The word that rhymes with room is gloom, “a state of depression or despondency.” Louise

Mallard would clearly be in a state of depression and despondency and women in general at that

time had cause to be despondent. Additionally, it was a depressing time for persons of African

decent living in the South, as slavery still existed, as is evident because Kate Chopin’s family The

O’Flaherty also owned slaves. Another word that comes to mind with room is a prison, because

Louise Mallard was trapped in a matrimonial prison, as a wife and in a socially constructed

female prison, that all women are born into by virtue of their gender

Dimock Wai-chee writes in (“Kate Chopin.” Modern American Women Writers.)

“In spite of these efforts, however, gender inequality remained a glaring fact at the turn of the
century. In New Orleans, for instance, the Napoleonic Code still formed the basis for the marriage contract. The wife and all her "accumulations" after marriage were the property of her husband, and she was legally bound to live with him and to follow him wherever he chose to go. As stipulated by Article 1591 of the laws of Louisiana, four groups of people were deemed "absolutely incapable of being witness to testaments": children not yet sixteen; persons who were insane, deaf, dumb, or blind; criminals; and "women of any age soever."


In essence women were glorified slaves, as they had no agency , not only over themselves but

over their wealth.