Literature101: Mrs. Mallard’s Ironic life in Kate
Chopin’s “A Story of An Hour”.
The ironic
circumstances often happen in human life, which occurs randomly as the opposite
of the previous expectation. There are several types of irony: verbal,
situational, and dramatic irony. As in A Story of An Hour, which was written by one of the famous American authors, Kate Chopin. This work was written on April 19th, 1894, and
well-known as Chopin’s most popular work. This story highlights the dramatic
irony element in it. Merriam-Websters defined dramatic irony as an incongruity
between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions
that are understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.
Regarding the
chosen literary work above, we surely know that a literary device exists within
the work itself. However, it is impossible if literary works such as a poem,
short story, or even novel do not contain at least one literary device. In
short, we can define the term literary device as the writing technique of
literary works, which the writer intends to use as the attention-getter.
Another function of the Literary device is to work alongside plot and
characters to elevate a story and prompt reflection on life, society, and what
it means to be human. Therefore, this article aims to elaborate how dramatic irony
highlights in Kate Chopin’s work “A Story of An Hour”, specifically explains
how ironic Mrs. Mallard’s life as the main character in this story.
This short
story began by presenting a married woman named Mrs. Brently Mallard, who was afflicted
with heart trouble. Suddenly, her sister informs her that Mr. Mallard was died
due to a railroad accident. Mrs. Mallard was cried out, went to her room, and
locked the door. Suddenly, she felt something new in her soul as if there was
no burden anymore in her life rather than when Mr. Mallard was still alive. An
unexpected moment happened when the new Mrs. Mallard went downstairs, and
someone was opening the door. It was Mr. Mallard who entered the house. This
circumstance was led Mrs. Mallard to her death due to a heart attack after
seeing her husband was still alive. Mrs. Mallard’s relatives assumed that she
died due to a “joy that kills".
Concerning the plot above, so where could we found the dramatic irony element from this
story? Let’s do a small analysis using The Narrative Pattern of Literary
Genre:
Through the narrative pattern of the story, we can consider that Kate Chopin’s “A Story of
An Hour” is perhaps categorized as dramatic irony since it narrates Mrs.
Mallard’s attitude from her freedom to an ironic reality. The freedom moment
itself is indicated by the time Mrs. Mallard heard the news regarding the death
of her husband due to a railroad accident, she was felt joyful and said: "Free!
Body and soul free!", it was because when her husband was still
alive, he did not treat Mrs. Mallard as a lovely wife.
Unfortunately,
the ironic reality appears when Mrs. Mallard learned the truth – yes, it was
Mr. Mallard; he was safe from the accident, which makes Mrs. Mallard died due
to a heart attack. The ironic things within this story arose when Josephine and
Mr. Mallard's friend named Richard thought that the death of Mrs. Mallard is
a joy that kills.
Through the analysis
of narrative patterns, the result elaborates that Kate Chopin’s A Story of An
Hour highlights the story of the dramatic irony of Mrs. Mallard’s life. We can
see from the freedom of Mrs. Mallard to the unexpected reality that caused her
to death. Since in the dramatic irony, the readers might know what is going to
happen in the story.
References
Cohan, S., &
Shires, L. M. (1988). Telling stories: A theoretical analysis of
narrative fiction. Psychology Press.
Todorov, T., &
Todorov, T. (1975). The fantastic: A structural approach to a literary
genre. Cornell University Press.
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/
(short story’s text)
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/22-essential-literary-devices#22-different-types-of-literary-devices-and-how-to-use-them
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony
https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/story-of-hour/summary
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