"The Story of an Hour": An Ironic Dream.
In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" the first paragraph lays the groundwork for the irony that exists throughout the whole story. It lets you know from the beginning that Louise Mallard has some type of heart trouble before she even finds out about the death of her husband, Brently. "The Story of an Hour" contains a variety of different types of irony, situational, dramatic, and cosmic ironies are used.
Since Mrs. Mallard had heart trouble her sister, Josephine, wanted to break the news to her gently. Richards, Brently Mallard's best friend, was the one who had to be reassured about the death of his friend through a second telegram about the railroad accident. When Josephine told Louise about the accident, she told her little by little, because she did not know how Louise would take the information given to her. Now Louise not only had heart trouble literally, but emotionally also. This represents situational irony in a way, because those are two things that just should not happen to someone at the same time. Yet Louise did not react in the same way that most people would have.
Instead of trying to deny the truth, she instantly burst into tears, and fell into her sister's arms. She cried instantly, in the type of way that she kind of wanted him gone. When she finished crying, she went to her room to be alone. In her room a great deal of dramatic irony comes through. While in her room, the story lets us know that Louise feels quite differently than what Josephine and Richards thinks she feels. They think that she is in her room making herself ill thinking about the situation at hand. In all actuality she is in her room in a comfortable chair facing an open window. Out the window she sees positive views that form a cheerful connotation for symbolic meaning, yet there is sadness inside of her. The blue skies come to her allowing her to feel free from being trapped.
