Art Of Irony in The Story of An Hour

Art Of Irony in 'The Story of An Hour' In The Story of An Hour, Kate Chopin uses a variety of literary devices ranging from third person narration, juxtaposition and irony to vividly illustrate the dramatic process of grievance, and alternately liberation, that Mrs. Mallard experiences under the impression that her husband has died. In the beginning of the short story, Chopin attempts to extend inklings to the reader of what is later to come in the story through the assertion that â€Å"Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble,† and that the other characters, her sister Josephine specifically, would â€Å"break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.† It might be perceived that Chopin’s intentions were to foreshadow Mrs. Mallard having a heart failure in response to the traumatic news if it were not delivered delicately. Chopin depicts Mrs. Mallard as a fragile being whom would be shattered both physically and emotionally when given the news of her husband’s death. Chopin then toys along with this predictable reaction describing Mrs. Mallard as to have â€Å"wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,† similar to how a â€Å"child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.† The use of such kinetic word composition and the comparison of Mrs. Mallard to that of a sobbing child portrays her as an emotionally obliterated, feeble woman – entirely devastated, the exact reaction Chopin had foreshadowed early on. Chopin then implements juxtaposition and irony when describing Mrs. Mallard’s feelings subsequent of her devastation. Up until this point in the story, all of Mrs. Mallard’s actions are seemingly natural. The reader would think it reasonable for a woman to be emotionally rattled at the news of her husband’s death, however Chopin twists this seemingly predictable narrative on its head by now revealing a sense of liberation in Mrs. Mallard. To initiate this shift in mood, Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard gazing at the sky not in â€Å"a glance of reflection,† however a glance which â€Å"indicated a suspension of intelligent thought,† and this described â€Å"suspension of intelligent thought† puts a pause on Mrs. Mallard’s remorseful thoughts and serves as a gateway into her newfound freedom. Chopin further describes the positive ascension of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts through the phrases â€Å"her bosom rose and fell tumultuously,† while whispering, â€Å"free, free, free,† â€Å"over and over under her breath.† Through this description, Chopin seems to reinvent Mrs. Mallard in an almost evil way as she is finding peace within her husband’s death. A reader might associate Mrs. Mallard’s â€Å"tumultuous† chest movements and repetition of a single word with the clich?, evil, methodical laugh of a villainous character that rises in richness at the expense of another (the laugh then commensurate to Mrs. Mallard’s happiness at the expense of her husband’s life). Chopin has recreated Mrs. Mallard in a way that makes her seemingly selfish in that she has achieved contentment through the death of her husband when the orthodox reaction should be a sense of remorse. Chopin therefore creates irony in two ways: one through the juxtaposition of how Mrs. Mallard should feel and how she actually feels and the other being how Mrs. Mallard achieves emotional uplift through an inherently wrong (according to societal expectation) response to the situation. Referring back to the potential foreshadowing in the beginning of story, Chopin seems to create a full circle effect at the end of the story. The very last line of Chopin’s short story proclaims that â€Å"she (Mrs. Mallard) had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills.† This ending serves as a full circle ending as it ties Chopin’s beginning statement, â€Å"Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble,† to the end of the story: Mrs. Mallard’s death via heart failure. The irony then amounts from the cause of Mrs. Mallard’s heart failure. Chopin has illustrated the story so that the reader knows Mrs. Mallard’s heart failure is from the negative shock of knowing her husband is alive while the characters in the story believe Mrs. Mallard’s heart failure is from positive shock, hence â€Å"the joy that kills.† This irony and juxtaposition of what actually happened and what is perceived to have happened (by the characters in the story) is made entirely possible through Chopin’s choice of third person narration. Through third person narration, Chopin exposes both sides of the situation: Mrs. Mallard’s internal thoughts, her feelings of liberation and freedom, and the external thoughts of the other characters, the feelings that Mrs. Mallard is desolate. By divulging the juxtaposing views to the reader, Chopin creates an ironic dichotomy. Through this ironic dichotomy, the reader gleans the unadulterated truth of Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death thus establishing a personal relationship between the reader and the character of Mrs. Mallard, all of which Chopin uses as a strategy to effectively illustrate Mrs. Mallard’s emotional development throughout the story.

