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. It also ironic that only one hour after breathing
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She uses verbal irony to describe the narrator conversation with her husband. For instance, when the narrator says: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 486), she shows that her marriage is unilateral. She has no voice in her marriage. Her husband takes all the decision ad he is control of every single aspect of her life. She also uses verbal irony to describe her feelings toward her husband. For example, she “gets unreasonably angry at John sometimes” (Gilman 487), she makes it feels like it wrong for a woman to develop anger and frustrations toward her husband. The society does not allow that kind of behavior. Verbal irony denotes the loss of self-expression. Moreover, Gilman uses dramatic irony to show that the perception of woman in the society do not always fit with the conventions for example, she says that she feels better because she has discovered the secret of the yellow wallpaper, but the reader can see that something is wrong with her finding an abstract object (wallpaper) alive. The greatest irony of “The yellow Wall-Paper” is the failure of the rest cure prescribed by her physician husband and brother. As physician, it is expected that John succeed to cure his wife from her depression, but he fails. Instead, she is driven to insanity. The failure of John represents the failure of men to …show more content…
They present characters who are repressed yet who desire freedom. The use of the setting such as garden, spring time characterizes this desire of freedom and self-assertion and rebirth of the characters. Finally, both short stories employ irony to describe the process of freedom and present men’s blindness in front of the situation. Although the protagonists in both the stories have a tragic end, they succeed to achieve self-assertion and autonomy. Through literature, women have found their voice, and they have written history from their point of
She uses verbal irony to describe the narrator conversation with her husband. For instance, when the narrator says: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 486), she shows that her marriage is unilateral. She has no voice in her marriage. Her husband takes all the decision ad he is control of every single aspect of her life. She also uses verbal irony to describe her feelings toward her husband. For example, she “gets unreasonably angry at John sometimes” (Gilman 487), she makes it feels like it wrong for a woman to develop anger and frustrations toward her husband. The society does not allow that kind of behavior. Verbal irony denotes the loss of self-expression. Moreover, Gilman uses dramatic irony to show that the perception of woman in the society do not always fit with the conventions for example, she says that she feels better because she has discovered the secret of the yellow wallpaper, but the reader can see that something is wrong with her finding an abstract object (wallpaper) alive. The greatest irony of “The yellow Wall-Paper” is the failure of the rest cure prescribed by her physician husband and brother. As physician, it is expected that John succeed to cure his wife from her depression, but he fails. Instead, she is driven to insanity. The failure of John represents the failure of men to …show more content…
They present characters who are repressed yet who desire freedom. The use of the setting such as garden, spring time characterizes this desire of freedom and self-assertion and rebirth of the characters. Finally, both short stories employ irony to describe the process of freedom and present men’s blindness in front of the situation. Although the protagonists in both the stories have a tragic end, they succeed to achieve self-assertion and autonomy. Through literature, women have found their voice, and they have written history from their point of