In “The Wife”, The poet portrays an unmarried woman and contrasts her with a wife. ‘I’m “wife” – I’ve finished that’ explores personal themes of independence, society, and womanhood. Dickinson takes the reader through several differences, emotional and mental, between being a “spinster,” or an older, unmarried woman, and being a wife.
In “The Story of an Hour”, the theme of the story is freedom. Once the grief of finding out her husband died passes over her, Louise begins to realize that with his passing she has the freedom to live her own life. You can see the moment this realization hits as she whispers, “free, free, free. Chopin’s view of the repressive role that marriage played in women’s lives as the protagonist, Louise Mallard, feels immense freedom only when her husband has died. While he is alive, she must live for him, and only when he dies does her life once again become her own.
Both stories are common in having independent life where Kate got her independence after her husband’s death and found peace where she feels like a relive because to her being in a relationship, she is a slave to her husband and doing whatever he says. They both intend to have their own life and not be under someone that they rely on.
