Can someone please read over and critique my essay for school?

Question

It's for a college course. I had to write about "The Story of an Hour" By Kate Chopin, and write an essay about how Mrs. Mallards actions tell us alot about the lives and roles of women in the 1800's. Here's a link to the story, for those of you who haven't read it.

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/

And here's my paper.

Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” greatly depicts the role of women in their society. Set in the late 1800’s, the main character, Mrs. Mallard, is a perfect example of the typical woman in this time period. The news of her husbands tragic death would fill most with a sense of depression, however Mrs. Mallard feels somewhat relieved. She finally feels as if she has the freedom she’s been deprived of for so long. This freedom means so much to her, that upon finding that her husband is, in fact, alive, her sorrow leads to her death. As she sits alone in her room, and stares out the window, she comes to new realizations. It is these thoughts and feelings and her management of her tragic loss that tells readers so much about the lives of women in the time periods and societies in which they reside.

Upon hearing that her husband has passed, Mrs. Mallard takes leave of her friends and goes to be alone in her bedroom. She is there for only an hour, but in this hour, her life seems to change. She feels as though she should be sad that her husband is no longer with her, but she cannot deny that intense joy that seems to flood through her body. “Free, free, free!” (pg.198) She repeats these words several times. Free. To Mrs. Mallard, this word means so much more. It means happiness, independence, truly living. She becomes excited, as she stars to think about a new day, and the very near future that will “belong to her absolutely.” (pg. 198) It is as if she was a bird locked away in a cage, and someone left the door open for her to fly free for the first time. This gives one great insight to the lives of women in the 1800’s. Obviously, Mrs. Mallard has little freedom in her household and feels as if she is being held down. Single women lived to become married, and married women lived for their husbands, not for themselves. When Mr. Mallard is believed to have passed away, Mrs. Mallard knew that she is now free to do as she pleases.

The relationship between men and women during the 1800’s was one that gave women very limited freedom. Women were bound to the household and were responsible for cooking, cleaning and making sure that everything was prepared and ready for her husband when he got home from work. From early childhood, women were taught how to become the perfect housewife, and the perfect mother. Peer pressure from society lead them to believe that there was nothing else, and women kept this goal to maintain the status quo. After marriage, all of a woman’s belongings then became possessions of her husbands. More important than that, however, was that the woman also became part of her husbands property. Being unable to work at the time, and once married, women would have little time to enjoy to themselves, as so much of it was devoted to their husbands and households. Mrs. Mallard wishes for something different. She wishes to be out on her own. To live her life the way she wants to. This freedom that she acquires brings new meaning to her life, and gives it new value. It means so much that her life is in fact ended, when her husband walks through the door an hour later. She dies right there in front of him, the minute he comes home and she realizes that all of this would go away, and that her life would return to normal. The doctors said that she had died of “joy that kills,” (pg. 199) implying that Mrs. Mallard had been so happy to see her husband alive, that she died. The irony in this is that it was, in fact, her sorrow that had killed her.

Today, things have changed drastically, however. Previously, if a girl was not married off at a young age, she was viewed on by society as an outcast. In today’s culture, many women never marry, and there is nothing wrong with that. Divorce is available for women now, which would have greatly pleased Mrs. Mallard, who felt so trapped, that she believed that nothing short of death could set her free. With equal opportunities, and a new respect for women, there is no ownership and no pressure from society to act a certain way. Women are free. Free to do as they wish, free to think as they’d like, free to dress in any way, and free to work. Given the information from the story, and based off of Mrs. Mallards views and dreams and her desire for her own independence, it can clearly be stated that Mrs. Mallard would have been much happier living in these far more contemporary times where she could have more independence, more rights, and more freedom.


THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DO THIS!

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

You spend the first two paragraphs rehashing the story and the last two giving us your impression of women -- then vs now. You relate a single moment in Mallard's existence in one sentence of the middle of the essay. Do you think you did a good job?

Answer 2

i think you did really good on it:)

Answer 3

wow! thats a good paper!

Answer 4

that was excellent!