Analysis Of Kate Chopin 's Story Of An Hour

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” allows one to explore many ironic instances throughout the story, the main one in which a woman unpredictably feels free after her husband’s assumed death. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to illustrate the struggles of reaching personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself to reach self-assertion while being a part of something else, like a marriage. In “The Story of an Hour” the main character, Mrs. Mallard, celebrates the death of her husband, yet Chopin uses several ironic situations and certain symbols to criticize the behavior of Mrs. Mallard during the time of her “loving” husband’s assumed death.

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 as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story 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.

Kate Chopin, a writer in the late 1800’s, focused on women’s rights and freedoms. In Chopin’s short story, The Story of an Hour, she uses Irony to convey the connection of emotional, physical and psychological freedom for the main character Mrs. Louise Mallard.

The story of an hour by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to her husband’s death. In this short story, Chopin portrays the complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as she is saddened yet joyful of her loss. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” argues that an individual discover their self-identity only after being freed from confinement. The story also argues that freedom is a very powerful force that affects mental or emotional state of a person. The story finally argues that only through death can one be finally freed.

Richard was too late. “…She had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” (Chopin, 58) In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin tells a story of women confined in a repressive marriage and uses a literary element called foreshadowing to add suspense or tension in the story and hints about things that will occur later in the story. Literary devices include imagery, foreshadowing, plot, setting, and point of view. The combination of these literary devices allows authors to effectively convey what message will be in the story. The literary device called Foreshadowing plays a significant role in the short story as well as other literary devices such as imagery and symbolism which combine and create a unique way of how the story unfolds.

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.”

Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote two novels that got published and at least a hundred short stories. In Kate’s short story The Story of the Hour she uses some of her traumatic event that happened in her lifespan in the short story even though it the story is fictional. A lot of her fictions were set in Louisiana and her best-known works focused on the lives of sensitive intelligent women. One-third of Mrs. Chopin’s stories are children’s stories. A lot of Mrs. Chopin’s novels were forgotten after she died in 1904 but according to Kate Chopin Biography, several of her short stories appeared in an anthology within five years after her death, others were reprinted, and slowly people came back to read her stories.

When one has been bound under someone’s will without knowing, once given freedom one may feel as if they no longer have to answer and or obey ever anyone ever again. This may bring upon a feeling of hope, joy, and or satisfaction. In the “The Story of An Hour” Kate Chopin introduced the character Mrs. Mallard, who was recently given the news that her husband was in a terrible accident and pronounced dead. Throughout the story Mrs. Mallard seemed to displayed many different emotions. Chopin develops suspicion in the passage by using the literary techniques such as paragraph structure, irony, and foreshadowing. Let’s first take a look at how the different structures of the passage really gave suspension to the story line.

Kate Chopin's `The Story of an Hour' is a short yet complex piece describing the feelings of Mrs Mallard. This story is overflowing with symbolism and imagery. The most prominent theme here is the longing for freedom. Chopin focuses on unfolding the emotional state of Mrs Mallard which can be separated into three stages: quickly moving to grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.

Both Mrs. Mallard and Desiree come to a tragic end in a world dominated by males. In “The Story of an Hour” the reader is made to believe that the story might have a happier ending, however, Mrs. Mallards life had the same ironic ending as that of Desiree. In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” there is a lot of use of irony. When Louise Mallard is about to be told about the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. The reader expects such news to have a toll on the health of a woman who has a heart condition. It is at this point that the reader start noticing the irony in the story. Upon hearing the news Mrs. Mallard retreats to her room and stares out her window. It is her thoughts and view from the window that make this story ironic. As she looks through her window, Mrs. Mallard sees “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life.” (653) This statement is ironic because it meant she was about to begin this new life and now felt as though she finally had the freedom to live her life the way she had always wanted. Mrs. Mallard saw “beyond the bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (654). She was about to start living this life she had only dreamed of and it is at this point that Chopin shocks the reader when Mrs. Mallard

Throughout the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses imagery and symbolism with several different objects to further the theme and plot. Since the use of symbolism helps bring depth to the story without focusing on too much detail, readers can acquire a more complex idea on what they believe the author tries to convey throughout the story. As Chopin executes an underlying message behind her signs, she also reveals new traits and meanings of her character, Mrs. Mallard. Despite Chopin’s use of several symbols to advance the storyline, the open window exemplifies not only Mrs. Mallard’s realization of her new-found freedom, but her hope and happiness as well.

“The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin is described as a story of great irony having many unexpected twists and turns. Situational and dramatic irony is used throughout the story. This is a story of a woman who finds out her husband’s death in a train accident and reacts with sadness in the beginning, but then realizes a freedom and relief from her repressive life. She experiences a complete joy over the death of her husband and dies from the shock of discovering that he is still alive. The first type of irony encountered is a situational irony, where there is a contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Mrs. Mallard’s discovery of her lost freedom and regaining her

I continue to evaluate Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” as being mainly Victorian in its literary conventions, attitudes, and story. In effect, the story’s ideas progress past Victorianism (some say feminism/Chopin might beg to differ), with the subject of women’s independence from men and Louise’s abrupt recognition of it. Comparable to the mid-to-late 19th century suffragists of the time, Chopin addresses the idea of gender inequality, with her relatively non-traditional character, Louise. However, despite Chopin’s creation of an unconventional Victorian woman, the story still holds to many Victorian constraints of gender, as well as the readers of the era’s exceptions. Thus, Chopin doesn’t go “too” far in openly advocating a parting from

I agree with this assertion because Mr. Mallard’s death is completely undone at the end of the story. It is the opposite of a story because people found that Mr. Mallard was dead, but the story ends up alive. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mallard’s life, which her friends and family tried so hard to protect at the beginning of the story because she was afflicted with a heart trouble, but her life is lost at the end. So, the story finally ends with an event that Josephine and Richards tried to avoid at the beginning. Therefore, I believe the story is excellent because it has a surprise ending.

Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition; thus, her sister Josephine gently and carefully breaks the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards, a close friend of Mr. Mallard, is the first to discover the news of Mr. Mallard’s railroad tragedy. When hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard collapses in grief into her sister’s arms and retreats upstairs into her room. While her sister begs Mrs. Mallard to open the door, Mrs. Mallard reflects on her feelings. She sinks into an armchair facing an open window noticing the “new spring life, the delicious breath of rain in the air, the peddler in the street crying his ware, the notes of a distant song which someone was singing and countless sparrows twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 556). This signifies a new blossoming life: a life that she would live for herself. Although her husband is loving, and she knows that she will weep again when she sees his dead body, she realizes how confined marriage is for her. Robert Evans, author of “Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Kate Chopin's “‘The Story of an Hour,’” claims that Mrs. Mallard looks forward to a bright future rather than a dreadful life. She becomes aware that she must live alone rather than being imprisoned by marriage. As these thoughts circulate in her mind, she keeps whispering, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 557).By conveying the story through Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, Chopin portrays how women actually feel compared to what they present in society. While Josephine and society expect Mrs. Mallard to be grieving, Mrs. Mallard is actually looking forward to the days ahead of her: “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin 557). When Mrs. Mallard discovers that the news of her husband’s death was inaccurate, Mrs. Mallard dies from a heart attack after seeing her husband alive. The