Essay Sample on the Theme of Oppression in Marriage in The Story Of An Hour

Marriage is covenant where couples commit themselves to each other for lifetime despite the tough times that it may come with. The ultimate goal of marriage is for companionship and to bring happiness to one another. But sometimes marriage may take a different dimension where one of the couple oppresses the other. This deprives freedom of someone that he or she yearns for the day that independence would appear again in their prison like life. This is not different with what Kate Chopin is trying to reveal in the The Story of an Hour.

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Chopin reveals that all marriages even the kindest ones are naturally oppressive. Louise feels a lot of joy when she believes that the husband has died despite her admitting that he was loving and kind. When Josephine and Richards reveal Brentlys death to Louise, she reacts with a lot of grief and despite that her reaction is more violent than other womens reactions, it is a suitable one. Her reaction does not put forward any wickedness and she knows that she would cry at her husbands funeral.

The couples loved each other so much but despite this love, Louise felt like her husbands death was a release from the prison and oppression that she had faced for a long period. While alone, it comes to Louises senses that she is now a free and independent woman. This kind of thought excites and enlivens her a lot. All these thoughts of having a free life were her private thoughts. But despite her thoughts being private, she tries to stifle the happiness she feels at the moment, to beat it back with her will. This kind of resistance showcases how forbidden this pleasure of happiness and freedom really is. Finally she is able to acknowledge the joy of being free from the oppression and feels possessed by it. Louises life proposes no shelter for this kind of happiness and the whole society around her will never understand or accept it. Brentlys death has given Louise a test of this forbidden fruit.

There is no specific way that she mentions she was oppressed but in general the whole story gives us a reason to believe that marriage stifles both men and women. She even goes ahead to reveal to us that she was less oppressed by her husband than she oppressed Brently. This is evident in the current world where women are taking over power and in this process of their empowerment men are being oppressed. The epiphany of Louise in which many thoughts parade through her mind exposes the oppressiveness that many marriages face nowadays which by nature deprive the parties involved their independence. Despite her thoughts being so extreme, Louise sees her whole life as being completely hers and her new freedom as the central part of her being.

Being overwhelmed Louise turns even to prayer hoping that she could have a long life to enjoy her forbidden fruit. This showcases that all her life she had been looking forward to this day where she could be free. This is the case in the modern marriages where couples yearn for freedom and this goes to extents where some propose for divorces. The author shows us that this kind of freedom can lead to death when deprived of. This is evident when Louise dies after just a little time of enjoying the forbidden joy when her husband appears. Although doctors conclusion was that she died from overwhelming joy, it seems Louise died from a broken heart which was caused by her abrupt loss of her much loved freedom. Therefore the author managed to bring home the point of oppression in marriages.