Short Stories About Marriage: 10 Classics Explained
Quick answer: Ten classic short stories about marriage, from The Story of an Hour and Desiree's Baby to Roman Fever and Bliss, summarised and compared, with the craft each one teaches.
Marriage stories are read by the married, to check, and by the unmarried, to prepare, and neither group gets much comfort here. The writers on this page treat marriage as a room two people have agreed to stay in, and the story begins when one of them looks at the door.
The collection begins with Chopin's three views of a wife's freedom, moves through Wharton's drawing rooms and Chekhov's provinces, and ends with a dinner party and a kitchen. Each title links to a page where the story is summarised and its ending explained.
The stories
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. Louise Mallard, who has a weak heart, is told carefully that her husband has died in a rail accident. Alone upstairs with the window open she begins to whisper a word to herself. The ending turns on the front door.
Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin. Armand Aubigny marries a foundling of unknown parents and is a changed man until their baby is a few months old and the servants begin to look at it. The ending turns on a letter he finds while burning her things.
The Storm by Kate Chopin. While a Louisiana storm keeps her husband and son at the store, Calixta takes shelter with a former sweetheart, and Chopin declines to punish anyone for the hour. Everyone eats supper in good spirits.
The Other Two by Edith Wharton. Waythorn has married Alice, who has two living ex-husbands, and finds circumstances putting him in a room with each of them in turn. The last scene has all three men taking tea in his drawing room.
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton. Two widowed friends sit on a terrace above the Forum while their daughters go out with young men, and talk about a night many years ago involving a letter and the Colosseum. The ending turns on the last thing Mrs Ansley says as she stands up.
The Darling by Anton Chekhov. Olenka marries a theatre manager and repeats his opinions, then a timber merchant and repeats his; when she is alone she has no opinions at all. Her final love is a schoolboy who tells her to leave him alone.
The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov. Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna each have a spouse they cannot love and begin what he takes for a holiday affair. Months later, on a theatre staircase, they agree that the hardest part is only beginning.
Odour of Chrysanthemums by D. H. Lawrence. Elizabeth Bates waits with her children for a husband she assumes is drinking, rehearsing what she will say. He is carried in dead from the pit, and as she washes him with his mother she sees they had never known each other.
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell. Two farm wives wait in Minnie Wright's cold kitchen while their husbands search the house for a motive, and they find one themselves: a broken birdcage and a box. What they do with the box is the story.
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield. Bertha Young, thirty and happy for no reason, hosts a dinner party and feels a strange closeness to her guest Pearl Fulton as they look at the pear tree. In the hall, saying goodnight, she sees her husband and Pearl.
Reading them together
The collection's argument is that marriage in fiction is best shown from one side, in the hour the other side is absent. Louise Mallard, Elizabeth Bates and Bertha Young each have their story while the husband is out of the room, and what they learn arrives with his return. Wharton's two stories work the opposite way, filling the room with too many spouses, present and past, and letting good manners do the damage.
Set The Darling against A Jury of Her Peers. Olenka disappears into each husband willingly; Minnie Wright disappears into hers by force, and the only witnesses are two women who know the kitchen better than the sheriff does.
If you want to write about marriage
What writers can take from this
- Read the three Chopin stories in one sitting and in the order given; together they run to about five thousand words.
- Roman Fever and Bliss both end on a sentence in a doorway; compare how much each writer trusts the reader.
- A Jury of Her Peers began as the play Trifles; reading both shows what the story form adds.
- In The Lady with the Dog, note where Chekhov stops mocking Gurov and starts pitying him.
- Odour of Chrysanthemums is the hardest here; read the washing scene slowly.
Try it yourself
Write a story that takes place while one spouse is out of the house, in which the one who stayed behind rehearses a conversation that, when the door opens, cannot happen.
Questions
What is the best short story about marriage?
The Story of an Hour is the most read, and The Lady with the Dog the most admired. Roman Fever is the standard choice for a perfectly built ending.
Which short stories about marriage are good for students?
The Story of an Hour, Desiree's Baby, A Jury of Her Peers and The Darling are short and rich in discussable choices. Bliss suits older students able to handle its indirection.
Which classic story about marriage is the shortest?
The Story of an Hour, at about a thousand words, followed by Desiree's Baby and The Storm at roughly two thousand each.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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