The Story of an Hour

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between a man and a woman. This bond that they have is supposed to be unbreakable, strong, and they are supposed to mutually love each other. In the 1800’s, this was not usually the case. The wife’s sole purpose in life was to reproduce and spend the rest of their lives serving their husband. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard was married to Brently Mallard who had never looked save with love upon her. Even though he loved her, he was controlling, there would be no powerful will bending hers. Many marriages during this time period were like this. Because Brently was controlling, Louise was unhappy in the marriage. Louise was internally conflicted due to this unhappy marriage. The turmoil Louise was oppressed with after her husband’s death was that she was not in remorse but rather pleased and she knew this was wrong, there was something coming to her… This thing coming to her was the thought that she was finally free, free, free! …she was striving to beat it… the only reason she would strive to beat this feeling of joy is because she knew that it was wrong for her to feel this way after her husband passed away. After a couple minutes of being slightly upset, Louise realized she was right to feel the way she did. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy…When someone loses a loved one they typically would feel depressed and lock themselves in a dark, dreadful room. Instead of a dreary setting, there were patches of blue sky. Instead of an uncomfortable, hard chair Louise sat in a comfortable, roomy armchair. It was raining which could be perceived as dark except Chopin describes it as the delicious breath of rain. This setting leads to show the reader that Louise isn’t depressed but rather relieved that there would be no powerful will bending hers. The reader can infer that the reason she may be happy that her husband is dead because he is abusive but later in the story; it