I found “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin very interesting. Throughout the story elements that kept coming across has to be irony and symbolization. It starts of by stating that Mrs. Mallard has a heart problem which right away made me think that something tragic was bound to happen as I continued to read. We then find out about her husband’s death due to a terrible railroad accident. As a normal wife will react towards this type of horrible news Mrs. Mallard was devastated, not wanting to accept the truth.

Mrs. Mallard then takes time to be alone and locks herself into her room where the irony of this story begins to take place. As Ms. Mallard is alone in her room staring through a window, which in the story it will symbolizes the new life she sees for herself. She starts to feel a sense of joy and freedom. The irony of the story is that due to her husband death she knows feels free. Mrs. Mallard is now in control of her “own” life. In the story she repeats to herself, “FREE, FREE, FREE.”  After reading how she felt only makes me assume that while she was living with her husband she was unhappy. I also believe that she really didn’t know how unhappy she was until this happen, until she actually felt the sense of being on her own where she will live for herself.

I also feel as Mrs. Mallard felt a sense of guilt for feeling this way after her husband death. The authors states, “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it , fearfully”. This convey that she was afraid of what she was feeling because maybe she understood that it wasn’t normal to have joy or relief in such a terrible situation.

Mrs. Mallard now hopes for a longer life whereas before she was afraid of it being long. The story states “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that window.” The window was a symbol of life where she saw all kinds of days she will be free, where she smelled fresh air and heard sounds that gave her a new reason to live.  Later in the story we find out that Mr. Mallard was actually alive and was not even near the accident that occur which is also something to think about because in the beginning of the story Richard states that he waited for the second telegram to assure it was him. At the moment of his arrival Mrs. Mallard dies of her heart disease.

Irony also takes place when the author states “When the doctors came they she had died of heart disease—- of joy that kill.” Now we can ask ourselves two questions was it the joy that of seeing her husband again or that fact that she just lost the joy she recently regained after feeling free again? In my opinion I believe that she died due to the fact that she was about to relive the life she had before.

1