Story of an Hour Essay Example for Free

Story of an Hour Essay â€Å"Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin is a story that reveals the true life of women during the victorian era. This tale is of a woman who is not upset about her husband’s passing and describes Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflicts. Throughout the story Chopin uses irony and metaphor to illustrate the message of women’s freedom. Kate Chopin also uses these literary devices for the audience to understand the nuances and ambiguities used in the story to portray women’s freedom. In the story Kate Chopin uses irony in her story to build suspense and thinking. She states, â€Å"the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed, and gray and dead.† This quote has foreshadowing but if you think about and analyze it closer you realize that its irony. The irony in this quote is when she states â€Å"dead†;Mrs. Mallard is not yet dead. With this quote Kate Chopin is trying to illustrate how Mrs. Mallard is ending up minute by minute. Nuances are the simple differences in the story. When you read the â€Å"Story of an Hour,† you have to pay close attention to the smallest detail even a period. For example in page 636 paragraph two she uses quotation marks on the word killed. Those quotation mark make the word â€Å"killed† make you think twice when you read it. Quotation marks are not used on words unless its something important. The nuance used in this word makes the word become foreshadowing, indicate forehand, do to the death of Mr. Mallard. â€Å"Story of an Hour,† contains metaphor to portray the theme of women’s freedom. For example Kate Chopin states, â€Å"There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.† In this quote you need to read between the lines, look closely and rethink what you have read. Chopin is making a vivid picture in the audience head so you can picture the â€Å"patches of blue sky.† This patches are being seen as hope and this is where metaphor takes place. In this short story a lot has happen and throughout every sentence there’s some ambiguity showing up. The quote of â€Å"patches of blue sky† can symbolize different things. For example, this can be foreshadowing that something good is going to happen because the sky’s brighting up. This represents her life lighting up as well; everything is going to change and she’s going to be her own. Women’s freedom thats what every women wanted during the victorian era. In the â€Å"Story of an Hour,† we find that good can be evil. We all think that a women’s dream is to get married and have a perfect family but to the generations before us thats not what they wanted. In the beginning of the story it seems that Mrs. Mallard would be depressed about her husband’s death but in reality she is happy because all the years to come she’s going to own them not her husband.