It is harder than it seems to try and break the bars that lock married women in a patriarchal society. Being a married woman in a patriarchal society is equal to lacking spiritual freedom, and social and economic freedom. Literary works like Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” try to criticize the overrated and over-glorified structure called marriage. The short stories mirror how married women feel oppressed in an institution that is supposed to give them happiness according to society. The main character, Louise Mallard, is an example of a woman who yearns to be free and independent because marriage seems to oppress her. There are too many standards and expectations from a wife that married women cannot even breathe. The only time such women can be happy and feel alive is when they are widowed. Contrary to what society would expect of a widow. Louise Mallard mourns her husband for a little time, and it dawns on her that she is free. Although she is sick heart disease, which is most likely a result of the depression in marriage and dies at the of the story, Louise is happy for a moment because she thinks she is no longer married. In essence, Chopin’s story makes some readers uncomfortable because it mocks the overrated marriage institution in a patriarchal society by showing the happiness of a short-lived widowhood.
Chopin creatively mocks the marriage institution for oppressing women in marriage and leaving them in a state where they crave to be free at all costs, including becoming a widow. Analyzing the story from feminist lens, the inequality that exists in marriage makes married women unhappy and oppressed. Louise Mallard shows how marriage makes women dependent and lacks freedom to a point that any chance to have a little freedom and independence is welcomed. Louise Mallard becomes happy a short period after she gets the news that she is a widow because she realizes that she is “free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). When Chopin uses the phrases “free body and soul free” to help Mallard emphasize her feeling and attitude toward the death of her husband, some readers get uncomfortable. Readers who over-rate marriage by setting so high standards for women to meet and make marriages work would be uncomfortable to realize that the death of the head of the house makes a wife happy. The mockery that Chopin raises is towards the roles of a man in the marriage. The man is ideally supposed to protect, profess love and provide for his wife. On the contrary, Mallard’s husband and other husbands in the patriarchal harm their wives mentally, physical and psychological rather than protecting them. Their providence for their wives is in exchange for the fundamental human right, freedom. No, they fail to profess enough love in marriage, and that is why when Mallard ‘dies’, Louise feels that her body and soul are freed. The patriarchal society would not want to view marriage from this perspective and agree that the definition of roles in marriage favour husbands and oppress wives. Ultimately, such a mockery piece towards the marriage institution would not have thrived well in the male-dominated society that over glorifies marriage.
Also, Chopin points out the unknown truth that the over-glorified institution, famously known as marriage, confines women in a dangerous mental state that leaves them more addicted to their pain than being willing to heal and change their lives. Chopin uses symbolism to show the stagnation of women in a marriage that drags behind the process of self-liberation. When Louise Mallard cries and gets lost in the imagination of herself mourning over Brentley’s body, she symbolizes the low capacity of women to embrace freedom and feminism because they are so used to being oppressed and confined by societal standards set for married women. It is undeniable that when an individual experiences continuous pain, they tend to get addicted to pain and resist change. It gets harder to embrace change, especially when the individuals live in a society that praises them for enduring all the unnecessary pain in the name of saving their marriage. When Louise Mallard weeps first before realizing that she is free, she shows her addiction to the pain caused by marriage that is defined by patriarchy and misogyny. She is so used to the pain that she does not want it to end because it disrupts her normalcy as a married woman. Similarly, the second time she only thinks about weeping over her husband’s body. “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death.” (Chopin. Pg. 2). Chopin uses irony to mock the evil patriarchal society by describing Brentley’s dead body organs as kind and tender. She knows well that Brentley was not as kind and tender because evidently when Louise rejoices over being free body and soul, it means that the presence of her husband was not really full of kindness and tenderness. In this manner, the heads of houses, husbands, are mocked for messing up with the mental well-being of their wives. Therefore, even as feminists push forward the agenda of gender equality, Chopin will blandly blame the patriarchal society for making some women unwilling to support their own liberation. The normal life of these women, as they have been taught, is to endure pain and save their marriages, and they are addicted to the pain, just like Louise Mallard is addicted to the pain that she thinks of herself crying. Readers who support patriarchy and over-glorify the standards of the marriage institution do not openly subscribe to the channel of Chopin’s thoughts. In the patriarchal society, Louise will be expected to cry, not to think of herself crying, and feel helpless and hopeless because the driver of her life is gone. Therefore she would luck direction in life. However, in reality, it is only hard for her to let go of the pain and trauma, not a matter of really losing a husband.
Lastly, the climax of Chopin’s story is satire and sarcasm that mocks the patriarchal society for overrating the role of the husband in a marriage institution. At the end of the story, Louise Mallard dies “of heart disease– of joy that kills.”(Chopin, Pg. 3). society gives the man more responsibility in marriage because women are not equal to men. In this case, Brentley’s presence after being thought to have died would have been a relief to Louise. However, his presence and the fact that he is alive is the cause of Louise Mallard’s death because it escalates her heart condition. If indeed marriage is an achievement for women, then Brentley being alive would have healed Louise because it means that she maintains her glory of being a married woman. However, Chopin uses sarcasm to say that, a husband being alive is joy, as viewed by the society, but to the oppressed wife, that joy, kills them. Therefore when she ends the story with the idea that a husband who is thought to be dead is alive and the wife dies because she wished that he should have been truly dead, it becomes problematic to the readers who embrace marriage and patriarchy.
Conclusively, Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” makes some readers uncomfortable because it mocks the overrated marriage institution in a patriarchal society by showing the happiness of a short-lived widowhood. Chopin creatively mocks the marriage institution for oppressing women in marriage and leaving them in a state where they crave to be free at all costs including becoming a widow. Also, Chopin blames the patriarchal society for making women addicted to the pain that they are encouraged to endure in marriage. Lastly, the climax of Chopin’s story is satire and sarcasm that mocks the patriarchal society for over rating the role of the husband in a marriage institution
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Story Of An Hour. 1894.
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