Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

In the following passage from “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard has just come into a sense of freedom from her husbands passing. Only to have that stripped away from her when her husband returns form work. Brently, having no idea what has happened, stands stunned at the sight before him. Chopin reveals both victory and defeat for Mrs. Mallard in this passage. Victory being finally feeling a sense of freedom that she had not felt in so many years, and defeat being dying from the single thing that withheld her freedom.
The use of irony by Chopin shows how the person that gave Louise Mallard a sense of freedom took it away in a split second. In the quote, “a feverish triumph in her eyes”, Chopin shows uses the word feverish to show that Mrs. Mallard has this new energy about her because she now feels a sense

Mallard is seen to receive victory not by the death of her husband, but by the freedom that his death brings; that freedom ends up being the death of her. Chopin states “she carried herself unwittingly”. By this Chopin can bring to attention that Mrs. Mallard was not happy that her husband had just died, but unintentionally felt a sense of relief from not being under his control anymore. Many people never realize what is holding them down until it is gone, and then when it is gone they feel like a new person. When Brently comes into the situation it says, “he stood amazed”. He had no idea what was happening in that house, or what had even been going on. Much like he was with his wife. The amazed expression comes from not knowing what to do in that situation. Chopin can show the defeat in Mrs. Mallard when she said, “she had died of a heart disease”. The heart disease she had died from is a broken heart. As soon as she had received her freedom it was taken away, and it was too much for her to handle. Ultimately, it would have been better for Brently to be dead than to return like he did because his return was too much for Louise to