The Story of an Hour Essay Example for Free

The Story of an Hour Essay The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard, who learns that her just died in an accident. As I continued to read the story I learned that Mrs. Mallard, was not your ordinary grieving widow, she is actually somewhat happy of the news of her husband’s death. Chopin uses symbolism and irony to show readers the world through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes. Symbolism was a strong term in the story, mainly because Chopin uses symbols in many of her paragraphs. Also the author uses irony to get readers to understand why she is so happy that she is free of her husband. The two literary elements that are prevalent in the story is symbolism and irony because Chopin uses them the most to create different feelings in the readers’ minds. In the â€Å" Story of an Hour† Chopin uses symbolism as much as she can throughout the story. The symbolism begins when Chopin says â€Å" the delicious breath of rain was in the air† (23). I believe this means she is about to start a new life, and that she can finally start living for herself. Another example, is â€Å" there stood facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair† (23). The open window symbolizes being open to change; the adjectives roomy and comfortable symbolizes a feeling of being embraced, a feeling of love and security. While looking through the window Chopin describes other symbols such as: The warm weather which suggest life rather then the cold of winter that symbolizes death. I believe the quote â€Å" were all quiver with the new spring life† (23), symbolizes a new life to come, or maybe something new and exciting was about to happen in her life. The setting of a â€Å" delicious breath of rain† in the air refers to the calmness and quietness after the storm (23). I believe Chopin uses that to refer to Mr. Mallard’s death and the new life she will have now that she is free of him. Another thing outside the window are the â€Å" singing of birds† and â€Å" the distant song of someone who was singing (23). This symbolizes a feeling of relief that she is finally free of her husband, almost as if a burden has been lifted from her shoulders. In the story, Mrs. Mallard is described as being â€Å" a fair, calm face† (23), symbolizing beauty and innocence. I believe Chopin used the symbols in an underlying way to give the readers a feeling empathy for Mrs. Mallard. In â€Å"The Story of an Hour† this is much irony used throughout the story. Irony is first detected in the way Mrs. Mallard reacts to the death of her husband. Instead of reacting like a typical grieving widow, she accepts it and wants to be alone in her room, where she visualizes her life being better off without him rather than missing him. Another example, of irony is when Mrs. Mallard whispers, â€Å" free, free, free† (23). But as the story continues, we learn that ironically she really isn’t free because Mr. Mallard didn’t die after all. Another thing that is ironic is when the doctors say she died of the â€Å"joy that kills† (24). In reality the doctors are correct, but they don’t understand what joy actually killed her, it wasn’t the joy of her husband being alive, but rather that she was finally able to live her life without him. The recognized irony in the story was the fact that Mrs. Mallard was excited about her new life, but ironically she only gets to enjoy her new life for an hour before she dies. In closing, Chopin uses symbolism and irony to get the readers to understand the underlying message that she was trying to get across. Symbolism and irony are two very important literary elements because they provide the story with incite and heighten the readers expectations and interest throughout the story. I feel that Chopin did a very good job in implementing irony and symbolism into the story especially when trying to get the readers to view the world through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes and to describe her state of being regarding her husband’s death.