Oppression In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

The Story of an Hour - Oppression

The Story of an Hour is a very emotional story. Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from heart problems, learns of the death of her husband from her sister. Her husband Brently was believed to have died in a tragic railroad accident. After she is informed of her husband's death, at first she is devastated. She locks herself in an upstairs room to mourn her beloved husband. But as she begins to comprehend her husband’s death, she is filled with joy, as she has finally been freed from their relationship. Sadly, she hears her husband come home and has a heart attack. He goes upstairs to find her dead on the floor. The Story of an Hour is a somewhat misleading story. It portrays Mrs. Mallard as heartless and insensitive after she feels joy about her husband's death, but the story has an underlying theme. Brently Mallard's death was merely freeing Mrs. Mallard from a repressive relationship. Throughout the text there is evidence that Mrs. Mallard was being oppressed by her husband and had a very pessimistic view of life. At first, she does not know whether to feel sad about her husband's death or to be filled with glee. When her husband dies, she finally feels free. After her initial depression, she became confused. She, “did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her.”
Mallard's heightened moment of awareness is when she finally realizes that she was free from further oppression from her husband. She could finally live for herself. She even contemplates their marriage in her head. She thinks, “Yet she had loved him - sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!”. Although Mrs. Mallard had loved Brently Mallard, she did not anymore, and she could finally make decisions for herself. Even when she confronted her sister, she had a “feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory.” These emotions only could have been unlocked with the end of her