The Story of an Hour

Irony in "The Story of the Hour"
Summary: Dark irony plays a major role in "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. A long-suffering wife who celebrates her husbands' death dies from the shock of discovering he is still alive.
In "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, there are many moments when Chopin's craft of writing feeds the irony of the story. One perfect example, "assure himself of its truth by a second telegram" (772). This sentence subdued me into believing that Mrs. Mallard's husband was dead, when in fact, we learn that he never died. In addition, Mrs. Mallard is a woman with a strong sense of passion and detest. In the end, she dies by the nature of story.
Chopin brings a style of writing that has irony. In the beginning of the story, Chopin's introduces you to the heart trouble that afflicts Mrs. Mallard. Her condition is significant later because this ailment drives the story. However, the notion of this heart condition can be overlooked as being meaningless. Many readers could argue that this heart condition foreshadowed the climax of the story instantaneously but it does not. In the end of the story, we realize the significance of her sickness. It was a clever way to secretly introduce the weakness that ends Mrs. Mallard's life. Another, well deceptive measure used by Chopin's was to suggest that Mr. Mallard had died. In paragraph 2, Mr. Mallard's friend, Richards, confirmed twice that such allegations were in fact true (772). At that moment, I conceived that Mr. Mallard was dead. There was no other clue to believe otherwise and it was one of the strongest signs delivered in the story, because it left you unprepared for what was to come in the end. When Chopin wrote, "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms", I felt her sense of passion and emotional attachment to her husband (772).
Mrs. Mallard also opposed her husband as much as she cared for him. For a women being ill, and just being notified of her husbands death, it's awkward to read how she describes the surroundings while in her room. She describes the tops of trees being, "all aquiver with the new spring life", and the air being filled with, "delicious breath of rain" (772). What all this symbolizes is a new beginning for Mrs. Mallard. At this particular moment in the story, it is a little elusive to make that judgment, however, in paragraph 11 it is very easy to ascertain. When Mrs. Mallard says, "Free, free, free!", it is very clear that Mrs. Mallard has come to an understanding that she's free from her unhappy marriage (772); "But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome." (772-773).
There is also evidence provided in the text that tells us Mrs. Mallard was living a Victorian life giving me a reason to understand why she did not remorse like I would expect. "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence." (773). In the Victorian era, women were seen as weak, helpless and incapable of making decision. Their focus was to tend to the house and care for the children. Mrs. Mallard was living that lifestyle which was the cause of her negative outlook on life and her joy for her husband's death.
Sadly, Mrs. Mallard was destined to die. Throughout the story, Mrs. Mallard resentment for life is made clear. "It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long" and "And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not." (773). All of this attest to the conclusion that Mrs. Mallard dreaded her life. She did not love her husband and she look down on the possibility of a long life. It all movies the bad guy never comes out victorious and Chopin's was not going to let that happen in this story. Mrs. Mallard's death only made sense.
What is amusing about this story is what is stated in the last line of the story, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills" (773). Mrs. Mallard, who was joyful of being liberated, has a heart attack after the shocking realization that her husband was alive. Mrs. Mallard's death was inevitable by the course of the story but its ironic knowing that her enjoyment of her husband's death lead to the fatal reaction to him being alive.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Arguing Through Literature: A Thematic Anthology and Guide to Academic Writing. Comp. and ed. Judith Ferster. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005. 772-773 http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/8/7/123415/5239

"The Story of an Hour": Student Responses, 1996

Students of Ann Woodlief, Virginia Commonwealth University

When I first began reading "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard seemed to me an old woman and as we are told in the very first line, “afflicted with a heart trouble.” I was surprised in the eighth paragraph when Chopin tells us that "She was young," but even more interesting to me that she is described as having “a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression” which depicts her as being old for her age. The description of this repression is backed up when Chopin gives us the reason for Mrs. Mallard’s “monstrous joy” which reads thus “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.”
After reading through this story the first time, I had many questions and many conclusions. For instance, it seems as if Chopin is showing us a social situation of the times with the woman as prisoner of her husband. It is common knowledge that marriages are not always about mutual love between two people and during the time that Chopin was writing, this was more often the case. Marriage was as much about monetary comfort, social status and acceptance as it was about possible love. There are no children mentioned in this story which makes me wonder if there was a sexual relationship between the Mallards. It seems from the description that Mrs. Mallard has been trapped in this marriage for a long time even though we know she is young. How young is she? Even though I say she is trapped, do not misunderstand me: I do not think this marriage is arranged, instead that she has been coerced by her society to marry despite what she may want to do in her heart and soul. I believe she does love her husband, but it is possible to love a man and not be married to him. This was not her case; if she were able (meaning a man would agree with her decision) and she did engage in a loving relationship with a man who was not her husband, she would have certainly been looked down upon. Is her heart condition purely physical or is it also psychological and emotional? We know the stereotypes, as Chopin did, that women are hysterical, timid, weak, irrational. Could it be that her heart condition is created by those tip-toeing around her in conjunction with her own emotional weaknesses?

