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Story Of An Hour Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard, who had to be informed of her husband’s death very carefully because she had a heart condition. After her sister notified her of the accident her husband was in, she cried and locked herself in her room until she started to accept and appreciate her new-found independence. When Mrs. Mallard came out of the room and walked downstairs with her sister, to her surprise, her husband walked in the front door. Mrs. Mallard had a heart attack from an overwhelming amount of shock and joy. Three very important rhetorical devices that help to emphasize the details of the experiences that occurred throughout Mrs. Mallard’s life are imagery, repetition, …show more content…

Mallard was looking at out of her window. She uses kinesthetic imagery when describing the movement of the trees. She evokes olfactory imagery through her description of “the delicious breath of rain” in the air. Her use of auditory imagery is especially prevalent when she writes, “The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.” The use of imagery is pointed out when Chopin personifies the fear that is “creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.” Chopin’s vivid use of imagery to make the story appeal to several of the senses represents Mrs. Mallard’s discovery of being “free” which is what she repeats many times throughout the …show more content…

Mallard mourned about her husband’s loss until she realized that she was going to like having her life to herself. Chopin writes how “Mrs. Mallard saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” This is situational irony because she believes that she will be able to enjoy the next years of her life on her own, when that very life was ended within minutes. It is also ironic that she was happy about her husband’s death and he was the reason that her life ended. There is also irony in the fact that Mrs. Mallard is said to have “heart trouble” when she must not only have trouble with her heart as a health concern, but also on an emotional

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Mallard reaches a sense of exuberant liberation. She is overwhelmed with feelings of a newfound freedom. Chopin illustrates this burst of hope once again through nature imagery when she writes, “But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air”(Chopin 237). Though Mrs. Mallard tries, she cannot fight the growing sense of freedom that overtakes her. Chopin writes this change as a powerful realization that Mrs. Mallard cannot help but accept.

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Self-Identity and Freedom The story of an hour by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to her husband’s death. In this short story, Chopin portrays the complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as she is saddened yet joyful of her loss. Kate Chopin’s story argues that an individual discovers their self-identity only after being freed from confinement.

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(Chopin, the Story of an Hour)” It would be prudent to believe by the way Mrs. Mallard was crying that indeed she was devastated about her husband’s tragic death.

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