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Imagery In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

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In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” a large railroad accident occurred, and several people lost their lives. The author, Kate Chopin, uses a large amount of imagery in her story to help describe what is happening to the reader. Imagery is when you use descriptive words and phrases to help the reader visualize something. Kate Chopin uses imagery to help portray other literary devices like irony and theme as well. The imagery in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is used to understand Mrs. Mallard as a character, express the theme of freedom, and to identify the irony in “death by joy.” First of all, imagery is used in “The Story of an Hour” to help the reader understand Mrs. Mallard as a character. A long list of the deaths from the crash were delivered to the newspaper office. Leading the list off, right up top, was “Brently Mallard.” Right away, Kate Chopin tells the reader that Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with heart disease. Brently Mallard’s friend, Richards, comes to break the news to Mrs. Mallard. “It was her sister, Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing” (6). When Josephine told Louise about Brently’s death, she didn’t show any emotion, but then ran upstairs and locked …show more content…

Mallard as a character by supplying the reader with a background knowledge of her heart disease. Imagery also helps to convey the theme of freedom used in the story. Freedom is displayed when Mrs.Mallard is yelling “free, free, free!” (7). Lastly, imagery is used to display irony in the fact that Mrs. Mallard dies of “heart disease - joy that kills” (8). In conclusion, Kate Chopin uses imagery to show that the news of a death is easily broken to someone afflicted with heart disease, a feeling of freedom is experienced by someone who just lost their husband and “Heart disease- of joy that

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