In the short story "The Story of an Hour," author Kate Chopin illustrates how gender roles were very traditionally defined in the late Victorian society. Women were very dependent upon men during this time period, and a life outside of marriage was highly unrealistic. A woman's place was in the home taking care of her family and the home itself. Many women of this era often fantasized secretly about their independence and freedom from the confines of marriage. This story depicts women having this kind of fantasy when its protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, discovers that her husband has unexpectedly died in a train accident. In the span of an hour, Mrs. Mallard finds herself moving quickly through a gamut of emotions; from grief and fear, to guilt, and finally to joy.
Typical Victorian women in the late nineteenth century were often presented as fragile. This is evident by the opening sentence when Chopin writes, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard [is] afflicted with a heart trouble, great care [is] taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death" (Chopin 54). Because of her weakened heart her husband's friend, Richards, wants to be there when she receives the news to make sure she does not hear it from "any less careful, less tender friend" (Chopin 54). Richards enlists the help of Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine to assist in presenting the tragic news to Mrs. Mallard.
Although the narrator initially presents Mrs. Mallard as weak and fragile, she does not react to the news of her husband's death as many women of the era would. The reader gets a glimpse of this point in the story that Mrs. Mallard is unlike the typical Victorian housewife, because "she [does] not hear the story as many women have heard the same" (Chopin 54). She is not paralyzed with shock. Instead, she begins to cry immediately with "wild abandonment" (Chopin 54).
