The Irony of Louise Mallard’s Widowhood In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the author disturbs the reader through the character of Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Louise Mallard is a coldhearted woman who is happy at the news of widowhood, unbeknownst to her family and friends. Mrs. Mallard’s train of thought throughout the story is unexpected and shocks the reader at every turn, but teaches the reader a few things about relationships in the process. Situational and dramatic irony are created through the interpretation of Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death and through her own untimely death. Two different events in this story shock the reader through situational irony. Situational irony occurs when the reader’s expectations of the story are met with an unexpected occurrence, something that the reader wouldn’t have guessed would happen. The first incident takes place shortly after the main character, Louise, is told that her husband has died in a railroad accident. Her immediate reaction is predictable; she clings to her sister and sobs because her husband is dead. When a person loses a loved one that person goes through a mourning period to grieve for the loss and to cope with the death. What the reader is unprepared for, however, is not this display of emotion directly after the news of the accident. Rather than devastated by his death, Louise is overjoyed. Rather than absorbing the news as some women, “with paralyzed inability to accept its significance” (444), she understands at once. Alone in her room, “she said it over and over under her breath: ‘Free, free, free!’” (445). The speaker then makes a statement to soothe the reader in acknowledging that yes, Mrs. Mallard should be shocked at her own thoughts, just as the reader is, when she writes, “She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial” (445). The speaker tells us that Mrs. Mallard’s newfound joy blinds her to the callousness of the feelings she is experiencing, but which must obviously surprise the reader. The ensuing thoughts cause the reader to view what we otherwise might have assumed was a happy marriage as a relationship that was not necessarily dysfunctional in the sense that most would think (abuse of some kind), but was nonetheless unhappy on the part of Mrs. Mallard. She thinks to herself:
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. A kind intention of a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it. (445)
Mrs. Mallard was restricted in her marriage. Her actions and her life were controlled by her husband’s wishes, not her own. She doesn’t necessarily blame her husband for the unconscious oppression he placed on her; she thinks of the manipulation as something not uncommon, although not necessarily justifiable, between fellow human beings. And thus we learn that it is not exactly the death itself that makes her joyful, but the promise of what the death signifies to her that makes her happy. She admits that she did not always love her husband, but that “she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her” (445). This statement tells the reader that Mrs. Mallard did, in fact, have some kind feelings towards her husband. So, although the reader is appalled at first with Mrs. Mallard’s unfeeling thoughts after the news of her husband’s death, the irony of the episode forces us to acknowledge, if not understand, her reasons. The second occurrence in the story that stuns the reader is Louise’s untimely death. The great care that is taken in the beginning of the story to protect Louise from the shock of her husband’s death, and her happy response lead the reader to believe that she will continue her life with her newfound freedom. At the beginning of the story the reader is told that, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (444). When a character in a story is saved from death, or escapes a situation unscathed, or is triumphant in a conflict, the reader is lead into a false belief that the character will continue to live, or remain unharmed, or be the victor. Thus, Mrs. Mallard, being protected and cared for as she is, and after remaining alive and in control of herself after the first shock of her husband’s death, it being so carefully explained and she being so unexpectedly and secretly happy about it, becomes an indomitable character to the reader. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (446). Her thoughts of “a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (445) and “Spring days, summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (446) falsely lead the reader to expect that she will live to see those days. Also, the reader is as surprised at the appearance of Mr. Mallard, unharmed and unaware, as are the characters in the story. We are only just warned of what is to come when Josephine yells and Richards moves to block Mr. Mallard from the view of his wife. This effort of behalf of Richards is in vain, because Mrs. Mallard sees her husband, and in her shock, has a heart attack and dies. The reader is left stunned at the death of the main character of the story that both gained and lost her life in a matter of a few hours. There are also two events in the story that create dramatic irony through knowledge that the reader, but not the characters possess. By knowing something that the characters don’t, the reader may analyze the story from a removed point of view; the reader knows what’s really going on, whereas the characters do not. The first of these events is when Josephine is begging her sister, Louise, to leave her room because she fears that she will harm herself. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door—you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door” (446). During this scene the reader knows that Louise has found something to live for and is basking in the warmth of this realization. “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her” (446). Josephine, on the other hand, as anyone else would have assumed, thinks that Louise is in distress over the death of her husband and should not be left alone. Her heart condition is a cause for concern and Josephine thinks that the emotional impact of the situation may be too much for her sister to handle. Louise, however, is enjoying thoughts of the future for which she will have to live only for herself and is not in the least distressed or forlorn. She only leaves her room for her sister’s sake. Even as she held on to her sister’s waist and descends the stairs, an unnoticed display of her new self-possession is expressed in her posture. “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (446). Obviously, both Richards, a close family friend, and Louise’s own sister believe that she was happy in her marriage and that the death of Brently Mallard would have quite a painful effect on the widow. The pair is much mistaken in their worries, a fact that only the reader and Mrs. Mallard are aware of, and which creates dramatic irony that impacts the reader. The second issue that creates dramatic irony, and is perhaps the most ironic point of the story, is the reason that is given for the main character’s death. The last line of the story is truly ironic. It is well known that Mrs. Mallard has a heart disease and that she has been sheltered and babied because of the condition. Although the reader is stunned at her death at the end of the story, what is more shocking is the reason that the characters believe caused Louise to die. The last line of the story reads, “When the doctors came they said she had died of a heart disease—of a joy that kills” (446). This sentence makes a profound effect on the reader because the reader has knowledge that the characters don’t have. Louise died for precisely the opposite reason that all of the character’s guessed. She died because she found that her husband lived and she knew she wasn’t free from her marriage at all; her life still wasn’t hers to live and control. This was the shock that killed her—in the moment that she saw her husband all of the happiness and hope that she had gained in the previous hours of contemplation were lost to her. None of the characters knew of the unhappiness that she tolerated during her years of marriage and the resentment she held for being controlled by her husband, and, since Louise dies, none of the characters will ever know. This is why the final line of the story leaves the reader incredulous. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin shocks the reader at several different points in the story. Chopin uses irony through the creation of Mrs. Mallard, with her unconventional response to becoming a widow and her subsequent death from a heart attack, to make a statement about relationships. Sometimes relationships can be so restricting that even something as terrible as a death is a huge relief for the person who feels trapped; emotional abuse is hardly given any consideration as society concentrates on physical and sexual abuse as the main causes for concern in a dysfunctional home. Love and marriage are always viewed “through rose colored glasses;” society would like to believe that everything always works out and that everyone lives happily ever after. We can’t blame Mrs. Mallard for being happy at the thought of being freed from a relationship she found restricting, even if we may view her attitude as harsh. The cold truth is that sometimes, even if love exists to some extent, relationships can be emotionally dysfunctional to the point of being detrimental to one or more of the persons involved.