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The irony is Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin was the daughter of an immigrant Irish father and a French Creole mother. She was born on February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. Kate was very close to her maternal great-grandmother, Madame Charleville, who first introduced her to the world of storytelling. Madame Charleville spoke only French to Kate and told her elaborate, somewhat risque stories.
While attending a Catholic high school, Kate studied both French and English literature and became an accomplished pianist. She also became interested in the movement for women's suffrage although she never became very politically active. When she was nineteen, she married Oscar Chopin, a twenty-five-year-old French-Creole businessman. The couple moved to New Orleans, and later to Cloutierville, in north central Louisiana. After giving birth to six children, Kate became a widow in 1883 when her husband died of swamp fever. Because of the influence of her friend, Kate began to study science, decided to abandon her Catholicism, and started to write and publish.
Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour describes the mental processes and behavior of a woman upon discovering the recent news of her husband's death. This story points out the seriousness of some women's oppressive lives in the late 1800 's with situational and dramatic irony concerning the life and death of the protagonist Louise Mallard. The contrast between what is truly displays this irony in a way that one can see how traumatic a life without freedom can be, even for someone who felt it for only 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. Situational irony is used in "The Story of an Hour" through Mrs. Mallard's reaction to her husband's death and the description of the settings around her at this time. Upon hearing the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard "wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment" (Chopin 213).
It appeared to everyone that as a result of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard was incredibly sad. She insisted upon being alone and retreated to her room. Mrs.
Mallard does indeed grieve the loss of her husband, but, "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone" (Chopin 170). Chopin discharges the inner feelings of her character simultaneously with those that are expected of her. Staying alone in her room, the newly widowed women looks out of the window, she sees spring and all the new life it brings. The descriptions used now are far away from death. Mrs. Mallard stares out the open window at the new spring life.
As for the weather, instead of being gloomy and dark to symbolize death, she sees patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds. She also mentions that birds are singing and there is a delicious breath of rain in the air, all images not usually associated with death. She is expected to mourn her husband's death, but in contrast, she is thinking about new life. At the end of the story, Chopin uses dramatic irony, where there is a contrast between what the audience knows and what the characters think is happening.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills. The other characters are still unsuspecting of her actual joy in death. They believe her joy corresponds with the love she had for her husband. In contrast, the reader knows that the love she had for her husband pales in comparison to the joy she feels upon the discovery of her newfound freedom.
Mrs. Mallard begins to fantasize about living her life for herself. Free, free, free! are the words Mrs. Mallard whispers in her room. Coming from a woman who just lost her husband, one can wonder how was their relationship.
However, Mrs. Mallard clarifies that their relationship is one of love. Brently Mallard had never looked save with love upon her. And likewise, she knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death. However, love does not seem to be the problem here. Regardless of the love she has for her husband Brently Mallard, the problem she sees is the unequal relationship in which one individual exercises their powerful will on the other.
Even though at times she had loved him, she is now regaining her freedom. Another sign that informs the reader of her new liberation is the revelation of her first name. Her name is Louise, she is no longer Mrs. Mallard, she is Louise, she has her own identity because she is free. It is ironic to see that it took Brently Mallard's death for Louise to realize that she was not Body and soul free! It seems as if she finds personal strength in her husband's death, ready to face the world as a whole person.
Once Louise Mallard recognizes her desire to live for herself, desire that her marriage will not grant her, her heart will not allow her to turn back. The Story of an Hour is a story of great irony. One that carries a message of hope and freedom. The title itself is self explanatory: The story refers to that of Louise Mallard's life.
A woman that lived in the true sense of the word, with the will and freedom to live for only one hour Kate Chopin's The story of an hour illuminates how one person can see beyond the lairs of repression that build up during their life. The conflicts in the story are ones that we all encounter and deal with until the day we die. In the story there is conflict between Louise (woman) and her husband (man). It said that sometimes she loved her husband, but often she did not.
This says to me that they did not have a good relationship together, and were probably constantly battling. Another conflict would be Mrs. Mallard's life vs. Mr.
Mallard's death. Because of Mr. Mallard's supposed death, Louise would now live her life happier and for herself. Then, when Mr.
Mallard came home, Louise was faced with the conflict of choosing between the freedom she would have had or the repression she would now suffer, from her husband, for the rest of her life if she would stay alive. At the end she, in a way, chooses death over repression. The only true way for her to be free was to die. The symbols in "The Story of an Hour" give a look at the good life and rebirth Louise would have had if Mr. Mallard would have actually been dead. The actual word mallard refer to a wild duck.
The meaning of duck, other than the animal, is to avoid a blow. Mrs. Mallard was constantly ducking wildly from her husband's blows, whether mental or physical. The calm after her storm of grief was her realizing she was better off without her husband after her going through the initial shock of the whole ordeal.
In paragraph five it refers to "the new spring life" and the rain that was in the air, signifying Louise's rebirth and growing now that Mr. Mallard was gone. "The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly" represents good times and freedom that she used to know slowly coming back. The sparrows were twittering outside her window. Twittering means to carry on excitedly, which is what Louise was actually doing inside now that she was able to be free. At the end, the latchkey that Mr. Mallard uses to get in the front door symbolizes his neglect of her, and how it would still be if they continued together.
With the problems of life come decisions. Deciding what is best or what has to be done in a situation is sometimes hard. In "The Story of an Hour" Louise sees that with her life comes problems. She is left with the decision of living with all her problems or dying and leaving them all behind. In our lives it usually isn't that drastic, but it makes the point that you are always going to have hardships in your life.
You just need to get over each one as it comes and move on with the things you want to do. You will never be free of cares until the day you die. The way you deal with the problems in your life will determine the quality of your life. Robert Di Yanni, Pace University.
Fiction. Part one, chapter one. 1999. The Bedford Introduction to Literature Reading, Thinking, Writing. Sixth Edition. Michael Meyer. 2002.
Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: UP of Mississippi. 1999.
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