Beautiful Death The Story of an Hour focuses attention to the role women assumed in the nineteenth century. Men almost dominated women and limited the wives to the boring repetitious duties of cleaning and cooking. The main character of the story, Mrs. Mallard, bears the same cross. However, Chopin writes, "And yet she had loved him - sometimes"(186), revealing Mrs. Mallard's love her husband despite oppression. Chopin writes regarding Mr. Mallard's feelings, "The face that …showed first 75 words of 1556 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1556 total…an Hour bestows a message of hope, optimism and freedom. A woman trapped in the institute of marriage, bored by the tedious trifles of everyday life, oppressed by her loving husband, and dreading a long lasting life finally finds peace. Her peace arrives with death by a heart attack. Everything she longed for arrives in death; she reaches freedom from work, responsibility and marriage. Mrs. Mallard leans death can save and death can set free.