Preview

The Story of an Hour: Irony Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
503 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Story of an Hour: Irony Essay Example
The Story of An Hour: Irony

In Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," there is much irony. The first irony detected is in the way that Louise reacts to the news of the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. Before Louise's reaction is revealed, Chopin alludes to how the widow feels by describing the world according to her perception of it after the "horrible" news. Louise is said to "not hear the story as many women have heard the same." Rather, she accepts it and goes to her room to be alone. Now the reader starts to see the world through Louise's eyes, a world full of new and pure life. In her room, Louise sinks into a comfortable chair and looks out her window. Immediately the image of comfort seems to strike a odd note. One reading this story should question the use of this word " comfortable" and why
Louise is not beating the furniture instead. Next, the newly widowed women is looking out of the window and sees spring and all the new life it brings. The descriptions used now are as far away from death as possible. "The delicios breath of rain...the notes of a distant song...countless sparrows were twittering...patches of blue sky...." All these are beautiful images of life , the reader is quite confused by this most unusual foreshadowing until Louise's reaction is explained. The widow whispers "Free, free, free!" Louise realizes that her husband had loved her, but she goes on to explain that as men and women often inhibit eachother, even if it is done with the best of intentions, they exert their own wills upon eachother. She realized that although at times she had loved him, she has regained her freedom, a state of beeing that all of G-d's creatures strive for. Although this reaction is completely unexpected, the reader quickly accepts it because of Louise's adequate explanation. She grows excited and begins to fantasize about living her life for herself. With this realization, she wishes that "life might be long," and she feels

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    was that he wished she had been a boy. Her high hope of working with her husband…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethan from Essay - Irony

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The novel Ethan From by Edith Wharton tells the story of Ethan From and the tragedy he faces in his life. The story mainly focuses on the relationships between and among Ethan, his wife, and his wife’s cousin, with whom he is in love. Wharton uses different literary devices to develop the plot, including irony as one of the most effective. The use of irony in the novel, especially in the climatic sledding scene, greatly adds to the development of the tragedy.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It is not an easy thing to describe the love towards her husband because it is not mere love which connects her to him but even deification.…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mrs Mallard Dynamic

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” (Chopin 279). This quote shows how she really felt about her husband. The main reason she felt better though was because she realized she was free to do as she please without being controlled by her husband. She actually She is so excited to live the rest of her life with this new freedom and starts planning how she would spend her time.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Published in 1894, “The Story of an Hour,” has endured longer than the title would indicate and is a declaration of the support of independence for women from its author Kate Chopin. Having read this story before in other courses, and having spoken at length about how Chopin was in support of the idea of woman’s suffrage even before the suffrage movement caught hold, this story leaves a lasting impression and resonates deeper with me every time I read it. Chopin uses her work to illuminate the joy of independence and the oppression that marriage can bring. Whether intentional or unintentional, her message is not only meant for women but, extends to men as well. It is a timeless theme that anyone can learn from in every age. By her use of various literary elements such as, structure, and style, and the use of rhetorical devises such as pathos Chopin creates a work that provokes deeper though and asks a reader to delve into the emotional struggle of her character Mrs. Louise…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upon hearing the news she breaks into tears, just as her loved ones had feared. She is expressing sadness over her husband’s death.…

    • 840 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    her whole life began to fall apart. She started to be overcome with her feelings…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 1984 Kate Chopin wrote the short story ‘The Story of an Hour’. Chopin, born O’Flaherty in 1851, is considered one of the most important women in the 19th century American fiction. She is best known for her novel ‘The Awakening’. Her short stories revolve around the way women were treated in this century.…

    • 2044 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    She seemed to be very dependent on the man that she could not make up her mind. She always has to ask before she decides from ordering her drinks to what to do with her pregnancy. However, she seems as if she had made up her own mind in the end that she’ll be moving forward with her life with him or without him.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Salem is a town that is centered on their religious beliefs. The church is the basis for their morals and ethics, but discovery of the actions of the town’s girls impacts the entire town. Reverend Parris discovers the girls along with Tituba conjuring up spells, singing Barbados songs, and dancing naked. This begins a series of events in The Crucible by Arthur Miller where he uses irony to show that guilt can cause the most upstanding men to act uncharacteristically.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator loved his beloved ‘madly'. His love for her was so great that anything that reminded him of her brought him to grieve again. In life, she did not love him the same.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the course of the story, all the characters are left as fairly flat and undeveloped. Louise is simply described as a young woman with “a fair, clam face whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (paragraph 8) and that was suffering from a heart condition. When the death of her husband, Brently, is revealed her immediate reaction was that of despair. After weeping suddenly with “wild abandonment,” Louise retreated to her room in order to collapse in solitude (paragraph 3 and 4). The tragic realization and emotional exhaustion eventually leads Louise to a realization of freedom. By whispering “free, free, free!” (paragraph 11) under her breath and not over thinking the feeling she had, Louise was able to embrace the joy with open arms she discovered in her newfound freedom. Although she knew that she would be torn apart at the sight of “the face that had never looked save with love upon her” (paragraph 12) as a corpse, Louise welcomed the oncoming years spent in devotion to her own desires. This shift in position on death motivates Louise to realize that Brently’s death should not be dwelled on with sorrow.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kate Chopin's 'The Storm'

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages

    is back to normal. Although the storm of passion inside her attempted to ruin her marital life, as it passes,…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As Louise opens her senses and listens to the outside world, she notices a feeling rising in her body. Though she cannot quite put her finger on what it was, it did not take her long until she felt freedom. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays