Story Of an Hour
The story details the events of one hour during which a woman learns of her husband's death and is thinking of all that she would do now that she is free and at the end finds that he is alive and the death of her hope causes her own death.
In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin has introduced a character, Mrs. Millard, who relishes the freedom after her husband's death and dies when her husband returns in the end of the book. This relates to many women who actually undergo a two sided feeling at the time of their husband's death. Chopin understood all aspects of a women's psyche and brought out the feelings of women and wrote numerous literatures focusing on the intimate desires and feelings of a woman. In an age where women were of no importance, Chopin wrote to educate others that women have feelings and are not just vegetables.
The story had a profound impact on readers as it conveyed the feelings of many married women who may not be entirely unhappy in their marriage yet feel restricted in some way. They feel that they could have done so much more had they not married, if they had been without all these restrictions. They could spread their wings and fly to their favorite destinations if they had stayed unmarried. Marriage despite all its so-called bliss is still a very restrictive union that clips a woman's wings sometimes because of the children, sometimes because she...
Millard, who is happy to know that her husband is not alive anymore as this gives her an opportunity to anything that she wishes to do like join some classes, learn new skills and simply enjoy life for her sake. This is important story to most reader because we have all seen many women around us who feel restricted by their marriages and what is so surprising is the fact that in many cases, their marriages are not apparently bad or abusive.
In the same way, we see that Mrs. Millard doesn't complain of her marriage being bad. She is just happy that she is no longer restricted by the institution of marriage. She wants to be free and that's how many married women feel even though they do not complain of their marriages being bad in any sense. I therefore feel that Chopin was able to capture a feeling so deep that only a woman of her caliber and
wisdom could do that. A man can never understand these feelings but only a woman knows what another woman goes through when such restrictions are placed on her. "Then she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" this is exactly how many married women would feel if they finally get some freedom. It must be understood here that a marriage need not be bad in the ordinary sense for it to be restrictive.
Many women feel like they have been caged by the restrictions a marriage places on their lives. This is how Louise feels too. There was so much she wanted to do and to achieve but couldn't do it because of her marriage and the responsibilities it had placed on her shoulders. She wants to live for herself but is unable to do that because people expect her to live for her kids and for her husband. She doesn't have a life of…
