Chopin and Gilman do not only use the setting to present the profound desire of freedom and autonomy of their main female protagonists; they also employ irony to criticize and to change the misogynistic society. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” uses many deep ironies to express the desire of freedom and selfhood. For example, as other characters (Josephine and Richard) think that Louise is “making [herself] ill in her room” (Chopin 426), after her husband dead she is “she was drinking the very elixir of life through [the] open window” (Chopin 426). There is no grief and no pain associated with the loss of her husband. The irony is indicative of the need to suppress patriarchal oppression.…
Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” has a sad beginning, an understandable middle, but an odd ending. I was upset for Mrs. Mallard in the beginning when she learned of her husband’s death. At first, I just assumed that when Mrs. Mallard “wept at once,” she was just acting like a normal distraught wife. She had heard that her husband had died, and I thought her being upset was acceptable. I did not think anything about it until you get further along in the story.…
Even though the readers originally neglected The Awakening and The Storm for their not so naïve content, these writings are, after all, a genuine portrayal of women and their sexual awakening, true portrayal of their emotional and intellectual traits. Both stories take place in Louisiana, and seems like it was the environment of Louisiana that contributed to her imagination and her development as a writer. With her vivid local descriptions and beautiful imagery, Kate Chopin provokes and inspires our thoughts to seek for more. She was one step further from her generation and she knew that her writings are too controversial for them.…
Recently I sat down to read Kate Chopin's short story, The Story of an Hour, at the recommendation of a friends. At just over 1,000 words it's a very short story indeed, it was a fun read that really drove home the idea that a lot can happen in an hour. It also provided some excellent examples of irony as a literary device done right. If you haven’t read it before, check it out at Kate Chopin International Society's website. Shortly after finish the story (it’s really only a couple of pages, if that) my boyfriend, playing with friends on Xbox live as he often does, started laughing when of his mate’s spaceship crashed into a meteor.…
Acceptance, freedom, love, and lust, these conflicts arise in The Awakening by Kate Chopin as Edna Pontellier struggles with her internal conflicts. Chopin uses foils to demonstrate Edna’s evolution in the novel. In a time where women are expected to be subordinate, Edna defies the standards and her oppressive husband. Two polar characters, Adèle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, exemplify compliance and individualism. These women act as foils and provide references to the reader in understanding Edna’s awakening of herself and society.…
However in the article ““The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in the Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour” by Mark…
The window in which she gazes at is the newfound freedom with which she is presented. While she looks as the window, Chopin inserts explicit language to describe Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, “’ Free, free, free!’” Mrs. Mallard is no longer the woman “afflicted with a heart trouble,” but “a goddess of victory.” A situational irony comes to place when Mrs. Mallard does not react to her husband’s death in the way women are normally perceived to react. This irony reveals Mrs. Mallard’s desperation for freedom; she was content with her husband’s death if it meant regaining her freedom.…
During the late nineteenth century naturalism was a major influence in literary society. Naturalism emerged as a response to overly idealistic and imaginative works of the romantic era, as an extension of realism, and in attempt to portray life as it really was. Elements of naturalism vivid imagery and a strong cultural influence in narratives. Of the many typological roles in the late 1800’s, the role of women as the supportive wives was quite common.…
Chopin’s portrayal dissects human emotion, and more specifically Mrs. Mallard’s initial struggle with her husband’s death, and emotion that follows afterwards. Delving into the complexity of human psyche, Chopin constructs a world out of subtle imagery and raw emotion. By examining the story’s imagery and Mrs. Mallard’s personal reaction to the news of her husband’s death, we argue that Chopin uses an indirect characterisation of Mrs. Mallard to explain her feelings towards her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard’s range of feelings after her husband’s death exemplifies the complexity and depth of human emotion. Initially succumbed to shock, a flurry of emotion is expected, especially when it relates to a death.…
Mrs.Mallard had up to this point “bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (P.8). Chopin distinctively highlights that freedom was a subtle thing (P. 9), despite her personification of freedom as something creeping out of the sky fearfully. This kind of simple and…
Husband Brently Mallard enters the house only to bear witness to a piercing cry and his wife drop dead. Joseph Kelly denotes that the intricacies of Chopin’s work “helped energize feminists in her own day and continues to do so today,” (Kelly 99). The point of this paper is to argue the notion that “The Story of an Hour” is a piece of literature that unintentionally opposes the idea of feminism through the relationship between Mrs. Mallard and her husband. In an…
In her article “Kate Chopin, February 8, 1851-August 22, 1904,” Sara Davis states “ 'The Story of an Hour ' turns on a series of artful modulated ironies that culminate in a somewhat contrived ending” (Davis 65). The first of these several instances of this occurred when Mr. Mallard 's friend, Richard, makes sure to affirm his name with a second telegram. However, towards the end of the story it turns out that Mr. Mallard is not even involved in the accident (Chopin 284). Another example of irony is stated when “Her pulse beat fast, and then the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (284). The very thing that is the representation of life, which is blood, is the very thing that is described in the end of her life.…
Feminism can be a peculiar word, plenty of people tend to misinterpret the word when it is used and a lot of people, mostly men, tend to get defensive when the word is mentioned and they have their reasons. Unfortunately, we live in a world where women get treated very differently than men. Throughout the history women have struggled against gender discrimination in all aspects of life, whether it is economically, politically, or socially. Equality with men is what the women always want/wanted but, it was always extremely difficult to achieve for women, that’s why a lot of women dedicated their lives to help one day achieve equality for all the women in the world.…
In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, a married woman receives news of her husband’s death. The reader follows Mrs. Mallard through her unusual emotional reaction to her husband’s death. In this time period of this story, the late 1800s, it was not unusual for women to marry young and take on all of the household responsibilities. Not many people cared whether the women loved their husbands or their families; the primary focus was on their purpose in the household. The language used throughout the story contributes to the imagery of freedom and life, and shows the reader that marriage is a form of oppression in this time period.…
Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard By analyzing The Story of an Hour, Chopin employs several techniques in her writing to effectively characterize the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard. One can perceive Mrs. Mallard in a variety of perspectives due to the deliberate planning of characterization that allow the reader to identify with her, employing different writing techniques in the plot to create symbolic meanings that indirectly give the reader a sense of who she is becoming, and by incorporating the notion of liminality. These elements help to “shape” Mrs. Mallard’s personality and allow the reader to comprehend Chopin’s reasoning for portraying Mrs. Mallard in that specific manner. Chopin’s thoughtful formation of Mrs. Mallard help the reader…