“The Story of An Hour”

When I first read the short story ”The Story of an Hour”, I was quite shocked. How could someone be happy finding out that their spouse had passed away? If it were me, I’d probably drop dead upon hearing the news. But thinking on it, I began to realize the privilege I have as a woman of the 21st century. I got to choose the person I married whereas Kate Chopin’s character likely didn’t have much of a choice. 

Written in 1894, 26 years before women got the right to vote amongst other rights, women had very specific roles to play in society and their freedoms were severely limited. This woman probably entered in a marriage where her father picked the husband or was a beneficial marriage for the families. Either way, the likelihood of her entering in this marriage by her own choosing was likely limited. In a darkly comic way, Chopin has created a fantasy piece for women of the era to imagine life without their “husbands.” Giving women deep, poetic descriptions of the multitude of feelings experienced by Mrs. Mallard to share with her sisterhood, Chopin gives the women of the 19th century a taste of freedom. In a comical twist, the woman dying from a heart attack (or heart disease) when her husband comes home unscathed is nothing short of a joke or meme that we would find today. It’s interesting to see how jokes can still carry on over centuries and have the same comedic effect. But the times and circumstances greatly changed and it’s one that I’m grateful for. I couldn’t imagine a life where I was trapped in a marriage I didn’t want to be in.