Marriage In Louise Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

For many, marriage is the most important steps in life because it doesn’t just represent two people taking a vow to be with each other. But marriage also exemplifies purity and singularity because it gives people the strength to overcome any temptations by engaging in a love that can be given and received physically, emotionally, and spiritually. However, in The Story of an Hour, Chopin also displays how all marriages can be oppressive, even the “kindest and loving” ones, which implies that people just want to be free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She does this by having Louise Mallard react to her husband’s death with joy and also not having any sort of bitterness or contempt over his passing either.

Marriage is not easy because

When a couple say the words “till death do us part” it is an unbreakable bond that only death can break. Ironically, this is the case in the Story of an Hour. When Louise believed that her husband had passed away she cried hysterically however, not with sadness but, with joy. “She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” (Gioia, 157). It’s obvious that at this moment she felt relieved or like a weight had been lifted off her shoulder. This is due to the fact that since she is ill, she has to be taken care of, and because of that she is mostly confined to her room. However, in this case, she has never felt more alive. In fact, her heart began beating faster and pumping more warm blood throughout her body allowing her to relax. At this moment she is literally being physically freed from her marriage. She now can live for herself with no one to hold her back from her passions or wishes. Even before Louise began

It is clear that she is trying to speak for those women that are going through marriages where the spouse is caged in the house or unable to have the freedom to do what she wants. Not only that, it can also be seen that Chopin could be speaking for the men that have to make sacrifices for their family or change for their marriage inhibiting them from doing what they want. That’s why the Story of an Hour is so interesting because Chopin doesn’t clarify how Louise was oppressed showing that marriage is generally oppressive. Chopin goes even farther by adding “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” (Gioia, 158). She is saying what kind of sane person would bestow this life of oppression on another person; heavily beating down the thoughts of freedom and independence from marriage. However, she never says anything about