“The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin has a
lot of irony throughout the story. One of the examples that I noticed was “Her
husband’s friend Richard was there too, near her. It was he who had been in the
newspaper office when the intelligence of the railroad disaster was received,
with Brently Mallards name leading the list of ‘killed’ ” (Chopin 337). Reading
that sentence in the beginning made me believe and think he was dead but in
fact he never died, he was far from the scene of the crash and had no idea of a
crash ever happening. Another example of irony in the story is in the beginning
of the story we are informed that Louise Mallard has a heart condition, and what
was ironic about that is she did not die when she found out that her husband
had been killed, but she died when she saw him walk through the door and
realized he was actually alive. I believe Louise was in a way happy about her
husbands supposed “death”. “There would be no one to live for during those
coming years; she would live for herself…and yet she loved him-sometimes. Often
she had not” (338). It’s ironic knowing that her enjoyments of her husband’s
death lead to the fatal reaction to him being alive.
There is also Irony in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” written by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the first examples I noticed of irony is Fortunado’s name which in Italian it means good fortune and good luck, it’s ironic because as I kept reading the story I realized Fortunato does not have any good luck or fortune. One example of irony is that us the readers know about Fortunato’s death, but Fortunato has no idea why the narrator is leading him down to the vault. Another example is when the narrator becomes so concerned about Fortunado’s health, “Come,” I said with decision, ‘we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible” (Poe 526). Its ironic that the narrator cares so much about Fortunado’s health when the narrator knows he is going to be the one to kill him later.
Hi Amanda, I also found it ironic in Chopin’s story that Mrs. Mallard died when she saw her husband alive, and not when she heard that he had been killed. She had already begun fantasizing about how great her life would be with out him, and when she saw that he was still alive I believe she was overwhelmed with sadness and grief and died. I also agree that Poe used irony several times throughout his story. I found it humorous that the Fortunato who’s name mean fortune and good luck, fell upon bad fortune and was killed. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely agree with you about how ironic Chopin's short story was. The use of irony was apparent from the very beginning of the story till the end. At first we hear news of Mrs. Mallards husbands death from an accident then at the end we find out that her husband is not dead, he is actually alive. Mrs. Mallard felt that she was finally set free because her husband was now supposedly dead. She felt that possibly now she would be able to do whatever she wanted as she pleased. Towards the end I felt a sense of hopelessness because Mrs. Mallard never had the opportunity to make her dreams come true. I also felt bad that women during this era felt trapped by their husbands. I feel very grateful that society has changed some and now women do have more of a voice as opposed to back then.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with you on the irony of “The Story of an Hour”. I was very shocked to find that she was happy of his death and that she couldn’t wait to have the rest of her years to herself. It made me wonder if he was a bad husband to her if she was so happy of his death and ended up dying because he was still alive.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading “The Cask of Amontillado”, I got the exact impression of the character with Fortunato. He was so concerned for his health throughout the story but ends up killing him. One thing you had mentioned that I never realized was Fortunato’s name being ironic. His name means good fortune but in the end he never had good fortune and ended up dying.