Love the Price You Pay for Freedom

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Love, the price you pay for Freedom:

A comparison of themes between "A story of an Hour" and "The Storm"

This is a story of love and hate. Every couple must go through some tough times in their life in order to be stronger. In order to understand the concept of being free and not being able to do what you want at any given moment; I would like to take a look at two stories. "The Story of an Hour" and "The Storm", they are similar in some ways but in most ways they are very much opposite and their themes of freedom v. oppression.

When a person decides to get married they take on all the responsibilities of the other person. As with every thing else there can be different forms of love. You work hard to find your one true love and when you find him/her you feel blessed. For some people they have to find a few wrong people before finding the right one, the one they want to be with for the rest of their life.

Such is the case for Mrs. Mallard in "The Story of an Hour"; she fell in love with her husband and for what ever reason she falls back out. She feels trapped in her relationship with him and is relieved when she receives the news of his death. She feels a tremendous weight lifted up off her shoulders she says she feels "free, body and soul, free" (Kate Chopin 88).

I felt completely uneasy while reading this story, how could a wife hate her husband so much that she would practically jump with glee at the news of his death? Was there something that the author did not tell us? Was there some form of abuse going on in that house, be it mental or physical? So many things went through my head while sat and read this story. But the one thing that I could never understand is how she could marry someone she did not love? Back in the day women didn't have a choice in that, they married who they were told to and their only way out was through death either of them self or of the husband. In this case she got lucky and it was her husband; so she would get another chance at love and at marriage.

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