Response Essay of "A Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

A detailed Summary of Response Essay of "A Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

The first thing I noticed while reading "Story of an Hour" was the amount of irony Kate Chopin used throughout the story. This gave me a mixed reaction to her work. At first I didn't understand her usage of irony and thought that it made the story less somber than I thought it should be, considering the events.

The first irony I came across was in the way that Louise reacts when she is told that her husband, Brently Mallard is dead. But before Chopin tells us Louise's reaction, she explains how the newly widowed woman feels by describing the world according to her perception of it after the "horrible" news. Louise is said to "not hear the story as many women have heard the same." She seems to accept the news a little too calmly and goes to her room to be alone. It is now that I began to see the world as Louise did. The death of her husband had brought her a new world with pure life.

While in her room, we are told Louise sinks i

I have just accepted Louise's reaction to her husband's death, when the most unexpected happens; she is told that her husband is actually alive and he enters the room shocking everyone, but Louise is shocked to the point of death. The irony continues when the doctors say she has died of heart problems. Yet it is mentioned afterwards that her cause of death was joy. As the reader I was able to see this, especially after hearing her explanation earlier on. She actually died because she had had a glimpse of freedom and could not accept to go back to living under her husband's will again.

This reaction was completely unexpected by me, but I accepted it because I felt Louise had given an adequate explanation. She had grown excited and began to fantasize about living her life for herself. With this realization, she wishes that "life might be long," and she feels like a "goddess of Victory" as she walks down the stairs. This became an eerie foreshadowing for an even more

Some common words found in the essay are:
Brently Mallard, Kate Chopin, kate chopin, amount irony, reader able, louise's reaction, told husband, free free, irony story,

Approximate Word count = 655
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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