Irony In Kate Chopin's Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin’s Story of Irony

In the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin irony is exemplified in a few ways, such as the care her friends put into telling her the news of her husband’s death, Josephine worried about Mrs. Mallard while locked away in her room, and the “heart attack” Mrs. Mallard suffered. Her friends put care into telling her of her husband’s death because they thought the news would be devastating to her which at first it was but after some time to think she was glad he was gone. Secondly, Josephine was worried about her mother being locked away in her room by herself after hearing the news, but what Josephine did not know was that Mrs. Mallard was “drinking from the very elixir of life.” Lastly, the heart attack she suffered after seeing her husband alive and well wasn’t actually because of the joy of his return rather because the revelation and moment of life she just experienced was

Mallards heart attack. The doctors diagnosed that she died of a heart attack “of joy that kills” but it may not have been from the joyful or sudden surprise of her husband’s return rather it may have been because the revelation and freedom she had just discovered was all for nothing. What’s ironic is that we the readers and the other characters in the don’t know which one she really died from. We can assume that she died because her overbearing husband who she thought was dead was alive, but the other characters can only assume that she dies from the shock of her lost beloved husband was found alive. While she was locked away in her room dealing with the grief of her husband’s death, she realized that now she was free and could do whatever she wants, then when her husband shows up alive all that is taken away. Sadly, her family nor the audience will ever get to know the real cause of her death weather from the joy of her husband’s return or the grief that she is back under his