Trapped by Marriage According to Kate Chopin and Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin was known for her rather "shocking" stories in a time when women writers were not prominent. "The Story of an Hour" is no exception. What Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" details to the reader is the extent to which women were "trapped" by the very institution of marriage, even if they didn't know it.

Mrs. Mallard exemplifies a woman who seems resigned to her marriage. When she first learns of his death, she "wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment" (Chopin) and goes to her room alone to grieve. She feels the way she believes any spouse would feel upon knowing that her husband has been killed. She begins to search her soul for the answers about what her life will be. "She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams." (Chopin).

However, as Mrs. Mallard sits there in her room, watching life out the window, she begins to feel something that she cannot name. "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air" (Chopin). Once she figures out what this new feeling is, she tries to deny it, but she can't. She begins to whisper "I'm free" (Chopin) over and over again. Mrs. Mallard has very briefly gotten a glimpse of life without her husband. She knows that she will weep again at his funeral but for right now she realizes the implications his death will have on her life. "But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome" (Chopin). She had never contemplated being single or alone ever before. There was no need to. She was married, and that was all. However, now that she believes her husband is dead, he begins to understand that her life now belongs to her. She does not need to "take care" of him, and she never need to marry again. She is free and her life is her own.

The way that marriage traps women is explained by Chopin in the next paragraph of the story by Mrs. Mallard. "There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. 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. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination" (Chopin). What Mrs. Mallard is thinking here is that the institution of marriage is limiting to both men and women. Spouses feel that their needs must be met without necessarily considering the needs of the other person. However, for a woman in Chopin's time, marriage is much more limiting. Women's lives were taken up with cooking and cleaning and all the things that one needs to do to run a household. Men believed that these things were women's work and should be done according to specification. Even in times where a person tries to bend another's will toward something good, the act is still limiting. Without her husband, there is no one' will to bend to and she will finally be able to live for herself. While he was alive, she never contemplated these ideas because there was no sense in it. She was not even aware of the way she felt. But now, her possibilities are endless. It is not that she didn't love her husband. She says she did. The reality is that love him or not, she was married to him.

That was her job, her station in this life. However, now she feels that her new "self assertion" is what is most important.

The absolute sudden realization of what her life could be has just been thrust upon her. "Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long" (Chopin). Her anticipation of the rest of her life is shown here in such brutal honesty. She never realized the full extent of how monotonous her life was until she received a glimpse beyond.

And this realization is ultimately what kills her, ironically. When she discovers that it was all a mistake, that her husband is still alive, her weak heart cannot take it. She has a heart attack and dies. Her husband believes that she is so happy to see him that her heart gives out. But the reader knows differently. The reader knows how absolutely incomprehensible it would be to her to go back again now that she has had this brief but simple taste of freedom. The shock of living her old life again is what kills her. She cannot go back again.

Kate Chopin shows so clearly here the restrictions that bind people in marriage. While Mrs. Mallard probably would not have described herself as unhappy, she jumps on the elation of freedom. Mrs. Mallard, like many wives, is resigned to her lot in life, whether she likes it or not. She probably never contemplated it. However, when she believes that her husband is dead and that he will impose no more upon her (nor she upon

him), she is elated. She can hardly wait to face the rest of her life alone and free. This tells the reader what marriage was like for women in particular. The story has so much impact because we know that Mrs. Mallard has what many would call a "good" marriage. If women like this feel restricted and trapped, it gives the reader an idea of how restricting just the concept and institution of marriage had been and still could be.

4