One indication of the protagonist's oppression is in the first sentence where she is named "Mrs. Mallard". Her husband is given a first name, but the protagonist's first name isn't revealed until much later in the story; she is only referred to as the wife of Brently Mallard. Later, as she is processing the "death" of her husband, Louise describes marriage as a "crime" -  "[a] powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature."  She admits that her husband wasn't really cruel to her, but just the fact that she had a husband stripped her of her identity and will. And then the conclusion of the story hits home the tragedy of Mrs. Mallard's role as a woman when again, the existence of her husband deprives her of life.
             She is introduced as "Mrs. Mallard" and referred to as "she" for most of the narrative. Only when Louise has become "free! Body and soul free!" is she addressed directly in the text and by her own name. But this denomination, as well as the change it embodies, is short-lived. Louise's status as "wife" is reestablished at once in the story's language and in Louise's life when Brently comes in "view of his wife."
             She is invisible and marginalized by virtue of her sex and married state, and if Josephine or Richards were to be asked, she might call her "my sister"  or by her husband's name.  They would not be likely to see her as a separate entity and would be surprised by her desire to been seen as separate and free from her husband.
             Mrs. Mallard, the main character of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," is an unhappy woman who has been oppressed by the institution of marriage and longs for a life of independence. There is a freedom that she desires but cannot obtain while she is married. Although her husband, Brent, is a kind and loving man, he is the cause of her repression, and although Mrs. Mall...