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Samantha Ames

Professor Belyi

Communications 2

20 January 2019

Societal Repression of Women

“The Story of an Hour” and “Sweat” both emphasize how Societal Repression cause

women to be crushed beneath their expected roles and squander their true potential. Though Mrs.

Mallard and Delia come from different demographic backgrounds, the roles they play as the

woman in their relationship causes them to be unhappy and unfulfilled. Neither woman lived a

fairytale life full of love and happiness. Both woman had expectations to submit to their

husbands no matter their economic contributions, great or small.

In “The Story of an Hour” the author, Kate Chopin emphasized that there was not always

love in Mrs. and Mr.Mallard’s relationship. She wrote, “And yet she had loved him-sometimes.

Often she had not” (49). This shows that during this period of repression women were often

stuck in unhappy relationships and sometimes they were the secondary deciding force as well. At

the prospects of being alone and free, Mrs. Mallard began envisioning her life with, “...no

powerful will bending hers…” (49). Mrs. Mallard was relieved at the probability of her

husband’s death. She could be free without losing everything in a divorce, including her dignity

as a dutiful woman. The archetype in which she was expected to behave as made her friends and

family expect her to mourn her beloved husband. Little did they know, all she wanted was out of

the archetype of dutiful housewife. She wanted to be her own person, tied to no one. This shows
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that societal repression causes women to never meet their full potential because expectations

only serve to limit their capabilities.

In “Sweat” the author, Zora Neale Hurston, cleverly uses foreshadowing to bring more

significance to the ironic death of Delia Jones’ abusive husband, Sykes. In the beginning of the

story Hurston shows that Sykes has power over Delia by highlighting her fear of snakes. She

wrote, “‘Sykes, what you throw that whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me-looks

just like a snake, an’ you know how skeered ah is of snakes’”(139). In many ways, Sykes makes

a great effort to go out of his way to terrorize his wife. Not only did he scare her with the snake

but he also, beat her, cheated on her, humiliated her, and made her work more difficult to

complete. Yet, Delia got her turn to be the one with the power in the moment of Sykes’ death

when he was bitten by a snake, an echo of Delia’s own fears in the beginning. Sykes pleaded for

her help as he crawled towards her, but she did not deign to answer after the years of abuse and

suppression (148). She was finally free of her role because now Sykes was the one who is weak.

As a dutiful wife who loved her husband she would have been expected to at least help him but

alas she did not love him- she hated him. All these years of marriage Delia worked hard and was

the main money earner of the marriage while Sykes used his role as a man to take advantage of

her and use her money how he pleased, even if it were on another woman.

Both Mrs. Mallard and Delia were the suppressed voices in their marriages. Both of their

stories was a tragedy because they were ultimately defeated by tragic flaws. For Mrs. Mallard it

was her weak heart that failed when she realized her husband was alive and she would not be

free. For Delia it wasn’t her love but rather whom she had tried to love that made her life

miserable. Had women been given greater, or equal power in a society perhaps they could have
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successfully sought their own freedom and happiness through divorce, or finding a fulfilling

occupation in Mrs.Mallard’s case.

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Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” ​40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology​. 4th ed. Ed.

Beverly Lawn. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012. Print

Hurston, Zora Neale. “Sweat.” ​40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology. 4th ed. Ed. Beverly

Lawn. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012. Print