Irony In Mathilde Loisel's Story Of An Hour

Compare and Contrast of “The Necklace” and “The Story of an Hour” In “The Necklace” and “The Story of an Hour” both Guy de Maupassant and Kate Chopin use irony and descriptive narration to portray Mathilde Loisel and Margaret Mallard as female protagonists whose thoughts and actions are at odds with the expectations of society and the norms of 19th century marriage. These stories were written in a time when women were expected to abide by certain rules and standards placed on them by society and marriage. In both stories the authors use irony to show how the oppression they felt because of these standards negatively impacted the lives of both of these characters. In “The Story of an Hour” a woman, Mrs. Margaret Mallard
She dreams of luxuries beyond her possession and pays a great debt due to that longing. In an attempt to please his wife her husband obtains an invitation to a fancy ball which she refuses to attend because she has nothing fitting in her eyes to wear. After having a gown made she ends up borrowing a diamond necklace from a wealthy friend to wear to the ball only to end up losing it by the end of the night. She ends up spending the next ten years doing menial work to repay the debt incurred to replace the necklace, only to find out in an ironic twist that the jewels were fake. As written in “The Explanation of “The Necklace”: “The irony is brought on by the contradiction of her situation in that if she would have just accepted her husband’s suggestion of wearing flowers instead of trying to fit the part of higher society her life would have turned out a little happier and if she would have just confided to her friend that she lost the necklace she would have saved herself years of hard work, since she gained nothing from the experience”