Many generations of women have succumbed to the idea that they are subordinate to men, many cultures reinforce the falsehoods that women are weak, unimportant and in many cases even seen as mere possessions. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin turns a disapproving eye toward the Creole culture of the late 19th century, examining the merit of women and the chains of marriage and a male-oriented society. A seemingly frail Louise Mallard transforms the sadness she experiences due to the untimely death of her husband into a satisfying sense of liberation, a celebration of her escape from a repressed lifestyle and her first true chance at freedom within a restricted society.

Mrs. Mallard was more than likely forced into an arranged marriage, unable to make any decisions concerning her life. She contemplates the death of her husband Brently while looking out an open window and eventually realizes that it is for herself she must live and for no one else, “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself” (Chopin 14). She does experience grief at the loss of her husband but more powerful, almost overwhelming is her hope for the future, “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (Chopin 13). She is free from all the restrictions of marriage, possessing more freedom now as a widow, she states that love holds no bearing to “this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (Chopin 15).

Chopin presents social commentary through the thoughts of her character. Mrs. Mallard is no longer forced to bend her will to her husband’s, she is seeing things clearly for the first time and doesn’t think it is right for men and women to impose their own will upon someone else (Chopin 14). She directs this statement towards men who have control over their wives and property, saying that it is women who are being imposed upon. Mrs. Mallard is no longer under the influence anyone else, she repeats the word “free” over and over again and whispers “Free! Body and soul Free!” (Chopin 16).

Mrs. Mallard sees hope for a new life, she begins to imagine the life ahead of her without the bindings she had been held by her entire life, “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days would be her own” (Chopin 18). Now she was in control of her own destiny, she was going to live how she wanted to live, “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (Chopin 20).

Just as Mrs. Mallard embraces her new destiny and experiences never before known optimism and happiness about her life a twist in the plot brings her new recognition to a swift end. She now hopes that her life is long so that she may experience her freedom to the fullest, this was not the case when she was married, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday that she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 19). This event changed her entire perception of life, when confined she saw no future for herself, no opportunity and in one short hour she discovered her true self and that revitalized her will to live!

When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband walking through the front door she is in such shock and dismay that her life ends on the spot, the life that had truly just begun, her newly found freedom was completely devastated by the return of her husband. No one in the story understood Louise or exactly why she died when she saw her husband come in the door, they had no knowledge of the transformation she had undertook in her last hour, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills” (Chopin 23). She more likely died because of the return of her oppressor, the lost hope of her escape and the ironic demise of her newly deemed freedom.

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