“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is very intriguing, not only because of the emotional change that Louise Mallard feels through the hour following the tragic death of her husband but also the way Chopin uses irony in the story. During this analysis of "The Story of an Hour", we will discuss the summary, plot, setting, tone, theme, point of view, emotions of Louise Mallard and other characters involved in history. Chopin's story uses the feelings of a married woman in the late 1890s and female identities to help the reader better understand a woman's married life during this time period. In the story, Louise Mallard is a young woman suffering from a heart problem who has just learned of the death of her husband. At first, she is sad, then a wonderful feeling begins to invade her, it is happiness; freedom, even if she doesn't feel it for long. “She knew she would cry again when she saw the kind and tender hands clasped in death; the face that had never looked at her except with love, frozen, gray and dead” (Chopin 2). “And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often, she had not done so” (Chopin 2). Kate Chopin uses nature imagery, irony and tragedy to define the theme; the role of women in marriage and feminine identity. “Marriage was considered a sacred institution. Divorce was quite rare in the 1800s and if it were to occur; men automatically had legal control of all property and all children” (Hicks 1). From the perspective of Chopin's short story, the narrator uses a non-participatory approach to tell the story in the third person with limited omniscience. Whether or not the reader is more sympathetic to the narrator using the first person depends on the story. In this story, I think reading...... middle of paper...... Rpt. in 20th century literary criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Flight. 127. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Word count: 3263. From the Literary Resource Center.2. A preview of “The Story of an Hour.” Jennifer Hicks. Short stories for students. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Word count: 1457. From the Literature Resource Center.3. Emotions in The Story of an Hour. Sr. Selina Jamil. The Explainer. 67.3 (spring 2009) p215. Word count: 2612. From the Literature Resource Center.4. Chopin's "The Story of an Hour". Daniel P. Deneau. Explainer 61.4 (summer 2003): p210-213. Rep. in News Criticism. Flight. 110. Detroit: Scabies. Word count: 1555. From the Literature Resource Center.5. Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. 7th ed. Cengage Learning, 2010. 106-108. Print