The legal status of free women in 1894 depended on their marital status.  Unmarried women had more legal rights and freedom while married women didn’t have autonomy but had some legal rights.  They were dependent on their husbands most of the time and together they were considered one person in the law.  Society also expected women to obtain certain characteristics and roles separate from men.  Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” reveals these legal rights and status of women in several ways.  As time passed, certain acts were passed to give married women more rights that were equivalent to single women. 

Unmarried women possessed a numerous amount of legal rights that married women couldn’t possess.  They had the legal right to live where they pleased and to support themselves in any job that didn’t require a license or college degree restricted to males.  They could buy and sell real estate, enter into contracts, obtain personal property, sue and be sued, write wills, serve as guardians, and act as executors of estates.  

Married women didn’t have the same amount of freedom or rights as unmarried women did.  Married women didn’t have autonomy but still had legal rights.  They were almost totally dependent on their husbands which the law called coverture.  This means that “by marriage, the husband and wife were considered one person in the law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs everything” (Salmon).  This dramatically limited the rights of the woman going from unmarried to married.  It is also assumed that a family would function best if the male was head of the house and controlled every part of it.  As a result, married women couldn’t own property separate from her husband unless they had signed a marriage settlement.  They also couldn’t file lawsuits or be sued separately or sign contacts.  Their husbands could also use, sell or dispose of her property without her permission.  One of the most important rights of a married woman was dower, which was designed to provide her with support during widowhood.  Dower included a life estate in one-third of the husband’s real property if there were children and one half if there were not.  This was only meant to provide for the wife just like her husband would have done if he was still alive.  Dower and other rules about married women’s property rights were meant to support the family as a unit and worked well in an economic system based on landed wealth, under which families typically stayed in one place but didn’t work as well when families changed lands frequently.  Because of this problem, states passed married women’s property acts which gave wives the same rights as single women that dealt with estates and wages. 

Gender roles also played big part in the 19th century.  They were socially constructed and constantly changing to fit societal needs.  They also had a concept of separate spheres between men and women.  Women were put into the idea of cult of domesticity or true womanhood and men were put into the idea of masculine achievers.  Women were expected to stay at home and not do any work outside of the home.  They were also expected to make the home a place of peace where their husband could take refuge from the difficulties of modern life while obtaining the characteristics of piousness, submissiveness, purity, and domesticity.  Women were also considered more emotional, physically weaker, and morally superior.  Their social responsibility was to bear and nurture infants, manage their domestic household, and obey their husband and father.  The men were expected to provide for the family and work outside of the home while obtaining the characteristics of strength, assertiveness, independence, and virile. 

These legal rights and status of women is revealed in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, through many different ways.  This story “portrays the position of women in late nineteenth-century American society as so bleak that the attempt to break from the life-denying limitations of patriarchal society is itself self-destructive” (Cunningham 49).  One way that the status of women was revealed was through her outer appearance.  She was “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin).  Based on this description, she had wrinkles that showed the strength that she had to obtain when her husband caused her stress since her rights were limited.  Another way was how Mrs. Mallard reacted when she heard the news that her husband died.  She was immediately sad but once she realized that she would be a free woman again and could live her life without restraint, she was happy and hopeful for the future.  She also included that she shuddered when she thought that life might be long with her husband because she wanted to be free by herself again.  She was experiencing an awakening to her true self and happiness once she realized that she would be free again.  When she walked down the stairs, “there was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (Chopin).  This shows that she is happy that he died and is ready to live her life free in her own way again.  Her reaction proves that she didn’t obtain all of her rights when she was married and was dependent on her husband.  Her death could have not been from seeing Brently but instead from “the joy, which turns out to be more ‘monstrous’ than Louise seems initially to think possible, and the resulting emotional strain brought about by her new understanding of her marriage and her supposed sudden freedom from that marriage” (Cunningham 49).  

Marital status determined the legal status of free women in the nineteenth-century.  Married women’s legal rights were limited compared to unmarried women.  They were considered a single unit under the law with their husbands and depended on their husbands.  They were expected by society to obtain certain characteristics and do certain things such as only working in the home not outside.  Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” does a good job at revealing the role of women and marriage rights in the nineteenth century.
