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Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Decent Essays

Imagine this: the husband you have spent a majority of your time with suddenly dies in a train crash. Everyone expects you to be devastated, to go completely insane. No one arounds you knows how to break the news that the man you love is gone. If only they knew, though, that you did not actually love him at all. This is what happened to Mrs. Mallard, the main character of ¨The Story of an Hour¨. When she found out her husband was no longer alive, she had never been more excited. She was excited to finally be free and on her own, so when she heard that he was actually unharmed, it did not sit well with her. Because the woman felt so trapped in her marriage, she died from shock and sadness by the sight of her alive husband. This surprising story deals with two types of irony: situational and dramatic, which I will be breaking down.

When Mrs. Mallard received the news that Mr. Mallard was gone, readers expected her to be depressed and miserable. This was not the case in “The Story of an Hour”. Of course she was a bit …show more content…

Mallard came through the front door at the end of the story, and we found out he was indeed alive, Mrs. Mallard passed away. The doctors believed it was because the happiness she felt was too much on her weak heart. However, we as readers knew it was the opposite. She was not the least bit happy to see her husband at all, because she wanted to be alone and independent. The woman had thought that her dream of being free was finally coming true, so when she found out that was not going to happen, she was flabbergasted and depressed. Mrs. Mallard already was dealing with heart troubles, so this news was too much to bear, and she died. This is a great example of dramatic irony, because we knew something the characters did not. If the story changed, and Richards, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, and the husband all knew the truth, they would most likely hate her. They wouldn’t be able to understand why she wanted to live life without Mr.

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