Marriage In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

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Marriage is seen as one of the most beautiful things that two people can agree upon. Marriage is where two people who are in love agree to commit to be together through thick and thin for the rest of their lives. Although marriage is a very beautiful moment in life it does not necessarily mean that the people in the marriage are happy. In American society marriage comes across a very beautiful moment but also it comes across of a tie down. In American society many people feel that in marriage you are not free or you will no longer be able to do anything you prolong wanted or simply you cannot be yourself. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard undergoes series of emotions once she finds out her husband had died. However one …show more content…

As Chopin mentions, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with shudder that life might be long”(497). Just the thought of having a long life in your marriage makes you shudder shows that Mrs. Mallard was not happy in her marriage. Mrs. Mallard was happy about living a long life once she accepted the fact of freedom once her husband died. As Cathryn Hunter mentions, “The serious and wide-ranging negative effects that relationship distress can have on individuals”(55). The relationship distress played a toll on Mrs. Mallard mainly because although she was sad that her husband death, she could not help but feel free. In “The Story of an Hour”, freedom was only allowed in your private thoughts. Meaning that you could of only dreamed of being free or finding yourself. In American society, marriage is seen as a time of your life where you do not live for yourself but for someone else. Marriage is seen as a place where you depend on your significant other for happiness or self-actualization. In marriage gender inequality is occurring. Mrs. Mallard undergo a confusion of emotions of feeling free and sadness once her husband passes

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