During the first half of the 19th century, women were not allowed to have the same freedom as the men had, it was in the judgment of law, church or government for women not to be able to divorce their husband or win their right to care for their children. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour", Mrs. Louise Mallard, a common house wife found the death of her husband named Brently Mallard, joyful as opposed to feeling sorrow or loneliness. Despite the fact that Mrs. Mallard felt sorrow in the immediate news of her husband's death, her real feelings starts coming out from within when she's alone with her thoughts. The story shows the oppressive nature of marriage and tells a story of what it was like living in their time period.
The introductive section to of the story you can see that Mrs. Mallard is just another ordinary woman with a heartfelt story, who suffered from having heart problems. "Story of an hour" begins with the news of her husband's death, where her sister, Josephine, tells Mrs. Mallard the tragic news. Her husband's friend, Richards, was the first to find out about her husband's death which had occurred on the railroad disaster, he was with Josephine at the time she was revealing the death of Mrs. Mallards husband. Mrs. Mallards reacted to the news like any other wife would react, she became shocked, upset and wept but her grievance was not going to be prolonged. She excused herself to rush upstairs into her room, away from everyone who had come to see her.
In her room where she is alone by herself, her real thoughts and feelings started coming out. Mrs. Mallard was confused when she was by herself, but then she started thinking about her new life, she became happy when she realized that she became free from the chains of marriage and the life spent together with her husband. Mrs. Mallards knew that she was going to cry for her husband at the funeral, but she was thinking about the long years ahead of her.
