The Story of an Hour, like other works by Kate Chopin, is one with many twists, hidden meanings, symbolism and irony. Kate Chopin always seems to have a surprise for her readers. I believe irony is shown throughout Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death, Josephine’s concern for Mrs.
Mallard when she locked herself in her room and with the twist at the end of the story. When Louise Mallard was told that her husband Brently Mallard has been killed in a train accident, she cried.The irony is that she was not crying out of sadness that her husband was now gone. She was crying because she was happy that he was gone. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips.
She said it over and over under her breath; “Free, free, free! ” Her repetition of “free” shows her excitement for his death. These words show Mrs. Mallard’s new sense of herself and a new confidence as she envisions her future. The story suggests that Mr. Mallard was quite possibly a controlling husband.There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. ” This gives an explanation for why Mrs. Mallard would want her husband dead. Irony is also evident in the story when Josephine is worried that Louise has locked herself in her room and she is making herself ill when in fact she is actually contemplating how wonderful her life is going to be now that her husband is gone and won’t be coming back.This was portrayed through the words “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” and “there was a feverish triumph in her eyes and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.
” In typical Kate Chopin fashion, she has a twist for the readers at the end of the story. The event that starts the story off is quickly undone at the end. The story concludes with something the characters tried to avoid at the beginning. The characters are under the impression that Mr. Mallard is dead when in fact he is not.Ironically, the characters had to treat Mrs.
Mallard delicately when breaking the news of her husband’s death because of her “weak heart,” but in the end she dies anyway. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills. ” The characters are left with the impression that Mrs. Mallard had died from the overwhelming joy of seeing her husband alive when in fact she died because of the despair she felt from her husband not being dead like she had wanted. The Story of an Hour is a story filled with irony.
Chopin surprises her readers throughout the story in such a short amount of time. Chopin uses irony to surprise her readers. She first surprises her readers with Louise’s overjoyed reaction when she first murmurs “free” to herself. She shocks us again at the conclusion when she dies upon Mr.
Mallard’s return. The irony of the “heart disease” mentioned at the end of the story echoes the “heart trouble” discussed at the beginning, enhancing the twisted ending and bringing the story to a satisfying close.
