Story Of An Hour Irony Analysis

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about a woman named Mrs. Louise Mallard who just receives news that her husband had died in a terrible train accident. The story goes on to reveal her ambiguous feelings about her husband and marriage. Just as she finally accepts the fact that her husband is really gone and starts to look ahead as to what the future holds, she dies. Throughout the story, many instances of irony are shown in various forms. Dramatic irony is shown when Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine is begging her to come out of her room so she doesn't make herself ill with grief. Dramatic irony is also chosen when the doctor claims that heart disease was the cause of Mrs. Mallard's death. Another type of irony shown in the story is situational irony. This was exemplified with Mrs.Mallard's reaction towards hearing the news of her husband's death. These examples of irony all come together to reinforce the overall theme that others’ perception of marriage does not always align with the reality of how things

really are.
One example of dramatic irony used in the story was disclosed when Louis Mallard locked herself in her room over the news of her husband's death. Her sister Josephine is on her knee outside the closed door trying to get her sister to come out because she is afraid that she will “make [herself] ill”(chopin 2).Josephine expects her sister to be in the room grieving, however, the readers know that she was “drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window”(chopin 2). This example of irony goes to show the viewpoint of marriage from an outsider's point of view and the person actually in the marriage. In this case, Josephine expects that Louise is supposed to be sad over losing her husband. The irony of the whole situation is that Mrs.Mallard is actually happy about her newly discovered freedom.
Situational irony is another type of irony shown in the story. An example of it was displayed with Josephine trying to break the news of Mr.Mallard's supposed death to her sister. In the duration of the story, it is clear that Mr.Mallard is dead. But as soon as Mrs.Mallard has gotten over it and is ready to face the new life that awaits her “like a goddess of victory” she finds out that her husband isn't dead but “ waiting for them at the bottom” of the staircase. The shock of seeing that he wasn't really died killed her. This demonstrates that we don't always get what we want both in marriage and life. What the world thinks one may want is completely different from what they actually want. For example, Josephine was trying to prevent her sister's death because she assumed that she would be hurt over the death of her husband, but by trying to prevent the death she actually caused it. Josephine incorrect news of Mrs. Mallard husband being died gave her sister false hope of a better future, which ended up being taken away from her when found out that her husband wasn't really died.
The ultimate example of irony is shown after Mrs.

Mallard death, and the doctor comes to determine the cause of her death and concludes that Mrs.Mallard “died of heart disease-the joy that kills”(chopin 3). This is ironic because of the outsider, in this case, the doctor thinks she died of the happiness of seeing her that husband wasn't really died. During that time period, it was automatically assumed that women should be simply happy and in love with their marriage. The reader knows that Mrs.mallard marriage was everything but simple. Although her husband didn't mistreat her and “she had loved him--sometimes” but even with that she felt that in the marriage she was losing her self-assertion. And that's what made their marriage so complicated because things seemed good to the outsiders but it wasn't until Mr.mallard supposed death that caused her realize that she wasn't as happy in her marriage as both she and the outsiders

thought.

In conclusion, irony plays a significant role in showing that marriage is not always what it’s thought to be because what an outsider perceives may not be the reality. When Mrs. Mallard husband passed her sister, Josephine, believed she was devastated over it, when in actuality she was overwhelmed by the newly found freedom that came as a result of his death. Another example of irony is when Josephine tried to gently break the news to her sister to prevent her death but in the end, it caused her death. Lastly, the doctor’s reason for Mrs. Miller’s death, not being heart disease but being in shock from her husband’s not actually being dead and all possibles of her having a chance of a new life disappearing. All these examples of irony come together to paint the picture that Kate Chopin was trying to depict that what an outsider sees is not how things actually are things really are because points of view are very subjective because everyone one has a different standpoint that differs from their neighbor