Mariam Magarious
Professor Batson
College Writing 2
March 8th,2016

A very dull and boring story can be made into a great story simply by adding in something that is unexpected to happen. When the unexpected is used in literature it is known as irony. An author uses irony to shock the reader by adding a twist to the story. In “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm” both by Kate Chopin and her use of irony in the story is incredibly done more than once. Kate Chopin does a great job in placing irony into this short story and makes the reader understand that the unexpected happens in life. Kate's story is based on the idea that marriage in the late 19th century was viewed as oppressive. This was based on the fact that in the late 19th century woman had few rights in the public eye and their duties revolved around household chores and raising children. Feminism was not the only theme Kate used in this short story to entertain her readers, she also strategically placed literary ironies to keep the readers interest. In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” there is so much irony. Louise Mallard is about to be told about the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. This is for sure to take a toll on an old woman with a bad heart condition. One can start to feel the irony right after she is told of her husband’s death. She retreats to her room alone where she sits in a comfortable chair and stares out the window. It is what she sees out the window that shows some irony of the story. Through the window, Louise sees “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life.”The irony here represents that now Louise will have a new life. She now felt that she could live her life the way she had always wanted. “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.” Patches of blue skies showing through the clouds, the delicious smell of rain in the air, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. All these descriptions are irony that represent the new life that Mrs. Mallard was about to live. But this is when the story takes a different turn. Just as Louise was about to start living her fresh new life, Kate Chopin shocks the reader when Louise discovers that her husband was not dead after all.
In the short story “The Storm”, written by author Kate Chopin, irony is used to help plot a situation in which two people surrender to their physical desires. The way that the author hides the immoral behavior of her characters is behind the fear of the tempest in which the characters are placed. This is an example of irony. In the short story “The Storm,” Chopin tries really hard to convince her readers that Calixta was a victim of fear during the bad storm. Kate uses phrases to gather sympathy from her readers for Calixta. However, right before her act of betrayal, Calixta is worried about her child and husband being out in the storm and that makes her appear to be even more deceitful. The mere fact that she could be worried about her own family while committing adultery is ironic. Calixta remembers that she is the mother of a child, and still it does not stop her from having the affair with Alcee.
Throughout the “The Story of an Hour,” we are shown that Mrs. Mallard is not a woman of her time. Chopin uses literary elements of irony and symbolisim to convey the true feeling of her character. We are show the feelings of a woman who was not necessarily blittled by her husband but restrained by her marriage due to the time she lived in.