Mallard's Oppression

In this short story, The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard, the main character, is written as a young calm woman with a heart issue. Because she seems fragile to the other characters in the story, the news of her husband dying in a train accident is broken to her softly by her sister. After hearing this news Mrs. Mallard escapes to her bedroom to collect her thoughts. The reader then is introduced to her inner dialogue while she looks out the window. She struggles with the idea of being saddened by her husband’s death, but is also excited that she now has the opportunity to develop her own wants, needs, and personality because she has lived through her marriage as catering to her husband’s wants and needs. The story ends with her descending the stairs from her bedroom, elated and determined for her future new life as a strong, self-sufficient and independent woman. “Free! body and soul free” Her dream is crushed when she sees her husband at the front door, never actually having been in a train accident, and she dies from the shock that she will in fact be stuck in her mundane
It is written well enough that the reader can feel the sadness she dealt with in her relationship and you are almost excited for her future by the end of the story. Chopin has written it in a way that the reader does not feel Mrs. Mallard is mean or selfish for her feelings towards her husband’s death, but you are excited as well for future as a single woman. Being released from a loveless marriage opens the door to her characters ability to become her own person. I feel this is something that even now women tend to do. Women often feel stuck in selfish or loveless relationships and cannot leave on their own. Throughout the bad relationship a woman will lose her own identity and end up being defined only by the man she is