Story Of An Hour Personification Analysis

sting extensifies her sorrow in contrast to happiness. Similarly in ‘The Story of an Hour’ happiness is shown in this way when she repeats ‘Free! Body and soul free,’ and this repetition shows a repeated insight of her feelings of euphoria and liberty which contrasts to her other emotions. ‘The Story of an Hour’ makes use of personification such as ‘monstrous joy’ and ‘a long procession of years’ to bring to life her emotional state and show to the reader how conflicted her feelings are. The use of ‘monstrous’ shows that perhaps her joy is something which she is scared of as she is experiencing it for the first time and the ‘long procession’ mirrors a funeral procession and therefore the reader can feel her unhappiness at this stage. ‘Monstrous joy’ also is an oxymoron and portrays that she is experiencing multiple emotions before happiness is felt, and that this event has made complex feelings arise. This contrasts to Maupassant's use of listing to portray Mathilde’s unhappiness in ‘The Necklace’

‘The trees were all aquiver with new spring life’ and ‘the sparrows were twittering’ show that her happiness is associated with joyful, pleasant ideas and this contrasts to her other emotions that she felt such as grief and confusion. The trees being described as ‘aquiver’ shows that they are not constant, like how Mrs Mallard’s happiness is not always felt and when felt is short lived. The use of the words ‘new spring life’ convey that this feeling is something that has never been felt before (new) and the positive idea shows that happiness is clearly being felt. She is being compared to sparrows or birds which are seen as having freedom; and are around during spring time when ‘new spring life’ emerges. They are ‘singing in distant song’ depicting that her happiness is still far away but close enough to be felt and thus creates a positive