Cate Chopin in her book The Story of an Hour tells of a story of how repressive marriage can be especially to women. The protagonist of the story, Louise Mallard just gets the feeling of freedom right after she heard of his death, a thing that is not anticipated in any marriage whatsoever but her happiness about it makes the reader understand the fact that in as much as she was married and lived with him, she was never happy in the marriage. Freedom to Mrs. Mallard is only achievable in the absence of the other party therefore implying that marriage is oppressive.
Chopin paints the picture of Mrs. Mallard of suffering from a heart problem. This can be given the perspective of a heart that is suffering from pain that is brought by the suppressive marriage. Her heart temporarily is ridden of the pain upon the news of her husband’s death but when he reappears the heart problem comes back. This is a clear indication that her suffering is directly affected by her husband. His reappearance symbolizes that the short lived liberation is over and that the repression is back (Para 16).
The irony of the story is that Louise dies a sudden death right after she finds short lived joy. Not that she dies a happy woman but that a sad one at that because her heart trouble is back. She dies from disappointment and shock all put together. When satisfaction is not achieved, sadness creeps in and it is the silent monster that kills happiness and freedom one momentarily enjoys. In Mrs. Mallards case, inner happiness shows that her oppression is over regardless of how it is achieved.
Work Cited
Vcu.edu, Chopin, Cate. The Story of an Hour. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/
