Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

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In the era in which this short story was written, marriage was viewed differently as people view it today. Chopin is probably expressing her view on marriage through the character of Mrs. Mallard and her actions upon discovering that her husband had just past away. This was a time where woman were considered second hand citizens compared to men and where men may have voiced their authority and influence on their wife, not really giving them a chance to have their own opinion. Where in Mrs. Mallard's case may have caused her to bottle up her negative feelings of her husband.

Chopin does not write much on how Mrs. Mallard felt during the marriage but she hinted that she was not very happy with it, she mentioned, "And yet she had loved him sometimes" (Chopin 537). It seemed that they had a rocky relationship, if she had only loved him sometimes, and in a time where divorce was practically unheard of and considered an abomination, the only way out of an unstable marriage was through the death of a spouse. So when she had received the message of her husbands accident, she acted w...

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