Deus Ex Machina Literary Devices

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Deus ex Machina is an outside force or agent that suddenly appears to change the course of events. “The literary device of deus ex machina means to solve a seemingly intractable problem in a plot by adding in an unexpected character, object, or situation” (Literary Devices). It is a Latin term meaning "god from the machine". It is a popular contrived plot device in plays or novels. It can change the story’s action in a positive or negative way. Deus ex Machina can be used to resolve complicated or even seemingly hopeless situations in the plots of someone’s plays. This device can be found in the short story The Story of an Hour. It plays a huge role on the plot of the story and is very useful. This is a very important device to many different …show more content…

The outside force of the story is the fake death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband. This force is powerful because she loved him and could not imagine life without him because she would have no one to love which is, in her mind, the reason of her being. It changes the story’s action by automatically putting her life in danger because of her health problem. After being told the news, it is all she can think about. She is also emotionally unstable and con not handle horrible news like that. “When the doctors came they said she had died of a heart disease-of joy that kills” (The Story of an Hour). This was plausible because the reader is aware of her health problems and knows if something like this occurs, something could go wrong. None of the people close to her in the story wanted to break the awful news to her. This is because they all knew it was going to be extremely hard on her with her condition. This story is also ironic because in reality her husband was not dead so she stressed and worried about him being dead for practically no reason. Also right after she died, her husband got home. “He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. But Richard was too late” (The Story of an

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