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 into a comfortable chair and looks out her window. Immediately the image of comfort seems to be out of place. I wondered why she was comfortable and why she wasn't so upset that she did not start to beat the furniture instead. Next, the widow is gazing out the window and seeing all these signs of spring and the new life it symbolizes.
             Another part I found ironic were the descriptions used to describe the scene outside the window. They were as far away from death as possible. "The delicious breath of rain...the notes of a distant song...countless sparrows were twittering...patches of blue sky...." These are all beautiful images of life; I was quite confused by the way she was observing things until Louise began to explain her actions and why she was viewing the death as a new beginning.
             The widow whispers, "Free, free, free!" It is here that Louise realizes that even though her husband loved her, he held her back in ways men and women can sometim
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