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   scarletpimpernel Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   This question depends solely on whose perspective you choose.  Chopin certainly did not intend for Mrs. Mallard to be characterized as a selfish monster.  In fact, the author's book The Awakening was such a strong treatise for women's rights that it was banned from libraries during Chopin's time.  So, in writing "The Story of an Hour," Chopin was hoping to portray someone who was so stifled in her marriage that after the initial shock of hearing that her husband was dead had dissipated, she began to think of the freedom she would now have.

   However, when a modern reader, used to equality for women, reads the story, Mrs. Mallard's gradual reaction to her husband's death seems distasteful and inexplicable.  We are not accustomed to women being trapped in loveless marriages--now people get divorces or find other ways to express their independence.  Mrs. Mallard did not have such options; so her husband's death was ironically the start of life for her.

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   http://www.enotes.com/story-hour/historical-context

   http://www.enotes.com/story-hour/summary

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   Posted by scarletpimpernel on Friday September 25, 2009 at 5:29 PM