An Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

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The short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a famous piece of literature widely recognized throughout the entire literary world. It is about how a wife, Louise Mallard, hears the news of her husband's horrible train accident which ultimately led to his untimely death. The plot twist of this short story is that, in fact, her husband, Brently Mallard, is very much alive and comes home as if nothing happened. Mr. Mallard was not around the area of the accident or even knows of its occurrence. Which explains why he appeared home unscathed. The appearance of Mr. Mallard causes Mrs. Mallards supposed death. Kate Chopin fully illustrated that marriage isn’t always as blissful as people assume and believe it is to be. Also that oppression in a marriage can cause conflict and strip away ones joy, happiness and freedom. What helps reiterate this theme is the reoccurring dramatic and situational irony throughout this short story.
In this short story it is mentioned that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble and in the end died from that very disease. Mrs. Mallard was already physically and emotionally weak from the very beginning causing her sister Josephine and Mr. Mallards friend Richard to tell her the sad news of her husbands death with great care. After hearing such heartbreaking news from her sister, Mrs. Mallard, “wept at once, with wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms,”(Chopin 236) which clearly demonstrates her vulnerably weak and dependent side on others. Following this event Mrs. Mallard excuses herself and goes to her bedroom to grief and be alone. The entire bedroom scene is when the readers then witness a completely different side of Mrs. Mallard. A side of not a grieving women who just los...

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...ng her back. She was even thinking of the years to come and how she would spend them. She actually liked the idea of it. The idea that those years to follow she'd live for herself and no one else. Nothing to hold her back anymore, no more hesitation. The dramatic irony in this short story is the scenes directly following the situational irony. When Mrs. Mallard died not of heart disease that was clearly stated in the beginning of the short story, but because of the surprise of her husband’s return alive and very much healthy. The shock that her new found freedom was only within the time span of one hour. That very freedom was only worth such a short duration of time and it was not even well spent.

Works Cited

McMahan, Elizabeth. Kate Chopin. “Story of an Hour”. Literature and the Writing Process. 10th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Longman, 2012. 236-237. Print.

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