Marriage: concepts, history, and social significance

¶ … marriage is portrayed in the story. Kate Chopin's work is known for its portrayal of strong, interesting women, and this short story is no exception. Louise Mallard tastes freedom for just a moment and it is one of the happiest moments of her life. Clearly, her marriage is not a happy one, and Chopin seems to be saying marriage is constrictive and demeaning to women. Perhaps this and her other stories that discuss marriage are based on her own and her mother's experiences.

Kate O'Flaherty Chopin was born into a wealthy but unhappy family in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850. Her mother was nearly 30 years younger than her father was, and he was a gruff, controlling man who sent Kate away to boarding school when she was only five. The family kept slaves, and there is speculation that her father, Thomas, fathered at least two children with the slave women of the family (Toth 6-8). There is a startling similarity between her mother's life and the life of Mrs. Mallard, which leads the reader to believe Kate was writing about her mother when she composed this short story. In 1855, Kate's father was riding a train as it took the inaugural run over a new bridge. The bridge collapsed, and Thomas O'Flaherty was one of the men killed in the accident. This left her mother a wealthy widow at the age of only 27. As one author notes, "Widows controlled their property, as wives did not; widows also had legal control of their own children, as wives did not" (Toth 9). Thus, Kate's mother took control of her children and her own life, and lived "happily ever after." In addition, Kate then returned home from boarding school, that was one of the first things her mother did after gaining control of the family, and grew up in a house dominated by strong, opinionated women. It influenced her life, her writings, and her outlook on life - especially marriage.

When she was twenty, Kate married Oscar Chopin, and settled in New Orleans with him. She gave birth to six children, and Oscar died in 1882, from yellow fever, leaving Kate widowed and alone with six children at the age of thirty-two. She tried to take care of them on her own, but eventually moved back to St. Louis to live with her mother. Thus, her own marriage, although happy, ended in tragedy, just like this short story. Author Toth continues, "The Story of an Hour' can be read as the story of Eliza O'Flaherty's marriage, the submission of a young woman to someone else's will. It can also be read as a criticism of marriage itself, as an institution that traps women" (Toth 10). Thus, Chopin bases the story on experiences she had as a young woman, and it seems as if it tells the story of her mother, with a fatal twist at the end of the story. Chopin writes fiction, but it is based in reality, and that may be one reason it is so memorable.

Chopin writes of marriage as if it were a trap for women, but also as if it is a disappointment, because men do not understand women, or what they want out of life (Toth 182). She alludes to this disappointment in the story when she writes, "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination" (Chopin 260). Mrs. Mallard says she loved her husband "sometimes" but his imposition over her was a disappointment and a sign of stress in the marriage. She would have been far happier to be free, and she could taste freedom. When it was snatched away from her, the only thing she could do was to die, because it is clear she could not live under his "private will" any longer. This is a sad statement about marriage and partnership, and it indicates Chopin's own feelings about marriage, as well as established marriage patterns of the time.

After her husband died, Kate successfully ran his business for two years, but eventually returned to St. Louis with her family. A year after she returned, her mother died. After this, she slipped into depression and suffered a nervous breakdown. Her doctor suggested she write to help her recover, and that is when she seriously began to write. By the 1890s, she was writing short stories, poetry, and even translations (Ryan 253). She was also writing stories that many other women writers avoided. She wrote of affairs, unhappy marriages, suicide, and male dominance over women, which distanced her from many of the other writers of the day, who wrote of more "common" female topics, like home and family (Thomas 20). Thus, she created controversy with her stories, and with her own lifestyle. She never married again, but did engage in affairs. She also managed her own writing career while raising her children, which was an usual way for a woman to live in the late Victorian era. Kate Chopin was unusual, and so were her short stories, the Story of an Hour included.

It is easy to see why Chopin appeared unusual. Victorian women were supposed to stay at home, take care of the family, and allow their husbands total control over the income and other business. Often, like Edna Ponteiller in her novel the Awakening, they had servants who did just about everything in the house, leaving the women little to do other than make calls, gossip, or do needlework. It sounds like an empty life, and a woman like Chopin would have found it extremely boring and empty. In New Orleans, she took solitary walks, and even smoked cigars as she walked, which was unheard of for a woman of her day (Toth 67). Kate was an unusual woman, raised by a household of unusual women, and so she did not conform to society's mold of a woman. Indeed, she did not write about women who conformed to society, as Mrs. Mallard clearly indicates. Most women would never have admitted their feelings of freedom after losing their husbands, and Mrs. Mallard covers up those feelings when she emerges from her room. Nevertheless, the feelings were there, and the reader knows about them. Mrs. Mallard is different, just as Kate Chopin was different.

Traditional marriage and family would not seem to have appealed to Kate, but they did. However, her married life was not easy, and that shows in her story. While she and her husband loved each other, she gave birth to six children in twelve years, and they were often apart due to work and family issues. Her husband had business problems, and they owed much money, so they had to leave New Orleans and move to a small country town, which Kate was not used to. When he died, the family was deeply in debt and Kate had to work hard to repay the debt and take care of her family. Her situation was difficult, and it had to affect how she looked at marriage and partnership. She also had an affair after her husband died, but never married again, preferring to take care of her needs herself. In this, she was a very unique woman of the time, and so were her heroines.

It is interesting to note, however, that Kate's own husband was nothing like the men in her novels and stories. He loved her, and gave her freedom to do what she wanted, something most women of the time did not enjoy (as her stories illustrate) (Toth 67). Indeed, she had more freedom than most women of the time did. Yet, she saw many other women around her subjugated in unhappy marriages because they had little choice to do anything else. They may have reminded her of her mother's unhappy marriage, and clearly many of her stories, including the Story of an Hour are based on the experiences of her mother and other women in unhappy marriages.

While Chopin writes about the lack of freedom in marriage and for the women of her time, she is really writing about the possibilities for women. She wants women to recognize the things that keep them from reaching happy, satisfied lives, and do something about them. She wants society to change, so women have a voice and a chance at happiness. She knows that marriage can be a fulfilling and loving partnership, and she wants society to recognize this as well. While her stories may seem as if they are anti-marriage and anti-family - they really are not. In fact, Chopin would celebrate good marriages if she could find them. Women of her time were expected to marry rather than have a career or work outside the home. She wanted that to change, and she was a living role model for that change. She married, and was content, but when given her freedom, she chose to keep it and expand on it. She urged other women to do the same thing, and find their own version of happiness and contentment.

Chopin also was raised by a family of strong women, and in turn, grew to be a strong, independent woman herself. She wanted to create the same feelings in her own daughter, and in other women. She was sure of herself, something that many women of her time were not, and she served as a role model for women who wanted to be like her. While she was heavily criticized for many of her works, but when she died in 1904, most critics praised at least some of her work, and called her a "remarkably talented woman" (Toth 239). Today, she is seen as a feminist ahead of her time, who recognized the constraints society placed on women, and wanted to do something about it. One of her last acts was to provide in her will for her only daughter, to make sure she always had an income of her own, and did not have to rely on the men in her life (Toth 237).