Irony In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

In a world of phenomenal literary artists, some were born before their time. This has been the case with Kate Chopin. According to KateChopin.org, many critics acknowledge her as one of America’s Essential artists. Although, her literary brilliance had not been recognized until almost fifty years after her death. Chopin faced public disgrace after publishing one of her first novels The Awakening. This novel follows closely with her theme in many of her other writings by telling the story of sensitive daring women. What has been officially recognized today as feminist literature, had then been slandered for the outrageous writing. Alas, Chopin never stopped writing. She has written over a hundred short stories. Today, almost all of her writing

While irony tends to be a tricky concept to fully understand, The Purdue Online Writing Lab roughly defines this to mean when the author says one thing, but means the opposite. Otherwise, irony has the potential to also occur when the unexpected happens in the plot. This technique has often been used to shock audiences. Chopin perfectly accomplishes this task in her short story. The readers expect Louise to mourn the death of her husband, and then quickly recover to have a happy life as a free woman, such as Louise stressed to be important to her. Although, instead of Louise becoming the free one, her husband suddenly returns, and Louise dies of shock and dread that she would no longer be free. In this case, the husband becomes the free one, unlike the readers had been expecting. Additionally, irony has been used as the doctors described the cause of death of Louise. The doctors tell the family that she had died “of heart disease – of the joy that kills.” The doctors had interpreted Louise’s death to be the overwhelming delight she experienced as her husband walked through the door. This situation stands as ironic due to the readers knowing that Louise had been glad when she discovered the death of her husband. Upon hearing that the doctors think she died of rejoicing causes the audience to sense the irony as they know the exact opposite had been what truly occurred. Chopin cleverly uses irony to inspire shock in the readers as they experience Louise’s