Oppression In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

In the short story “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, the theme of oppression on women is strongly shown. Throughout the story, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, goes through several different emotions and has to learn to cope with them on her own. To begin, Mrs. Mallard’s husband supposedly had died in an accident at the railroad tracks. Her sister Josephine broke the news to her, and initially Mrs. Mallard was very upset and troubled. The situation seemed as if she was over the major event of her husband dying within minutes. This is shown when the text states, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance.” (Chopin, 1) This quote is saying that many other women have been in Mrs. Mallard’s shoes before, but she took it much differently than the rest of women did. Although Mrs. Mallard was upset after hearing the news, just moments later she was already onto another emotion.
Mallard begins to have some sort of panic attack. Looking at the story, it seems as if she had a gut feeling her husband was not really dead and that he was coming back for her. These thoughts instantly made Mrs. Mallard very scared and nervous, since it is evident she fears her husband. During the time that this story was written, men had complete control over their wives. Women did not have many rights, and men were most certainly the dominant role in households. Women did what men said, whether they liked it or not. The event of her husband dying actually was a relieving moment for Mrs. Mallard. She was thinking she could truly be free from her husband’s oppression and go out and live her