Story Of An Hour Women Oppression

In a country and decade plagued with crime, three women are murdered each day by a current or former partner. Every minute, twenty women are victims of partner violence. And every nine seconds, a woman is beaten. Proving that even in the modern world, women still face discrimination. Although it appears that today the lives of women are oppressive, two centuries ago times were even harder for women. The short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, exhibits the extent to how women felt trapped in marriage. As opposed to becoming a united team as a couple, wives were “owned” by their husbands. In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin uses the short story as propaganda to advocate the end of restrictions that society placed on white middle-class

For most women, their only way to survive, economically and socially, was to get married. Women who worked in factories made twenty-seven cents to every man's dollar. Therefore, single women could not make a living and needed to get married. Marriage, defined as two becoming one, caused women to lose their identities and to no longer be treated as people. Women could not divorce their husbands, even if the men impoverished, raped or cheated on them; and they were blamed whenever marital dissatisfaction arose. In the Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms, published in 1888, it states “Whatever have been the cares of the day, greet your husband with a smile when he returns. Make your personal appearance just as beautiful as possible. Let him enter rooms so attractive and sunny that all the recollections of his home, when away from the same, shall attract him back”. While their husbands were out at work, the woman's role was to make the home as physically appealing as possible. Women were confined to their homes, rarely allowed to leave. Wives could have kind and loving husbands, yet still feel the oppression that society had placed on them. Unable to work, to leave their homes, or to vote created an oppressing environment for white middle-class women. A woman’s political voice was tied to their husbands, due to their shared identity. In “The Story of an Hour”, the protagonist, Louise Mallard, felt vast freedom when her husband unexpectedly died. Once they married, they shared an identity; she only lived for him. And upon his death, Louis Mallard allowed to finally live for herself. Although, Louise claimed that she did love her husband and will cry upon seeing his body, the idea of freedom overtakes all her senses. Louise’s conflicted reaction to her husband’s death implies that all marriages are