Symbolism and Irony in The Story of an Hour

There are many things that can happen unexpected throughout life this is known as Irony. There are three different types of Irony, there’s Situational Irony, Dramatic Irony, and Verbal Irony. Situational Irony is when the opposite of what the characters and readers expect to happen happens like when you see a police officer of the peace getting arrested. Then there is Dramatic Irony which is when the reader knows something the character in the story might not know yet. The last example of Irony is Verbal Irony which is a twist of words to say things that might sound sarcastic like; this cake is as soft as concrete, meaning that the cake is too hard to be eatable. Symbolism is also used a lot to identify people or objects that mean something more that is actual literal meaning like when you see the United States flag it symbolizes freedom, also the 50 stars on the United states flag mean our nations 50 states, and when you see the 13 red and white stripes it symbolizes the first 13 colonies the U.S. had.

There are many examples of Symbolism and Irony in “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin. This is a story about a woman named Louis Mallard who has heart troubles and is told her husband, Brently Mallard, is dead; as she cried over her loss she realized she was finally free from her husband. She made everyone think she was so depressed about her husband passing while going down stairs but deep inside she held a secret which was that she was actually glad for this tragedy. Then a turn of events occur where everyone including Mrs. Mallard see her husband standing at the front door, she was so shocked she had

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a heart attack. The doctors said she was so excited that she died of the “joy that kills.”

A manifold of examples...

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All these were examples of the Ironic and Symbolic references I identified in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Kate Chopin uses all this Symbolism and Irony to add more effect to infancies the things she wanted te reader and audience to know.

Works Cited

123 helpme Editors. “Symbolism in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” 123 helpme. 123 helpme, Inc., N.d. Web. 17 Mar 2014.

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Heritage of American Literature. E.d.

E. Miller. Vol. 2. Austin: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991. 487. Print.

Lorcher, Trent. “Irony in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” Bright Hub Education. N.p., 17

Apr 2012. Web. 17 Mar 2014.

Shmoop Editors. “’The Story of an Hour’- heart troubles.” Shmoop. Shmoop, Inc.,

N.d. Web. 17 Mar 2014.

Westwood, M. “What are examples of Verbal Irony in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” E- notes. E-notes, Inc., 30 Sept 2013. Web. 17 Mar 2014