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The short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, is a deeply symbolic piece, full of clever irony to play upon the themes of self-assertion and liberation. The primary forms of irony employed by most writers are verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony, and the occasional irony of fate, also known as cosmic irony. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin uses dark dramatic and situational irony to craft this tale of a long-suffering wife who celebrates her newfound sense of independence after her husband's death, then dies from the shock of discovering he is still alive. While the repetitive theme of the emotional bliss of freedom versus the agony of repression plays out, the irony facilitates many twists and turns that take place …show more content…
We see this come to life when Louise is locked away alone in her bedroom. While in her room, Louise experiences an unstoppable flood of emotions that overtake her. This force is not given a name, as it is strange and scary to Louise. She even tries to “beat it back with her will” (550). We soon learn that this foreign emotion is a sense of freedom. Here, readers realize that this is a feeling that Louise, like the majority of women in the Victorian era, has never experienced due to her role in society with no voice and a domineering spouse. Repression and knowing your place were the norm of this era. Louise fought the intense emotion of liberation because she was so accustomed to being in a repressed state, but eventually accepts the scary, strange sense of freedom that overcomes her body. She quickly begins to look forward to an enjoyable future independent of her husband, and she even begins to hope for a longer life in order to enjoy it. Chopin declares, “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself” (550). Louise becomes excited and begins to daydream about living life for herself. Chopin writes, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (550). As she sits contemplating her new future, Chopin dramatically …show more content…
Brently, Louise’s husband, was not killed after all. He swings open the front door, and just like that, Louise drops to her death along with any chance of freedom she had just imagined. In the very last line, Chopin states, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills” (551). To the story’s characters, unaware of Louise’s new emotional state, it seemed unfortunate, but natural, that her damaged heart could not bear the joyous shock of seeing her husband still alive after she had just begun mourning his death. However, readers can conclude that if Louise did die of true joy, it was the joy she had felt for only a brief time descending the stairs as the “goddess of Victory” which suddenly snapped at the sight of her husband (551). She simply could not bear the thought of returning to her old repressed life. Her recent inspiration of an unrestrained, self-gratifying life had been shattered right before her eyes. Louise’s emotional state had rapidly moved from extreme grief to extreme elation and back to extreme grief within a single hour. Chopin’s masterful use of irony in her short story “The Story of an Hour” is what gives it powerful overtones that keep readers thoroughly engaged. Reading a story packed full of the unexpected, as well as symbolic hints and ideas, holds one’s interest, as one never knows what to expect from one paragraph to the
In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” there are contrasting images of light and dark representing happiness and unhappiness. It isn’t until Louise Mallard thinks that her husband, Brentley Mallard, is dead that she really begins to realize just how unhappy she has been. Chopin shows through the characters light and dark imagery that speaks to this essay.
Before reaching this moment, the reader can discern that Louise is struggling between the thoughts of how she “should” be reacting to the news of her husband’s death against the feeling of elation of being free from her perceived marital constraint. Louise is living in the late 19th century where society believed women belonged in a domestic realm where they “manned” the house (cooking, cleaning, raising the children) binding them to their home and husband. A time when a woman is to be the social moral compass and live by a strict social code of conduct. Even in the description of Louise it is clear she upholds these values: “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 306). It is also when the reader gets the first glimpse of Louise’s repressed life.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Approaching Literature: Reading + Writing + Thinking, Third Edition. Ed. Schakel, Peter J, and Jack Ridl. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 233-234. Print.
To be inconsistent with traditional communities beliefs it is hard for many to accomplish. Nevertheless, writer Kate Chopin fights that conflict to deliver the readers a few of the greatest thought vexing literature that a human can get their hands on. Applying to her improvement reflections of narrative stories, such as plot control, irony, and character development, Kate is capable to take the reader towards a world of feelings that humanity would despise. Chopin shows her unbelievable literary ability in “The Story of an Hour” by joining character development and plot, with her use of thought-provoking vocabulary and narrative irony.
She whispers, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). Though her situation is sad, she does not have a remorseful response. She locks herself in her room and reflects upon her new reality. She instead comes to find a form of liberation for herself from her husband’s death. As she looks out the window, Chopin writes, “…she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window,” (Chopin). Chopin is stating Louie’s newly found greatness for her life. She is now able to live for herself and not behind her husband as society has told her. She can be different and gain more from her life now because she does not have to follow or live for a man, as many woman did in society. She feels exonerated from her bondage, which is marriage, and she now feels she can have a life for herself. In the end, her husband is actually found to be alive as he walks into the room. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills,” (Chopin). From seeing her husband, Louise dies. It was joy that had killed her. Readers can easily believe that she died because of the shock that her husband was still alive, but in reality she died from the loss of her new found greatness. The joy that killed her was her own
In the short story, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, three ironies take this story on a roller coaster of portraying emotions and simple situations. One of the first ironies is the element that even though bad news has been received, a person may perceive it differently than what someone expects, and it displays that life goes on for other people. The second irony that I see is the statement that Mrs. Mallard is said to be still yet young, but a lot of the description lead you to believe that she has had a long hard torturous life with her husband. And then the third irony scene is how she starts to rejoice in the fact that she is liberated from his control due to his death. However, the tables turn when he shows back up at the doorway.
