Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers"

In Susan Glaspell’s “A  Jury of Her Peers”, the marriage of Martha and Lewis Hale is touched upon but not overly described. Martha Hale is a strong, smart woman who knows and cares about her husband. She reads his cues and knows his faults. Lewis Hale is a farmer. He is not very educated (as evidenced by his speech), he can get things mixed up, can be a little awkward and is quite chauvinistic:  “women are used to worrying over trifles.”p. 193 The marriage seems to be OK but I feel like she is not overly happy and resents the belittling and chauvinism that her husband personifies.  

Kate Chopin on the other hand, is very clear about how Mrs. Mallard feels about her marriage to Mr. Mallard. She is described as been smart and willful; and he is implied to love her. He is indirectly described as been controlling.

In both stories, the sense of being forced to be something they are not, and do not wish to be, is bestowed upon the women by their husbands. Mrs. Mallard is actually joyful that her husband seems to have died, and that she can now be herself and do what she wants to do. Such option is not present in “A Jury of Her Peers” for Mrs. Hale, but her strength and willingness to speak up and act convey to me the idea that she feels constrained and forced to follow expectations thrusted by her husband and society.

I actually struggled with both stories because I was in a verbally and mentally abusive relationship for many years, and know exactly how pretty much all the women form both stories feel. I like to think that I am a willful and strong person, and I am not scared to speak my mind. These traits however did not protect me from getting into an abusive relationship and certainly didn’t help me during its duration. In fact, I receded into a completely submissive, lonely and hopeless state. I am out of that relationship, thank God! But I personally can identify with feeling controlled, asphyxiated and having to conform.