Kate Chopin's "The Story of a Hour” has an ironic ending. Mrs. Mallard dies exactly when she is starting to have a sense of freedom. At first reading, the ending appears to be excessively irony for belief. When rereading the story in any case, one sees that the ending is reasonable incompletely in light of the fact that it is reliable with alternate ironies in the story. After we know how the story turns out, on the off chance that we read it, we discover irony at the very start. Because Mrs. Mallard's companions and her sister accept, that she is profoundly involve with her husband, Brently Mallard, they take incredible consideration to advise her gently of his death. They mean well, and actually they do well, presenting to her a hour of life, and hour of happy opportunity, however ironicly they think their news is sad. True, Mrs. Mallard at first communicates sadness when she hears the news, however soon she finds joy. So Richards' “sad message" (12), however …show more content…
Mallard, yet is "past the point of no return" (13). But in the event that Richards had arrived "past the point of no return" toward the begin, Brently Mallard would have touched base at home to start with, and Mrs. Mallard's life would not have finished a hour later but rather would essentially have gone ahead as it had been. Yet another irony toward the end of the story is the diagnosis of the doctor. They say she died of “heart disease of joy that kills" (11). In one sense they are correct: Mrs. Mallard has for the most recent hour encountered an extraordinary joy. But obviously the specialists absolutely misjudge the delight that kills her. It is not joy at seeing her husband alive, but rather her acknowledgment that the considerable happiness she encountered during the most recent hour is
Chopin expertly adds irony to the story by stating, “When the doctors came they say she had died from heart disease - of joy that kills” (8). However, the readers know that she died because of the sudden loss of her new found freedom. This develops irony because the characters didn’t know the excitement she felt when her spouse “passed away”, but the readers know she rejoiced in her freedom. From the characters point of view, it may seem she died because she was so excited her husband returned safely. After Mrs. Mallard barracked herself in her room, it is stated that she “Abandoned herself” and then started chanting “Free! Free! Free!” (7). This displays her excitement towards her husband's death. However, the other characters are fearing for her health since they believe she is not strong enough to get through the
In this story, the two irony’s that we’re used are the situational (or cosmic) irony and the dramatic irony, because when Mrs. Mallard had gotten the news that her husband was killed in the railroad disaster of course she cried, but when she went into her room to probably take in all that was going on, that’s when her true feelings came out. She felt a sense of relief and a sense of freedom in the fact that soon she will be able to just please herself and not have to deal with someone else’s demands. But come to find out the roles reversed when she went downstairs with her sister and that front door opened, her husband walked right in with no harm done to him. Out of shock, she collapsed and died. These ironies are related because nothing
Mrs. Mallard is pleased that her husband has died, which certainly is not the reaction that one would expect. Another case of situational irony is the description of Mrs. Mallard's surroundings after hearing the news of her husband's death. When Mrs. Mallard retreats to her room, she looks out the window. The majority of times when surroundings are described in stories after bad news, everything looks dark and gloomy because of the sadness that the character must be feeling. However, the surroundings Mrs. Mallard experiences are anything but dark and gloomy. The world was described as warm and friendly. She could hear someone singing and the birds twittering. "There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds" (Chopin 213). It seems as though her surroundings are a reflection of her feelings. Normally, one would expect her to be feeling sad and depressed, and therefore her surroundings to be depressing as well.
However, the story ends with Mrs Mallard’s freedom being ripped away from her as she dies from shock upon seeing her husband walk through the door. When the doctors come to pronounce her dead, they said “she had died of heart disease, … the joy that kills”. This is foreshadowed that the beginning of the story when it is said that Mrs Mallard “was afflicted with heart trouble”. Also this use of irony suggests how the male ideology of the doctors is foolish and misplaced.
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.
Mrs. Mallard is a woman that is suffering in marriage. We realize that she was not very optimistic about her married life. The night prior to the "death" of her husband, she had quietly prayed for her life to be short. She had reached a point of disillusionment and would gladly welcome death as an option out of the marriage. When she learns that her husband had perished in the train accident, she first reacts by
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.
Initially, Mrs. Mallard reacts with great sadness over the news of her husband’s death. Knowing that Mrs. Mallard suffers from “heart trouble”, Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister decides to “hint” her the news of Brently’s death in “broken sentences”. Josephine assumes that Mrs. Mallard “[loves]” her husband, and naturally
Mallard being a bad husband, the author makes no implications to such a thing. In fact, we are told that he “had never looked save with love upon her,” (CITE) which would imply she had no real ill feelings toward Mr. Mallard. That is, she had no real grounds for her negativity towards him. She even tried to appeal to her own emotions by pointing this reasoning out to herself, but in the end, she put up a poor defense of how she deserved to feel elated over her husband’s death. “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion…” (CITE) Mrs. Mallard allowed her selfish emotions to take over, “her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.” (CITE) This possibly even ruined a good thing between her and her husband. Then again, the love in the relationship seemed very one sided as Mrs. Mallard admitted that her love for her husband was not complete. The way she tosses aside a relationship like she did makes it challenging for one to sympathize with Mrs. Mallard's character.
In “The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s ‘Story of an Hour,’” Mark Cunningham expresses his opinion on how he believes Mrs. Mallard dies in Chopin’s short story. “The Story of an Hour” was written in the late 1890s, during a time when it was controversial for women to be independent. The ending of her story has created somewhat of a dilemma among readers for years. Some people conclude one ending based on the details and clues Chopin wrote throughout the story, while others come up with a totally different opinion. Mark Cunningham writes a brilliant article on his view of the story’s ending, where he clearly conveys his take on Louis Mallard’s death. Although there are many times when he repeats the same information, Cunningham makes good use of textual evidence and authorities, as well as logic, which makes it easy to agree with his claim.
In the novel Ethan Frome, the theme of the connection between characters is used to portray the reality of their relationships. The connection between Ethan and Mattie keeps growing through out the story which further develops and strengthens their relationship. From the beginning of the story, Ethan and Mattie’s relationship has been clear and understanding. They have a mutual apprehension of each other which makes them be more amiable and intimate with one another. “She had an eye to see and an ear to hear: he could show her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that all he imparted left long reverberations and echoes he could wake at will (pg.29)”.
Her husband’s friend, Richards, remembering that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble, tries to block her from the view of the door, in case she sees her husband and tries to make it so Mrs. Mallard doesn’t see him, in case it gave her heart trouble. They wanted to sit her down and explain to her what had happened and that there was a mistake in the telegram and that her husband was in fact, alive. But needless to say, Richards was too late and Mrs. Mallard saw her husband, alive and well and from all the back and forth emotions, she suffered from a heart attack and died.
Discuss the irony of the statement, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills," in "The Story of an Hour". One of the very first things we learn is Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble. In the last sentence of this story we learn she dies of heart disease – of joys that kill. That ending makes it ironic because she did not die from heart disease but from the loss of her freedom and
“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
(654) It is quite apparent that Mrs. Mallard was struggling to fight back certain feelings about her husband?s supposed death. Although she is at first sad, she slowly begins to realize that the death of her husband can mean a number of great things for her. As the story progresses Mrs. Mallard eventually solves her internal conflict by accepting her husband?s death as a gift.