Kate Chopin’s literary work has touched many reader with an open mind of what many
women in the ninetieth century was going through as a woman with no freedom. One of the
most commendable aspects of Kate Chopin’s short story “The story of an Hour” is the fact that
the author is able to manipulate oppression, freedom and symbolism in a table that is
extraordinary compact.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Story of an Hour.” SparkNotes LLC. 2007. http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/ (accessed September 29, 2013). In the story, Mrs. Louise Mallards was an oppressed wife of Brentley Mallard. She
afflicted with a weak heart and good care was taken to give her the news of her husbands death
from a railroad accident. Her sister Joseline told her in broken sentences about the loss of Mr.
Mallard. Obviously, Mallard reacted to obvious grief and admits that her husband was kind and
loving. She knew at the funeral she would "weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands
folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and
dead". However, despite the love between each other, Brentley’s death was a release from
oppression. She never described ways he oppressed her, but hinted that the marriages in
general stifles both women and men. Also, she suggested that she oppressed him as much as he
oppressed her. Mallard thoughts that was going through her mind reveals that oppressive of all
marriages by far can rob people of their independence.
3.) (2001, 03). The Story of an Hour. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 03, 2001, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Story-Of-An-Hour-31194.html Mallard is stricken with the news of her husband's "death" and soon lead to new found