I find it interesting that her first name is only told to us after she hears of her husband’s death and when she feels the most free. Before this point she is referred to as Mrs. Mallard or “she,” and after this point when her husband returns home, she is referred to as “wife.” Chopin is pointing to something very interesting here which leads me back to the title of woman as “wife.” When Louise marries Bently she becomes Mrs. Mallard; she loses her identity and assumes a new and strange one. While it seems very normal and average for a wife to assume her husband’s name in marriage and in that time, to put it harshly, become the property of him, it cannot be ignored that a certain part of the self is lost. This woman is very in tune with this loss and even though her love for her husband keeps her from it, the freedom she feels when she thinks he is dead becomes unavoidable and enjoyable.

Chopin wrote the story and has given us a narrator who, if it is not Chopin personally, I believe to still be female. The descriptions and insight we are given into the character of Louise come from someone who understands her situation and is forgiving. We see Louise as she finds happiness out of her husband’s death and yet, by the narration, we see her struggle with guilt and overcome it. From the female perspective, it could be argued that her death was really an ultimate freedom from her unhappy marriage. If we assume that the narrator is male, could it be that her death was a punishment for her happiness at the death of her husband? It is not as farfetched as it seems and raises many more questions as to the goal this story sets out to achieve.

Kristene B.

“The Story of an Hour” at first reminded me of “A Very Short Story” in the way that it leaves out details that that the reader needs to fill in the gaps and easily understand the plot of the story. It’s this “Swiss cheese” effect that makes the story so interesting; by allowing the reader to “plug in” his/her own details the story takes on varied connotations. An example of this is the beginning paragraph where the reader gets the impression that this woman is going to be extremely upset that her husband has died in a train accident. The people closest to her have gone to great lengths to cushion the blow of her husband’s death; however, we are not given any details as to the relationship they had in the past or any relevant information. By doing this the author allows the reader to form his/her own false interpretation of how this woman is going to react. We see this technique used early into the story and we, as readers, are strung along until we hear the woman utter the words “free, free, free” which really throws the reader off the track he/she expected to follow. The rest of the narrative begins to twist the story to the exact opposite of what the reader was waiting to have happen. We find a woman who instead of being upset and heart-broken over her husband's death is experiencing complete joy over the death of another human being. Which, of course, now gives us the impression that she has been mistreated in this relationship and that, perhaps, this death is for the best. All this makes the reader justify the way the woman reacted, but in the end it's Mrs. Mallard who dies upon seeing her husband alive and well. This ending definitely conjures up some questions that are difficult to answer.
Ron B.

This was a great story. I like Chopin even though she is an ardent feminist. Through the first read several things stood out. First you will notice how the woman of the story is simply referred to as Mrs. Mallard--an appendage of Brently Mallard---then when she is free she is referred to as Louise, her first name. Chopin is trying to say that marriage represses women and "bends the will." Even if marriage does bend the will Brently Mallard was still a good man, and his face never looked upon her with anything but love. She knows that this man loved her, but that is not enough for her to feel any love for him. Chopin does not seem to think that a man’s plans and intentions are bent for a relationship. Personally, I have never seen a working relationship that was totally one-sided. It is great that such a short little story could raise so many questions about the nature of relationships and what they mean to a woman like Chopin. She considers any intention that bends the will a crime, even if it is kind. There could be a thousand years of philosophical debate on that one point.
In the way of characters I think Richards was an interesting character. His role seems so small, perhaps intentionally so. Chopin is trying to show that women can get along just fine without having men interfere. The major theme of the story represents a disdain for the way that women are treated in some relationships, and to a certain extent in society as well. It is hard for a male to give concrete examples of a female's place in society having never dealt with that stereotype. The late eighteen hundreds were a rough time for women and there weren’t the options, like divorce, that are now available to women. However in this story there is so much repression. You would think that this woman had been locked in a basement and fed bugs by Brently.

Travis C.

