Irony In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is an immaculate illustration of how a short story can have the ability to make a considerable impact on an entire nation. Chopin manipulates her writing effectively with her outstanding applications of certain literary techniques. Moreover, these techniques such as pathos, irony and symbolism, amplify the intensity and overall impact women oppression had on Chopin and many other women during the late nineteenth century. In addition, the story overshadows the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, and her persevering fight to overcome the mournful news regarding the death of her husband. She was informed about her husband's death by her sister Josephine, who told her in a rather gentle fashion which ultimately caused Mrs. Mallard to go to the hospital with an unfortunate affliction of heart trouble. Initially, Mrs. Mallard rhapsodically struggled in trying to cope with this news as it left her in a paralyzed state of sorrow but she then realized that she gained a great deal of freedom due to to her husband's death. Furthermore, Chopin leaves out many details within her text, which obligates the reader to fill in the gaps within Chopin’s iceberg imagery like writing and gain a perception of women’s mistreatment during the mid 1800’s.

Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.

Mrs. Mallard finds out her husband has died and is very shocked, then goes alone to her room. After she finds out the news, she looks out the window and observes nature. This helps her realize that her husband's death was good, because it means she is now free. She had never experienced freedom before. She loved her husband, but she didn’t love him at the same time.

Then the best usage of irony occurs. The reader sees the first reaction of Mrs. Mallard’s husbands death. Josephine would tell her the news and Mrs. Mallard takes it pretty hard. The author Kate Chopin lets us know that she seems to take Brently Mallards death pretty hard by the words “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” (157) They see that she is weeping and she wants to be alone because she storms off to her room alone. (157) But then the reader reads “But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.” (157) This is telling the reader that Mrs. Mallard feels something that is coming to her. Then Mrs. Mallard says softly “free, free, free!” (157) This event could be both dramatic and situational. It could be dramatic because only the reader or audience knows the true feelings Mrs. Mallard has for her husband, while all of the characters are not in the room with her and do not know her true feelings. This excerpt of the small story could also be situational because most people would think that when a spouse would die, there would be grief and pain felt rather than joy of being free from her husband. Only the reader knows that this is not the case for Mrs. Mallard because she is feeling freedom and has her own soul back which

A Chiefdom is a type of dictatorship that only one person has control over political and economic power and rules the government. Compared to a Constitutional Monarchy a Chiefdom is the exact opposite but, a Constitutional Monarchy and a Chiefdom have some things in common. A Constitutional Monarchy is a type of monarchy that has a king or queen as the head of the government, but has a parliament. A Chiefdom obtains its power by force.

In the “Story of an Hour” we observe many instances in which irony takes place.

This personal confession shows that Mrs. Mallard, though she will mourn at first, now is free to “live for herself,” (228) not for her imposing husband. Before her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard believed she was in a healthy, normal marriage. This death revealed to her how while she cared about her husband, she despised the lack of freedom her marriage had given her. All of the realizations that Mrs. Mallard reaches during her time of reflection shows the readers exactly why she will no longer mourn the death of her husband.

Richard was too late. “…She had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” (Chopin, 58) In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin tells a story of women confined in a repressive marriage and uses a literary element called foreshadowing to add suspense or tension in the story and hints about things that will occur later in the story. Literary devices include imagery, foreshadowing, plot, setting, and point of view. The combination of these literary devices allows authors to effectively convey what message will be in the story. The literary device called Foreshadowing plays a significant role in the short story as well as other literary devices such as imagery and symbolism which combine and create a unique way of how the story unfolds.

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”

“The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin is described as a story of great irony having many unexpected twists and turns. Situational and dramatic irony is used throughout the story. This is a story of a woman who finds out her husband’s death in a train accident and reacts with sadness in the beginning, but then realizes a freedom and relief from her repressive life. She experiences a complete joy over the death of her husband and dies from the shock of discovering that he is still alive. The first type of irony encountered is a situational irony, where there is a contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Mrs. Mallard’s discovery of her lost freedom and regaining her

They May Take Our Lives, But They’ll Never Take Our Freedom: Women of the Nineteenth Century

In “Story Of An Hour,” by Kate Chopin, symbolism throughout the story helps to give us a better insight about Mrs. Mallard and her reaction upon learning about her husbands death. After hearing the news about her husband, Mrs. Mallard heads upstairs where she finds “a comfortable, roomy armchair.” Her view of the chair tells readers how she felt at that moment, she wasn't crying hysterically or destroying the furniture, rather she felt a sense of relief. Through the window in her room, Mrs. Mallard sees “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring of life.” The window acts as a gateway for Mrs. Mallard, a world away from her husband, where she can start a new chapter of her life.

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” there is excellent use of symbolism. Each of the three rooms that the settings are confined symbolize two themes. Throughout the story, the two manifested themes are suffering and hope. Each of the three settings have a different representation of the themes. First, the front door is when she heard about the news that her husband has past, and it represents the suffering she felt and how she felt stuck behind her anguish. Then, the staircase represents an emotional climb as she realizes that she was unhappy with him. Furthermore, the scene on the staircase is a representation of Mrs. Mallard’s movement towards hope. Finally, the room in which she gazed out a window represents her hope to be free and joy

Mrs. Mallard began to feel joy toward her husband’s death because “she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her” (13). Josephine begins to worry about her sister being locked in her room telling her she was going to “make herself ill” (16). Mrs. Mallard decides to open the door and heads out, but tries her best to not show how she truly felt about her husband’s death. Unexpectedly, someone was at the door and it was her husband, Brently Mallard. She fell when she saw her husband alive, and when the doctor came to check on her it was too late. The cause of Mrs. Mallard death was death “of heart disease of joy that kills” (22). The cause of her death shows how individuals are unaware of how other truly feel. Mr. Mallard died of joy because her husband had died and not because her husband was back home alive.

There are many phrases in the English language that, when analyzed, don't make sense at all. For example, “the kiss of death” is one of these phrases. Typically we think of a kiss as something nice, a way of affection from a partner, a parent, grandparent, or even friend. So pairing this joyful word with something that so many people dread is admittedly an odd choice. Used as a marking of fate, a kiss of death is a concept that seems very taboo, but really this comparison of light and dark has been used more often than we may think.  In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, she utilizes imagery by using language that is often self contradictory. With her combination of dark and cheerful imagery, Chopin creates a very uneasy mood throughout the story that helps to reflect Mrs. Mallard’s emotional conflict with her physical surroundings.