View on short story-"The Story of an Hour" This story was written by kate Chopin. This essay describes the irony presented in the story.

Fiction Essay

An Hour Full of Irony

There is much irony in Kate Chopin's short story entitled "The Story of an Hour." To begin, irony is first detected in the way Mrs. Mallard reacts to the news of her husbands horrible and sudden death. Mrs. Mallard is said, "not to hear the story as many women have heard the same." (Literature page 394) Rather, she accepts the news and goes to her room to be alone.

The reader starts to see the world through Mrs. Mallard's eyes. As she sits alone in her room, relaxing in a comfortable chair, she begins to view her lose as a new beginning. She begins relating to her view out the window as to spring filling the air. The reader may now wonder why she is not still grieving instead of relaxing. The narrator expresses Mrs. Mallard's feelings as "Free! Free! Free!" (Literature page 394) Mrs.

Kate Chopin in 1894

Photoportrait of writer Kate Chopin

Writer Kate Chopin and her sons Frederick, George,...

Mallard is now referred to as simply Louise as reflection of her new insight of freedom. She has now realized that although at times she loved her husband, she has now regained her freedom. Now she has her own life to live without having to meet someone else's wants and wishes. In a slight state of fantasy, she makes her way downstairs to face her new life. The reader has no idea what will take place at the bottom of the stairway.

Accepting Louise's happiness the reader understands her new attitude. But another irony unfolds as her husband enters the room, alive and well. When Louise sees him she is totally shocked. At this point, she looses all grips of her new life of freedom. The pain of this resulted in her sudden death. The narrator explains her shock and death as "the joy that kills." (Literature...