Chopin sets the story in the springtime to represent a time of new life and rebirth, which mirrors Louise's discovery of her freedom. Louise immediately takes herself to a room where, "facing the window [sat] a comfortable, roomy armchair" (Chopin 470). The news of her husband's death leaves her feeling lost and confused, seeking answers about her future. In her husband's lifetime, she was "pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach to her soul," but once left alone to gaze out of the open window and to observe the "patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds," she recognizes freedom for the first time (Chopin 470). Initially, she fails to fully comprehend the mysterious yet promising beginning to her new life, but soon welcomes it as, "she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window" (Chopin 471). Getting a glimpse of her life with an absolute and fresh freedom gives her the strength to abandon a life of solitude and to "spread her arms out [. . .] in welcome" (Chopin 471). Just as springtime is a fresh beginning to a new year, Louise's discovery of sovereignty is a hopeful promise to a new life.
In this story by Kate Chopin, the heart trouble is both a symbolic and physical malady that stands for her ambivalence towards her unhappiness and marriage conjoined inability to be free. The first thing we qauire in the book is that Louise is suffering from a heart problem;additionally we learn that her heart problem is also the reason why the announcement of the death of Brently seems so threatening now. It is also clear that an individual with a heart problem would certainly not deal with such terrible news. In any instance where Louise tries to go through the idea of her renewed independence, her heart races as the blood in her veins pumps to the extremes. As the story ends, Louise dies. The diagnosis of her heart disease looks appropriate to her disease but it seems even more appropriate since she experienced shock once she saw Brently. Surely, such shock is enough to drive her to her deathbed. It is however ironic that the doctor concludes that the main reason as to the death of Louiseis overwhelming joy. It is ironic because it is not joy that had led to her death but rather loss of joy, which had killed her. Louise had certainly died because of a broken heart that was caused by the idea of suddenly losing her much loved independence (Chopin, The Story of an Hour)
Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.
“When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” This is the most ironic and final line in Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. Story of an Hour tells the story of Mrs. Mallard, a woman who recently found her husband died in a train accident, final hour alive. After hearing the news of her husband death, Mrs. Mallard goes to her bedroom to grieve, but realizes the freedom she now has from his death. This new found freedom is shortly lived when she finally realizes her husband is not actually dead. I am going to demonstrate the literary devices irony and symbolism is used in this story.
The use of irony is integral to the plot of "The Story of and Hour" by Kate Chopin. Situational irony is used to surprise the reader and add an interesting twist to Mrs. Mallard's discovery of her husband's death. Dramatic irony is used to give the reader insight into Mrs. Mallard's situation. The use of irony serves to make the story more interesting and the ending becomes a complete surprise to the reader.
Kate Chopin is able to illuminate her stories with clever language and meaning. As well as an immense criticism as to how society oppresses the individual in the glorified institution of marriage. Through language, she is able to introduce the thought of deeper meanings. “The Story of an Hour” being a prime example of the individual that has a need for freedom for herself. Through symbolism and straightforward comments, the freedom that Mrs. Louisa Mallard is notable just as her marriage is oppressive.
In “The story of an hour”, Kate Chopin uses many forms of irony. Using irony, Chopin adds another dimension to the story, a deeper meaning. The wide variety of irony Chopin uses are categorized in dramatic, situational and verbal irony.
With the death of Brentley Mallard, Louise sees the things to come and fantasizes about the life ahead of her. She thinks of “spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own.” She has ascended into a new life much like she ascended the stairs in the beginning, foreshadowing the good to come in her life. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” By saying this Chopin implies that although Louise was alive, what’s the point in being so if you can’t feel it.
Irony can be very effective in storytelling if used well. The irony in literature is typically when an aspect of the story turns out differently than anticipated. In The Story of an Hour, the irony is thick. In the beginning, it mentions that Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition so her sister and husband 's friend tried to break the news of her husband 's death to her gently. This is ironic because the news of Brently 's death does not upset Louise but causes extreme elation. She is overjoyed that she is free from her prison called marriage. They are afraid to break the news to her in fear it will cause her grief or heart problems, but that is not an issue until her husband turns out to be alive. Kate Chopin 's writing style is very interesting. The first and last paragraphs are extremely effective and really accentuate the heavy usage of irony. The story begins by stating that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart condition so her sister took great care to break the news of her husband 's death as tenderly as she could. This paragraph ties into the ending sentence, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills." The thing her sister was afraid of happening did occur, but not for the reasons she had