husband’s death. In “The Story of an Hour” do you think her reaction says something about women’s lack of freedom at the time? Kate Chopin’s provides a powerful message using irony, conflict, and symbolism to show that in order to have a satisfying marriage, freedom is required for both partners.
Chopin, Kate. Complete Novels and Stories. Ed. Sandra M. Gilbert. New York: Library of America, 2002. Print.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
History of Women in the United States. 9 November 2005. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Online. 15 November 2005 .
“The Story of an Hour” is the story of Mrs. Louise Mallard who suffers of a weak heart. This being the first we know of Mr. Mallard, she is carefully being told that her husband had just passed away in a train accident. As every good wife should, Mrs. Mallard breaks out in grief. At first, the story goes, as it should. Then Mrs. Mallard goes into her room where she begins thinking, and her first thought is that she is free. Mrs. Mallard after years of being in an unhappy marriage is finally free to do what she wants, with no one to hold her back. Yet everything is against her, when she finally accepts that her life will begin now, her husband enters his home, unscathed and well, not having known that everyone thought him dead, a...
One can image the struggles women went through during the nineteenth-century having no better option than to be married, widowed, or worse. As a result, Kate Chopin’s theme in “The Story of an hour” in the book Backpack Literature: An Introduction of Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing might have expressed one of many aspects that women struggled with during that time in an alternating, omniscient point of view. To put it lightly, marriage being one of those struggles in the story makes us think if marriage is not for everyone. Through the author’s diction, it will be clear that Mrs. Louise Mallard being the main character struggles with the antagonist, which is the institution of marriage, and she has a realization that she might have defeated the enemy and freed herself, but the institution being there in the end kills the protagonist.