Notes

Chopin uses irony in “Story of an Hour” to develop the theme that joy is impossible without freedom. At the beginning of the story the main character, Mrs. Mallard, is told “in broken sentences” that her husband has been killed in a railroad disaster, and immediately begins to sob “with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” Ironically, she has “lines” on her “young… calm face” to physically represent many years of “repression” and restraint by her husband; of him forcing her to live his way and not allow her to “live for herself”. Mrs. Mallard’s “storm” of emotions arrives all at once at the news of her husband’s passing and after years of her husband “[imposing] a private will upon” her, she is unable to control her emotions; her feelings seem to explode. As her mind clears up, her tears of sorrow ironically become of joy and happiness and she begins pondering about her new free life. Mrs. Mallard decides to be alone after she is informed of the horrific news, and goes to sit by an open window displaying a blissful “new spring life.” There is irony in how after such a tragic part of the story, the tone is much more optimistic, rather than depressing. Mrs. Mallard is eager, for her “free, free, free” future without a protective husband’s “will bending hers.” After a little while alone in the room, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, knocks on the door, concerned for Mrs. Mallard’s wellbeing. Josephine exclaims to Mrs. Mallard that being in the room alone “will make [her] ill,” but Mrs. Mallard is too busy fantasizing about her peaceful life of freedom to come: “she [is] drinking in a very elixir of life.” Just as Mrs. Mallard leaves the room with Josephine, Mr. Mallard walks into his home as if no accident had happened, and Mrs. Mallard dies from the shock: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills.” The most ironic part of “Story of an Hour” is that Mrs. Mallard ends up dying from the horrific reality of losing her joy and freedom, not from the joy of seeing her living husband. In conclusion, Chopin uses irony throughout the story to help emphasize Mrs. Mallard’s overwhelming feelings of joy that came with freedom.