Irony In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

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.
Using situational irony Chopin shows the reader, Mrs. Millard in her room, sitting in a comfortable chair, “into this she sank, pressed down by physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (4). She is thought to be exhausted by every part of her body and soul drained with the idea of her husband gone, but while sitting there looking out into an open window, “there were patches of blue sky” (5), Chopin shows she was becoming very optimistic about the situation. Josephine, Mrs. Millard’s sister, is worried that Mrs. Millard, Louise, is locking herself up to be ill. Chopin is showing the reader Situational irony by telling us what Louise was doing. She was not sulking but instead coming into “spring days, summer days and all

Millard’s friend, is the messenger. Richard “had hastened… in bearing the sad message” (2) but if Richard had waited just a little longer to tell Louise’s sister, or if he could have avoided this whole ordeal and that Mr. Millard shows up and Chopin tells the reader, “He had been far from the scene of the accident” (20). Also, if Richard hadn’t hesitated a little longer Mrs. Millard would have never come to the idea of being free and have “the feverish triumph in her eyes and carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory”. With dramatic irony, Chopin tells the reader Mrs. Millard dies after seeing her husband walking through the door, “died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” (21.) With death, the thought of misery is what usually comes to mind but since Mrs. Millard was so overwhelmed with joy of being free from a miserable relationship, the shock of her husband showing up, struck her dead where she