There are so much more to stories than just the words that we read. Writers want us to do more than just read the words; they want us to read between the lines. Authors use many different literary devices in stories to make people think “between the lines.” They try to get as much meaning in their stories as possible, and they do this through tools like irony, metaphors, and symbolism. Kate Chopin in particular does a very good job with using metaphors and irony in her stories to add more profundity to them. Another author that does well with literary devices – symbolism in particular – is Ray Bradbury.
There is quite a bit of irony in this particular story by Kate Chopin. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin writes, “’Free! Body and soul free!’ she kept whispering.” That sentence is talking about how Mrs. Mallard has finally realized that the passing of Brently, her husband, was not just a terrible thing that had happened, but also a good thing because of the ending of her marriage and loyalty. While grieving over the loss of her husband, Mrs. Mallard comes to the understanding that her and her husband’s marriage limited her independence and freedom. But because her husband has passed on, she feels like she has much more freedom. Another example of irony in this story is this: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” In the last sentence of this story, the author talks about the irony of Mrs. Mallard’s passing. She didn’t die from the sadness of her husband’s death; Mrs. Mallard died from the sight of her husband, who she thought had died, walked in the door of her house. Her doctor said the reason for her death was accidentally accurate. However, his analysis was proposed to specify th...
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...the house is compared to the human body. For example, “At eight thirty, the eggs were shriveled and the toast was like stone. An aluminum wedge scraped them into the sink, where hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away to the distant sea.” That particular quote shows that the house functions much like the human’s digestive system. In “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”, the author doesn’t just show how the house is physically like a human, but it also shows how it thinks like a human in the way of protecting itself.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Logan, IA: Perfection Learning, 2001. Print.
Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.” Literature for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, et al. NY: Pearson,
2011. Print.
Bradbury, Ray. August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains. United Kingdom: Subterranean Press, 1940. Print.
In “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rain”, Bradbury described the world in August 4, 2026. The
In almost every story, one can find symbolism throughout the text to help the reader better understand what the writer wants the reader to takeout from his/her story. Symbolism is something that must be analyzed and explored to experience a deeper meaning to the story. Sometimes, symbolism throughout a story may not be noticeable when first read, but going back to analyze the text can add a deeper meaning to words and can also help to enhance the meaning behind the story line. In some instances, symbolism can leave a reader to ponder what the writer is trying to express with the symbolism used in the story; for symbolism can be interpreted differently and can have many layers of meaning to it. Some good examples of short stories that use symbolism to extend the meaning behind the story line are “The Lottery,” “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” and “The Jury of Her Peers”.
There Will Come Soft Rains is a short tale by Ray Bradbury that is in regards to the high-technology smart house in a post-human world. Bradbury wrote and published this story in one of his most acclaimed collection of stories, ‘The Martain Chronicles’ in 1951. Written in that era where many people were in deep concerns about the devastating effects of the nuclear weapons, this story depicts the world under which humans beings are victims of the nuclear force distraction. The short story is in regards to a planet devoid of humans. The tale narrates that the nuclear war washed people from the face of the earth and what remained was just a house. There Will Come Soft Rains concentrate on world annihilation, and human disappearance. The authorpatently talks about the life after humans are vanished.
Without irony in a story it may be very boring and easy to put the story down. With irony included in the story the reader does not want to put the book down and stays interested throughout the entire story because irony makes the reader want to know what is going to happen next because they can’t guess it. Kate Chopin uses irony to perfection in this short story. She does this by using irony to let the reader better understand the purpose and meaning of the story. Without the irony in this story it would be dull and boring, but with irony, the story has suspense and unexpected events. This story was not like other stories that you usually read. It was not predictable at all. I love the vivid imagery throughout the whole story. I like this story because you can not really predict what is going to happen. When you can predict, it usually ruins the story. It kept you wandering about how it was going to end.
According to the next story “There will come soft rains”, the main character is also the setting which is a house. This is not a normal house, it is automatic house, it can manipulate by itself and do not need human to control it. However, this seems pretty powerful house was facing a dangerous situation, there was a fire. The house knows that there is something unusual happens, and the house tried its best to fight against fire, but eventually turned into ashes. Through this story, I think the
1. 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 very effectively in her story. Situational irony is used to show the reader what is assumed to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to hint to the reader something is happening to the characters in the story that they 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.
In "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin tells the story of a woman, Mrs. Mallard, whose husband is thought to be dead. Throughout the story, Chopin describes the emotions Mrs. Mallard felt about the news of her husband's death. However, the strong emotions she felt were not despair or sadness, they were something else. In a way, she was relieved more than she was upset, and almost rejoiced in the thought of her husband no longer living. In using different literary elements throughout the story, Chopin conveys this to us on more than one occasion.
