“The story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin knocks down the idea that all women dreamed to be a wife and forces the reader to pay attention to what marriage actually meant to a woman who wanted individuality. In the 19th century wives were not viewed as people, but only as assets to their husbands. As a wife in those times your only purpose of life was to abide by your husband’s will. “The patriarchy of that time mandated the complete dependence of wives on husbands making marriage a form of slavery” (Jamil 216). After reading “The Story of an Hour,” the powerful statement by Patrick Henry “give me liberty or give me death” resonated in my mind. Mrs. Mallard viewed marriage as an oppressive institution that granted her no room to live life as Lousie because of the restrictions enforced by a patriarchal society to only be a wife.
According to Chopin, Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble. This is a dynamic piece of information for the reader because the heart is often viewed as the emotional core and main source of life. The brief description Chopin gives of Mrs. Mallard’s physical appearance is that of a “calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.” This is an indication to the reader that there was an incessant struggle for her to fit into what society dictated her to be. Louise Mallard was not a traditional woman of the times that believed she should have to survive only as the wife to Brently Mallard. She wanted the freedom to be an individual and live her life as she saw fit. The emotional loathing and stifling of her own identity was so overwhelming that she manifested the stress not only on her face, but also in symptoms of a heart condition. “As Chopin implies, Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble is not as much a physical ailment, as the other characters in the story think, but as a sign of a woman who has unconsciously surrendered