Marriage is one of the most common known traditions that has occurred for over centuries. The views on marriage remain dissimilar among different cultures and have changed over the periods of time. To demonstrate, in the narratives ¨The Story of an Hour¨ and ¨A Jury of Her Peers¨ these short stories give us insight on some perspectives of marriage life back in the day. Both of these deal with women who feel trapped by the ways of marriage, such as by their companion. People marry for different reasons, but the question that society should be asking; is it still an important institution? Marriage is not deemed as valuable today as it once was, but in ways has changed for the better. Women now hold more independence and voice of opinion in their
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This story reveals the thoughts of a woman [Mrs. Mallard] after she is notified that her husband has passed away in a railroad incident. Many would grasp this news and grieve the loss of their loved one, and this is exactly what Mrs. Mallard does, at least for a short period of time. Until it registers in her mind that she can now be self-governing woman. In the story, while Mrs. Mallard is mourning it is said, ¨But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely¨ (Chopin 525). This goes to show that in those times women were merely house slaves. Their main concern was caring for the men, the house, yet not themselves. This statement advises us of how she realized it was a privilege that the accident occured because she is now capable of living life in her own terms and not having to live up to those of her companion. What we can distinguish from this is that even though she was in love with her husband, she was also in love with the vision of freedom. Marriage can sometimes take certain personal freedoms away. In those times (in which this story was written) women barely held freedom as it was let alone when they became married.
¨A Jury of Her Peers¨ was written by Susan Glaspell during the early 1900´s. The era of the story shows us a farmers wife [Mrs. Wright] who is overworked with domestic chores, the setting also helps us establish the sexism of the time frame. To illustrate, while the husbands discuss the issues taking place in the story they mock the women for their talk of whether or not she was going to knot
This story reveals the thoughts of a woman [Mrs. Mallard] after she is notified that her husband has passed away in a railroad incident. Many would grasp this news and grieve the loss of their loved one, and this is exactly what Mrs. Mallard does, at least for a short period of time. Until it registers in her mind that she can now be self-governing woman. In the story, while Mrs. Mallard is mourning it is said, ¨But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely¨ (Chopin 525). This goes to show that in those times women were merely house slaves. Their main concern was caring for the men, the house, yet not themselves. This statement advises us of how she realized it was a privilege that the accident occured because she is now capable of living life in her own terms and not having to live up to those of her companion. What we can distinguish from this is that even though she was in love with her husband, she was also in love with the vision of freedom. Marriage can sometimes take certain personal freedoms away. In those times (in which this story was written) women barely held freedom as it was let alone when they became married.
¨A Jury of Her Peers¨ was written by Susan Glaspell during the early 1900´s. The era of the story shows us a farmers wife [Mrs. Wright] who is overworked with domestic chores, the setting also helps us establish the sexism of the time frame. To illustrate, while the husbands discuss the issues taking place in the story they mock the women for their talk of whether or not she was going to knot