Mrs. Mallard's Irony In 'The Story Of An Hour'

Wives are set too high expectations and standards to their husbands which has been created by society, media, traditions, and culture. These expectations are seen as unrealistic because, in fact there is no such woman as the perfect wife which can lead to her feeling stressed and pressured. This fear of not meeting the bar of being the ideal wife can lead into multiple psychological disorders. Kate Chopin previews the women’s feelings of marriage in her short story “The Story of An Hour”, through the feminist lens by using literary devices such as irony.
Woman are normally seen as weak while on the other hand, men are considered strong and dominant over woman in society and mostly marriage. Chopin demonstrates this in multiple ways by implying that the Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist, is a weaker woman that cannot handle much. She does this by explaining to her audience of the current heart condition that Mallard has as well as letting her be seen as a troubled soul that has no stability in her life much less in her marriage. The …show more content…
This literary device is mostly used with Mrs. Louise Mallard; for example she leaves to her room after learning the news of her husband’s death and is thought to be mourning but instead finding a revelation of freedom from her marriage. Cosmic irony lies within the bad situation of her life; she is excited for her new life of undefined freedom but once, she sees that her husband is alive her freedom is taken from her and falls to her death. ”It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (“The Story of An Hour”, Chopin, 359.) represents perfectly the fate of her husband’s death which is actually her death. Her heart condition as well as the grief that Mallard experiences; represents through a feminist eye that women are more emotional than men, which allows her to be seen as the weaker