To what extent are class, racial and gender inequalities inter-related Essay

To what extent are class, racial and gender inequalities inter-related (in the UK) - Essay Example Researching wealth enables us to move beyond the snapshot picture of short-term gendered economic inequality that we obtain when we analyze wages and onto exploring the longer term buildup of gendered economic inequities. In this way, the intensity of the economic disadvantage women face can be better revealed and its implications better analyzed. Gender is a key variable in the analysis of inequalities in wealth and is the focus of this article. Yet the sociological and economic literatures on womens and mens economic positions reveal an increasing focus on other, non-gendered, social differences. Paying more attention to these other social divisions’ means that we are able to develop a fuller understanding of the picture of economic advantage and disadvantage in contemporary society. In the 2002 special issue of Feminist Economics devoted to theorizing gender, caste, race, and class, Rose M. Brewer, Cecilia A. Conrad, and Mary C. King (2002, 6) lamented the fact that much of the research published in the journal has centered purely on gender and, in so doing, has neglected the ways in which gender is shaped by other divisions. Examining only what unites women and separates them from men passes over major, significant divisions such as race and class that have ramifications for understanding the experiences of different groups of women and men in society. Put simply, as bell hooks (2000: 19) asked in her well-known critique of the feminist call for equality with men: [S]ince men are not equal in a white, supremacist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want to be equal to? The attention that is now being paid to class, race, and other divisions, alongside gender, reflects the impact of an increasingly sophisticated theorizing of social divisions that has raised two pertinent issues for our understanding of inequalities in society. First, one of the core characteristics of a

Case Study - Mr. Brown, Heart block Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

- Mr. Brown, Heart block - Case Study Example Brown did not want a pacemaker in his chest. In this context, the ethical principles which are involved along with identifying alternatives and developing a suitable action plan for solving the ethical problem relating to this case has been depicted. Steps To Take When Solving Ethical Dilemmas A 70 years aged patient, Ed Brown was admitted in the hospital suffering from the problem of third-degree heart block along with the syncopal episodes, weakness as well as fatigue for around 21 days. In consultation with a cardiologist, it was observed that Mr. Brown required a stable pacemaker which was conveyed to the patient and thus an approval was obtained thereof. However, while being taken to the holding area, Mr. Brown changed his mind deciphering strong reluctance to undergo the operation. He communicated with the nurse regarding his wish. The information was then conveyed immediately to physician. After attending the patient in the holding area, the physician then suggested Mr. Brown to discuss the entire procedure. The examples referred above depict one of the common phenomena witnessed in medical treatments where patients often change their decisions just prior to the surgery due to anxiety or uneasiness or emotional dilemma. The key players engaged with the case can be identified as the patient, Mr. Brown, the nurse and the physician or surgeon. Apparently, Mr. Brown’s wish was to regain his health while the interests of the nurse and the physician was to render adequate health assistance to the patient and ultimately cure the problems with which he was admitted to the hospital. From an in-depth perspective, the wish of the nurse was to assist the patient in order to serve him with appropriate healthcare without hampering his interests. In this context, a strong influence of emotional strength can be witnessed which in turn motivated Mr. Brown to reject undertaking the medical treatment with the pacemaker surgery just before he was being taken to the h olding area. The emotional interests of the patient in this context can be identified as his willingness to have no other injuries on his body because of surgery. It can also be affirmed that as Mr. Brown was already 70 years old, he might have preferred to die with dignity without taking the support of a machine to live a longer life. This gave rise to the dilemma for the medical practitioners to secure their medical obligations of to preserve the emotional interests of Mr. Brown. Dilemma With regard to the case study, it has been viewed that the main dilemma was that the cardiologist desired to perform the surgery to set pacemaker in Mr. Brown’s respiratory system so as to satisfy his professional obligations to secure patient’s health and preserve life. In the similar context, the nurse also desired to preserve Mr. Brown’s life serving his with adequate medical assistance, but simultaneously ensuring that his emotional interests were not hurt. On the other ha nd, the reluctance deciphered by Mr. Brown a few minutes prior to the surgery before being placed in the holding area can be assumed to be his anxiety of undergoing such a major operation or his emotional interest to face death with dignity. Hence, even though the moral concerns of all these key players can be identified as just and appropriate, the clash between patient’s emotional interests and practitioners’ professional interests gave rise to the conflict. According to the case study, it can be stated that in such circumstances, in case the surgery