Marriage is difficult to master and can often times be a trap instead of a good experience. "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Choplin gives us an excellent example of being trapped inside a marriage. In a time where divorce was unheard of and women were expected to be married and have children. This type of lifestyle for some woman may not be the ideal way of living. Devoting their lives basically for the betterment of the family, could feel much like a trap that as a wife are stuck with for the rest of their life.
It seems that Mrs. Mallard, the main character in the story, is one such woman who indeed felt trapped in a marriage and life that she did not want. When she first heard the news of her husband's death, like any normal wife or person at that matter, she grieves at her sister's side for a moment and goes off to her room. There, she sits peacefully, replaying everything that has just happened. As the thoughts race through her mind, she cannot help but feel somewhat relieved. As her heart begins to race she releases the simple word, "free". She feels utterly and completely free to do as she pleases now that her husband is dead. .
In those times, arrange marriages were not unlikely to happen. Love was not something that was necessarily achieved when one married. The true feelings that Mrs. Mallard felt for her husband were revealed in this next sentence. "She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed gray and dead and yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not." She obviously had some feelings of affection for her husband, but they were not strong enough to keep the marriage alive. She still loved him as a man, but he was never her real true love. This was not an uncommon situation many women found themselves in at that time. .
This is where being trapped in marriage is like being trapped in life.
