The perception of death poses a variety of emotions for different individuals across cultures. There are some who associate it with grief, sentiments of sadness, and fear because they perceive death as the end, while others find death inevitable and decide to face it with a mere appreciation of life itself. Despite the different emotions corresponding with one’s perception of death, there is a unique twist on this inevitable part of life in Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour.” Death indicates an initial sensation of freedom for the main character Louise Mallard in this story when she believes to have lost her husband in a tragic train crash; however, one may see it later controlling Mrs. Mallard with her own sudden death at the
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Mallard’s heart troubles. A literary analysis of the irony in Chopin’s work states that Chopin purposely chose to word the first line and the last line of the story describing Mrs. Mallard’s heart to portray both irony and symbolism in this story (Shen 66). Mrs. Mallard’s sister beats around the bush to tell Mrs. Mallard the news of her husband’s death because she believes the news will be so devastating that it will kill her. However, Mrs. Mallard’s response was not what anyone expects: “her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 426). One can infer that she felt relieved to know that her husband has died. When Mr. Mallard walks through the door and Mrs. Mallard discovers her husband is alive and well, she suddenly dies herself. Mrs. Mallard’s death is ironic in several ways. First, no one expected Mrs. Mallard to collapse to her death. Instead, she was supposed to have a new beginning in life. Second, the characters in the story believe that she is so over joyed that her husband is still alive that the joy killed her. When in fact the reader knows that she is far from joyful to see that she has yet escaped the oppressiveness of marriage. Mrs. Mallard’s broken heart is symbolic because she has heart disease and her heart is metaphorically broken because she cannot live the life she wants to live without facing the oppressions of her marriage (Shen
Mallard’s heart troubles. A literary analysis of the irony in Chopin’s work states that Chopin purposely chose to word the first line and the last line of the story describing Mrs. Mallard’s heart to portray both irony and symbolism in this story (Shen 66). Mrs. Mallard’s sister beats around the bush to tell Mrs. Mallard the news of her husband’s death because she believes the news will be so devastating that it will kill her. However, Mrs. Mallard’s response was not what anyone expects: “her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 426). One can infer that she felt relieved to know that her husband has died. When Mr. Mallard walks through the door and Mrs. Mallard discovers her husband is alive and well, she suddenly dies herself. Mrs. Mallard’s death is ironic in several ways. First, no one expected Mrs. Mallard to collapse to her death. Instead, she was supposed to have a new beginning in life. Second, the characters in the story believe that she is so over joyed that her husband is still alive that the joy killed her. When in fact the reader knows that she is far from joyful to see that she has yet escaped the oppressiveness of marriage. Mrs. Mallard’s broken heart is symbolic because she has heart disease and her heart is metaphorically broken because she cannot live the life she wants to live without facing the oppressions of her marriage (Shen