This is the story of a woman who finds out her husband has died in a train wreck. She reacts with sadness at first, but then realizes in a rush of emotion & relief that she is “Free! Body and soul free!” She views the world with a fresh outlook--one where she will be her own person, answering only to herself. She is ready to begin this new life when her husband--who evidently wasn’t on the train after all--comes home. The woman (Louise) dies from heart failure on the spot.
I loved this little story--it takes a couple of twists and turns that makes the ending ironic and unobvious. The year the story was written (1894) is included, and this adds interest to the content of the story. The fact that Louise recognizes her oppression from the male-dominated society of the time is interesting to me. For some reason (I don’t know why) I haven’t read much work in which a woman of the time period speaks of feeling that a long life with her husband is undesirable. But when she realizes her husband is dead, Louise’s view of a long life changes from dread to hope.

Louise is obviously the character of interest--through her we see the social repression that women felt at the time. Louise represents all women of the time. They were locked into marriages that were probably loving--at least Louise says her husband “never looked at her save with love”--but were oppressive in their treatment of women.

The language of the story does a good job at conveying the emotions and feelings of the characters. Although Louise represents all women, she is different. Being told of Brently’s (her husband) death, she “did not take the news as many women have.” The choice of many is interesting. It shows that many women accepted (perhaps blindly) the situation of being controlled in their lives by their husbands.

After being told the news of his death, Louise goes to her room and looks out the window. The language here foreshadows the ironic happiness that she feels at being set free. Instead of being gloomy and dark (the way weather is usually symbolized at the mention of death) the sky shows patches of blue (from between white, not black) clouds; birds are singing and there is a “delicious breath of rain” in the air.

I can’t help but think that when Louise’s sister is calling to her through the door--“open the door--you will make yourself ill”--that she would believe Louise had made herself ill with all the talk of freedom. When she finally opens the door and walks out “like a goddess of Victory” I would think that her sister would notice and wonder why.

When Brently returns, Louise drops dead. We know that she had a weak heart--it was explained that the train accident was explained carefully in order to prevent an adverse reaction--and the doctors assume that she died at his sight from the “joy” of seeing him. “The joy that kills” they called it. Those doctors, undoubtedly men, were unwittingly describing Louise’s marriage as well.

Mark D. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/hourdis.html Kate Chopin employs the tool of irony in The Story of an Hour to illustrate the problem relative to marital relationships in which one individual imposes his private will upon the other. She presents, through the story of Mrs. Mallard, an issue not socially accepted at the end of the 19th century. This is the story of Mrs. Mallard, a woman with a heart condition who finds out her husband has died in a train accident. She reacts with sadness at first, but after seeking solitude, realizes that she is free. She is ready to begin her new life when her husband, who was not involved in the train accident, comes home alive. The woman dies from heart failure on the spot. The purpose of irony in Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour is to convey a message without saying it explicitly. In the context that the story was written, at the end of the 19th century, woman were often not allowed many rights. Their role in society was trifling compared to what men had. Chopin, a feminist ahead of her time, uses irony in this particular story to show the unequal role women had in relationships in the late 1800's. Mrs. Mallard's discovery of her long lost freedom and desire to live for herself only comes after her husband's death. The ironic tone in the story is employed by Chopin to present a socially unaccepted concept in a more acceptable format. In The Story of an Hour, Chopin makes use of different types of irony. The first type of irony encountered is situational irony, where there is a contrast between what is expected to happen in a particular situation and what actually happens. After grieving with wild abandonment the death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard seeks solitude in her room. Now the reader starts to see the world through her eyes, a world full of new and pure life. As she 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. http://free-termpapers.com/tp/16/emt8.shtml "The Story of an Hour" Analysis: "The Story of an Hour" Irony
The following examples demonstrate "The Story of an Hour" Irony.

1.Mr. Mallard is dead...but he isn't. Richards needs slapped around a bit, going around telling people that Mr. Mallard is dead when he isn't. I don't care that he got two telegrams. He needs to find out for sure. I haven't seen this unreliable of a messenger since Friar John got held up on suspicion of small pox. When someone who's supposed to be dead walks in, that's situational irony.
2.Mr. Mallard lives and Mrs. Mallard dies. That's situational irony.
3.Mr. Mallard dies. Mrs. Mallard cries...because she's happy. You wouldn't expect that.
4.Josephine is worried that Mrs. Mallard has locked herself in her room and is making herself ill. She's actually in there contemplating how wonderful her life's going to be. That's both situational and dramatic irony.
5.Mrs. Mallard dies from the shock of seeing her husband. The doctors say she died from "the joy that kills." We know Mrs. Mallard is no where near full of joy. That's dramatic irony.
Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/60196.aspx#ixzz1SDJ7w674 http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/60196.aspx
"The Story Of Hour" Irony Analysis
Gloria D. Davis

Kim Turnage

English 113

February 7th 2005

"The Story of an Hour" Irony Analysis
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 (Irony). 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). Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony (Bernardo).

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" (188). It appeared to everyone that