The Story of an Hour - Differences between Men and Women Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" simply seems to explore a woman's unpredictable reaction to her husband's supposed death and reappearance, but in reality Chopin proposes the bizarre story of Mrs. Mallard to reveal the problems inherent in the institution of marriage. Offering this depiction of a marriage that suffocates the woman to the point of celebrating the death of her kind and loving husband. Chopin challenges his readers to examine their own views on marriage and relationships between men and women. Each reader's judgment of Mrs. Mallard and her behavior inevitably stems from his or her personal feelings about marriage and the influences of social expectations. Readers of different genders, ages, and marital experiences are therefore likely to react differently to Chopin's striking portrayal of the Mallard marriage, and this is certainly true of my response to the story compared to those of my father and grandmother. Marriage often establishes boundaries between people that make them unable to communicate with each other. The Mallards' marriage was evidently crippled both by their inability to speak to each other and by Mrs. Mallard's belief that her marriage was defined by a "powerful will which bent hers into that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have the right to impose a law". private will on a fellow man." However, he fails to recognize that it is not only men who impose their will on women and that the problems inherent in marriage affect men and women equally. To me, Mrs. Mallard is a rather sympathetic and I appreciate his desire to live outside… in the middle of the paper… to relate more easily to her difficult situation and to be more ready to exonerate her from any responsibility for his unhappy situation. In contrast, male readers are more likely feel sympathy for Mr. Mallard, who loses his wife for reasons that will always remain completely unknown to him. Older readers probably understand more easily the strength of social forces and the difficulty of trying to deny social expectations regarding gender roles in in general and to marriage in particular. Younger readers seem to feel that Mrs. Mallard is too passive and that she could have improved her home life greatly if she had taken the initiative to improve or end her relationship with her husband. Ultimately, how each individual reader responds to Mrs. Mallard's story reveals their own ideas about marriage, society, and how men and women communicate with each other.