'The Story Of An Hour' By Kate Chopin

“The Story of an Hour”, created by Kate Chopin, is a short story that shows the emotions of a new-found widow in a time where women’s rights aren’t as they are today. The story starts off by introducing Mrs. Mallard as only a woman with great heart trouble who needs to be taken care of as she is presented with the news of her, supposedly, dead husband. She later finds that the death of her husband transformed from heartache to freedom and becomes spontaneously overjoyed. According to the way it was written, two themes could be drawn from this short story.

One main theme that could be drawn from the story was the “Role of women during marriage”. During this time, many women were not independent. Woman’s rights were not a well- spoken conversation in the late 19th century. Most women living in this time had husbands whom basically controlled or dictated everything that they would do. Even though the narrator doesn’t specify that Mr. Mallard was an abusive, controlling husband, it is safe to assume that his wife did perform the same as an average housewife would have during this time period. During the beginning of the story, Ms. Mallard is shocked by her husband’s death and does not know how to cope or feel relieved. She does not know how to move on with her life nor does she know how to react, all she knows is that she is now a widow.

Mallard no longer feels resentment about the passing of her husband. She came to realize that the passing of her husband benefited her inner self more than it did hurting her. Before, she did not know how it felt to be independent. Since she was basically living through her husband, Ms. Mallard really didn’t have an identity of her own. Another example that the story justifies this theme is that Ms. Mallards begins talking about her future, completely ignoring the fact that soon she could become heavily ill due to her heart problems because she is “discovering