The time period, season, location, and surroundings of a character reveal a great deal about them. Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour" is an excellent example of how setting affects the reader's perception of the story. There is an enormous amount of symbolism expressed through the element of setting in this short story. So well, in fact, that words are hardly necessary to descriptively tell the story of Mrs. Mallard's hour of freedom. Analyzing the setting for "The Story of An Hour" will give a more complete understanding of the story itself. There are many individual parts that, when explained and pieced together, will both justify Mrs. Mallard's attitude and actions toward her husband's death and provide a visual expression of her steadily changing feelings throughout the story.
From “Literature: The Human Experience” written by Abcarian and Klotz, “Irony is figurative language in which the intended meaning differs from the literal meaning” (1615). There is more than one level of irony at work in this story. Dramatic irony occurs when a reader or audience know things a character does not and, consequently, sees things differently (Abcarian & Klotz 1615). Gilman uses dramatic irony when the narrator states, “I’m feeling so much better” (Gilman 1005) as if the narrator believe that she is normal, but when she states “I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And I’ll tell you why-privately- I’ve seen her!” (Gilman 1006), the reader knows that she is actually going in sane. It is dramatic irony because the reader‘s understanding of the narrator’s speeches is different markedly from the narrator’s. Through this dramatic irony, Gilman has let the reader knows how complete seclusion can only add to the desolation and push people to the verge of insanity. The order of “rest cure” treatment may symbolize her husband’s love towards her, but ironically it makes her condition worse. This plot symbolizes how women were oppressed and dominated by their husbands and they had no place for self expression.
Freedom is one of the most powerful words in the world because of the feeling it gives people. This idea is evident in Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour.” In the story, readers witness the effect freedom can have when the main character, Louise, finds out her husband had passed away. The story begins when Louise’s sister informs her that her husband had been in a terrible accident and he was dead. Once she gets over the immediate shock, she finds herself overwhelmed with joy because she was free to live her life for herself and not her husband. At the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise has a heart attack and dies. In the story "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the power of freedom through the use of diction, point of view, and setting.
There are a couple of examples of situational irony that is apparent throughout “Story of an Hour“. Mr. Mallard being dead is one. The messenger comes and says that there was a train crash and Mr. Mallard was in it. Mr. Mallard is indeed not dead but we think he is but at the end he comes walking in the door. Another example is that Louise dies and Mr. Mallard lives. Louise finally feels free and she is now happy to live a long life only just a few days ago she was worried life was going to be too long. An example of both situational and dramatic irony is when Louise’s sister, Josephine is worried that she is up in her room making herself sick and wearing down on her weak heart. In truth Louise is in her room being thoughtful of how her life will be more wonderful with her husband gone. It is also clear that dramatic irony is a part of the story. Louise dies from the shock of seeing her husband who is supposed to be dead. The doctors say she died from "the joy that kills." The reader knows Louise was the furthest thing from joy when she saw Mr. Mallard. When Louise got the news of her husband’s death she started crying at once in her sisters arms. What her sister, Josephine did not know is that Louise was crying out of happiness that she was finally free of her mundane, mediocre life chained down...
Kate Chopin’s story, "The Story of an Hour," may seem to be about Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected and ironic reactions to the news of her husband’s untimely death due to a railroad disaster. At least that’s what I thought when I read the story. It seemed to me that she led a normal life with a normal marriage. She had a stable home life with a kind, loving husband who cared for her. She seemed to love him, sometimes. She had some kind of "heart trouble" (Chopin 25) that didn’t really affect her physically, until the very end. I thought Mrs. Mallard would have been saddened and filled with grief for an adequate period of time after her spouse died, but her grief passed quickly, and she embraced a new life that she seemed to be content with. Therefore I believe there is good evidence that Mrs. Mallard was an ungrateful woman who did not appreciate her husband or his love for her. That evidence is found in her selfish behavior after the death of her husband, Brently Mallard.
Effectively using these elements in a piece of literature enhances the reader’s curiosity. One prime example of such usage of these elements is seen in Kate Chopin's writing. Her use of foreshadowing and use of emotional conflicts put into few words in the short piece "The Storm" adds an element that is alluring, holding the reader's interest. In this short piece of literature, a father and son, Bobinot and Bibi, are forced to remain in a store where they were shopping before the storm, waiting for the storm to pass over them. In the meantime, the wife and mother, Calixta, whom is still at home, receives an unexpected visit from a former lover named Alicee. The two have an affair and the story starts to come together. The story shows us how we tend to want what we beli...
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’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.”