Chopin's The Story Of An Hour And Emancipation: A Life Fable

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In both her short stories The Story of an Hour and Emancipation: A Life Fable, Kate Chopin presents the them that no matter how terrifying freedom can be, it is always superior to confinement. She does this using literary devises such as tone, symbols and irony.
The two texts convey the theme of freedom over confinement by the use of symbols. In The Story of an Hour, after Mrs. Mallard rushes to her room she sits down in a comfortable chair and “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were aquiver with new spring and life.” The open window symbolizes freedom and opportunities that await her now that her husband is gone. Everything she is experiencing while looking out the window suggests feelings of joy and …show more content…

In The Story of an Hour when Mrs. Mallard walks down the stairs she sees someone opening the door. “It was Brently Mallard who entered.” At the sight of seeing her husband she dies instantly and the doctors claim it was “a joy that kills.” This is an example of situational irony in that the doctors believe it was it was happiness that killed her while in reality Mrs. Mallard was feeling anything from happiness when she saw her husband. It was the thought of returning to the limitations and loss of freedom that comes with marriage that led to her death. In Emancipation: A Life Fable when the animal had the choice between going back to the cage and facing the dangers that come with freedom he chose the latter. And “So does he live, seeking, finding, joying and suffering. The door which accident had opened is opened still, but the cage remains forever empty!” While the animal is hesitant at first he eventually choses freedom even though he faces great dangers and suffering. Both texts display the theme through irony that no matter how difficult freedom is, people have a natural tendency to gravitate towards it in opposition to the limitations and repression of

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