Story Of An Hour Foreshadowing Analysis

Imagine waking up in the morning thinking it was a normal day, but by the end of the day, you’ll be dead. In “The Lottery,” a village is stuck in a malicious tradition where one person is killed at random each year. In “The Story of an Hour,” a woman unexpectedly dies, “of the joy that kill”(Chopin 3). In both “The Lottery,” and “The Story of an Hour,” the author uses foreshadowing to hint at death, but each author uses it in their own way.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,”she uses stones to foreshadow death. In a small village people gather stones once a year to take part in a deadly version of dodgeball. When the villagers found out Tessie Hutchinson had the black dot and was the one to be killed, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones”(Jackson 11). Jackson says, “that they still remembered to use the stones,” she is hinting that they are going to use the stones. While Jackson uses stones to foreshadow death Kate Chopin uses something else in “The Story of an Hour.”

In the Mallard house,Mrs.Mallard dies of the joy that kills when Mr.Mallard comes in. “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey”( Chopin 3). When the door was about to open everyone was wondering who was opening the door. Chopin uses foreshadowing continuously to Mrs.Mallard's