Literary Style of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” explores the psychological and emotional transformation of Mrs. Mallard upon hearing of her husband’s death. Through irony, symbolism, and third-person narration, Chopin reveals the tension between societal expectations of women and their suppressed longing for independence. The story’s brief yet profound depiction of liberation exposes the constraints of marriage in the 19th century, illustrating the fleeting nature of female freedom within a patriarchal society.
References
Berenji, Fahimeh Q. “Time and Gender in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’” Journal of History, Culture & Art Research, vol. 2, no. 2, 2013, pp. 221–234.
Berkove, Lawrence I. “Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’.” American Literary Realism, vol. 32, no. 2, 2000, pp. 152-158.
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Jimcin Recordings, 1981.
Shen, Dan. “Non-Ironic Turning Ironic Contextually: Multiple Context-Determined Irony in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” Journal of Literary Semantics, vol. 38, no. 2, 2009, pp. 115-130.
Reference
StudyCorgi. (2025, October 11). Literary Style of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”. https://studycorgi.video/literary-style-of-chopins-the-story-of-an-hour/