Struggles for Women in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

The story begins with Mrs. Mallard’s discovery that her husband has passed away. She initially feels grief in front of her friends, but retreats to her room to be alone with her thoughts. While alone, she realizes the freedom that is in front of her now that her husband has passed away. Chopin asserts, “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention make the act seem no less a crime” (2).

She would have no one follow her” (Chopin 443). This quotation eloquently depicts Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death that most of us would expect. She cries holding nothing back, and can not fully grasp what she has just been told. However, she quickly composes herself and walks into th... ... middle of paper ... ...out her husband, but her emotions throughout the story show that she is happy her freedom is given to her. Mrs. Mallard was just taking in her new life that was beginning and she was exclaiming to herself that she was finally free from her husband.

The character in the story is Louise Mallard and she has a heart problem and she can`t take things easily. Her husband loved her to death and he still thinks that right after her death. She wanted to start a new life without her husband but later found out and died of the shock of her husband at the front door. Her emotional problems were the new life she was going to start and the freedom that is about to come to her. “Sobbing came up her throat and shook her as a child who has cried itself to sleep and continues to sob in its dreams”.

She was not really conscious it was between her world and the actual real world she had to face. This leads to her feelings sometimes she wouldn 't love her husband , and sometimes she would and it was all mixed up into different feelings and emotions. When she saw her husband in the door she cried , but it was of happiness not sadness and it was a rare death. We as readers consider that seeing her husband shocked her and anguish when she sees her husband. The doctor eventually said a different thing that the joy killed Mrs. Mallard .” The conflict between Mrs. Mallard’s life and death becomes so irreconcilable that she finally dies of heart disease when she is told that she will see her husband come home alive instead of death in the railroad disaster.”(Kate

She sees the severity of her heart condition, but prays that she will now live longer. This story is more about her realization of her existence and her beginning to cope with her dieing rather than being completely about her husband dieing. When her friends and family tell Mrs. Mallard of the tragic news they try to tell her as gently as possible because they know she has a very serious heart condition. She hears that her husband has been killed, but reacts in a strange and unusual way. She does not give herself time to think upon the subject, but immediately starts sobbing because that was the reaction she thought she should give.

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. Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern.

The irony of the ending is that Louise Mallard doesn’t die of joy as the doctor claim, but actually from the loss of joy. Specially, her husband’s death gives her a glimpse of a new life, and when that new life is swiftly taken away, the shock and disappointment kill her. The joy Mrs. Mallard actually felt was the idea of relief of being free from the bonds of marriage and the hope of living her life for her o... ... middle of paper ... ...ndreds, women were not allowed to be persons of their own, but were looked up as a shadow of their husbands. In those days, they were to be stay at home mothers and to abide by the rules that were set by their husbands. The writer brought out the truth of what married women were expected to abide by in the late eighteen hundreds.

The doctors thought “she had died from heart disease-of joy that kills.” However, she didn't die from the joy of getting to see her living husband but from losing her future filled with freedom. Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death.

This was Mrs. Mallard’s chance to actually live life on her own terms. Not on the terms prescribed to her by her husband. After this revelation on her behalf, the outcome of the story is both ironic and tragic. Upon hearing the news of Brently’s death Mrs. Mallard, who is afflicted with a heart condition, reacts with sadness at first, grieving with “wild abandonment'; but shortly afterward seeks solitude to assess what has happened. The location where she seeks isolation is important.

Secondly, as stated above, Mrs. Dalloway, who does not dare to express her love to Peter after a period of time, regrets her young decision that her memories ceaselessly surge in her mind. Clarissa does not tell the truth about herself: she actually loves Peter more than Richard, but she is worldly and wants social status and ranking from her husband (Woolf 209). On the contrary, neither wealth nor rank the ghostly couple wants, but simply companionship from each other. They have undergone the separation of death, they now passionately cherish their