The seemingly oppressive nature that women lived in during the time of "The Story of an Hour" has to be considered in order to grasp the tumultuous emotions and thoughts experienced by the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard. She lives during a time where women weren't allowed to have any sense of power or exercise the act of self-determination for themselves. There was a "patriarchal code" that "favored the husband in all domestic affairs and left women without many legal or fiscal rights". Living in such a time can be very difficult for a women, especially when her spouse has a tyrannical and overbearing personality. Unfortunately, that is not the case of Mr. Mallard, who she happens to express had "kind" and "tender hands" and "never looked save with love upon her". Mrs. Mallard's demise after realizing that her husband was in fact alive and well, is a direct result of the inherent selfish nature she possesses and the self-centered thoughts that stems from it. The "monstrous joy that held her" after ruminating of a life without a husband was described for her as "drinking in the very elixir of life". That elixir ultimately proved to be poisonous.
             Mrs. Mallard's viewpoint on marriage and love in general is not a positive one at best. She deems it in disparaging terms. She sees the union as "a powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature" (206). She regards love as trivial when compared to "self-assertion" which she considers "the strongest impulse of her being". Yet, she admits that she did love him "sometimes", which she acknowledged with the grief that she expressed upon realizing the news of her husband's demise. Nevertheless, she quickly overcame that with the thoughts of her future in which she has independence and can express free will.
             Although women didn't have a strong voice in the male dominant society of the time, she nev...