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Story Of An Hour Irony Analysis

866 Words4 Pages

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” readers are dropped into a deep conflict. A man must tell a woman that her husband is dead. In the beginning there is a subtle hint at the ironic twist ending, but the story goes on cooly in spite of it. Readers start to feel connected to Mrs. Mallard and begins to pity her situation, all because of irony. The effect of irony in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” enhances the protagonist’s situation, it introduces the effect of the foreshadowing, and indirectly characterizes the protagonist. The irony in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” enhances the protagonist’s situation by revealing a deeper meaning. The quote, “She had loved him - sometimes. Often she did not. What did it matter!” shows that although Mrs. Mallard was married, she had not always loved her husband (8). Mrs. Mallard valued her new freedom over her relationship she had with her husband enough to exclaim “What did it matter!” while she was thinking about her deceased husband and her future life (8). This makes the reader assume that Mrs. Mallard felt as if she was bound to something while her husband was still alive. The bondage is broken since her husband’s “death”, and she can now rejoice over her prolonged freedom. This next quote, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers…” hints that Mrs. Mallard was bound in the ways of the Victorian Era (7-8). A time in which men

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