A Woman in Mourning for Her Husband or Her Freedom?
A feminist approach to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
For many years in history society has been a place controlled socially, economically, and culturally by the male counterpart in relationships. A woman is first born into a home, given her father’s name, and then later in life marries a man while taking on his last name, and in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” Louise Mallard seems to have lived the life of society’s “perfect wife.”
The Mallard’s seem to be a typical working class family of the late nineteenth century. Not uncommon during the time period, the husband, Brently Mallard, worked to sustain the family economically while the wife stayed home to care for the family. However, when analyzing the story from a feminist approach, it is clear that Louise Mallard is suffering from the oppression placed on her by society and her husband.
The main character of the story is a woman identified simply as Mrs. Mallard. In true form of the typical male dominated society, she is known only by her husband’s name and seemingly has no identity without him. It was not until after the enlightenment of her freedom to come that she was identified by her own name and not as the possession of her husband, and her sister calls for her as “Louise”. She was no longer confined to the role of Brently Mallard’s wife, and therefore was not bound by his name. This is a prime example of society’s interpretation of women as property of their husband.
In addition, from the first line of the story Mrs. Mallard is shown as weak and emotional, the typical stereotypes of women throughout history. Chopin states that “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (199). The statement depicts that she is not strong enough to handle the news of her husband’s passing and implies that it may very well cause her own death when she finds out. Chopin also says that while she was trying to fight the joy she felt rising after the death of her husband she was “as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been” (200). This shows that she was also thought of as weak and small not only in her marriage, but also physically.
In the late nineteenth century and even beyond, marriage meant that the man held all control in the relationship and the woman was submissive to his dominance. It can be assumed that Mrs. Mallard’s life was no different and was comprised of her living in her husband’s life. She states “there would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.” (200) During the years of her marriage, Mr. Mallard probably made every important decision in her life leaving her little opportunity to even think for herself, let alone live her own life. She was “free, free, free!” (200) and ready to experience the freedom her husband’s death brought forth.
Louise Mallard was aware that when attending her husband’s funeral she would weep again and be upset, “but she beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (200) She was ready to conquer a future she did not even want to face in the days prior to her husband’s death. It is not that she did not ever love her husband; it was the idea of living for her that was most appealing.
The story concludes with her husband returning home with no clue an accident even occurred and Louise Mallard dying when she sees him. “When the doctors came they said that she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills” (200) but in the great irony of the story, is this really the case? For many years she was forced to be submissive in her male dominated life and freedom was finally before her so it is much more likely that she died from the heartbreak of realizing life would return to the previous state rather than her being able to live for herself. The liberation that Louise Mallard was unaware she was seeking came with the death of her husband, but disappears at the sight of him coming through the door. In the end, her husband not only controlled her life, but also controlled her death.
