It Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," you can immediately tell that its not going to end well. From the get go you learn Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition, and her husband has just died, at least so we think. Throughout the story it is her grieving over the death of him. they tell her that she needs to come out of the room "-you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door"(p. 338). however through all this grieving, in the end the irony comes out. she must have been imagining that her husband had died. "Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered…"(p. 338). In the end her husband is fine the was the one who inevitably passed away from her heart disease, although it almost seems like the shock alone from seeing her "dead" husband might have had a part in her dying. Another ironic thing about her death is that even though the author describes her as young, she still dies. The irony of her husband being alive kind of throws a twist in at the end of the story.
In "The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allan Poe uses irony a little bit. It seemed more difficult to follow than that of Chopin's story. But it seems the narrator is friends with Fortunato. The narrator talks of turning back because he is worried about the health of Fortunato, "we will go back; your health is precious,"(p. 526). This is showing almost that the narrator has compassion. But in the end he leaves Fortunato in the tomb to die. The narrator states "In pace requiescat!" (p. 529), this means may he rest in peace. So the irony is that even though it seems the narrator cares for fortunato, he leaves him for dead. The last bit of irony Poe throws into the story is that Fortunato actually means "fortunate or lucky."
Hey Joseph, I noticed how you pointed out some of the various ironies throughout both of the stories. I felt the reasoning behind using irony in Chopin’s story was to stress to the reader the level of repression that Mrs. Mallard felt. She was elated at the newfound freedom provided by her husband’s death. However, that freedom ends her life. I could almost feel her pain. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, I felt that Poe stressed so many different ironies throughout the story as a way of allowing the reader to understand Montresor’s contempt for Fortunato. In my opinion, the achieved effect was to portray Montresor as a reasonable man and not necessarily a monster. After all, “for the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne [it was not until] he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (par.1).
ReplyDeleteJoseph, I like what you said about she must have been imagining that her husband had died. Although kind of confusing because it was clear in the beginning when her husband's friend Richards "...had been in the newspaper office when intelliefence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of 'killed'." (337). This sounds like a definitive confirmation that her husband is dead. So here we think that her husband has passed away then shows up at their house which gives the reader the idea that she may have died from the shock and sight of him being there. But then we learn that this woman lived a typical life of women during that time of repression, being beneath and controlled by her husband. I was confused because just like I just stated that list that her husband was on confirmed that he was killed. So maybe she was imaginging that. Did you get confused from that?
ReplyDeleteyes chopin's story was more difficult for me to understand. it was a little confusing at times. but i see what youre saying about possibly her dying from shock of her husband being alive.
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ReplyDeleteJoseph,
ReplyDeleteIts true since the beginning of “The Story of an Hour” we can tell it’s going to have a strange ending. I really don’t think she was grieving over her husband because when she gets up and goes to her room and starts seeing the beautiful things outside her window “she could see the open square before her house the top of trees that were all acquirer with the new spring life the delicious breath of rain was in the air” (Chopin). To me this quote is very interesting because it symbolize a new beginning for her she is born to be a new person and free. In “The Cask of Amontillado” I disagree with you lol I saw a lot of irony especially in the dialogue. We start to see this at the beginning of the story for example when Fortunato and Montresor see each other for the first time Montresor mentions “ My dear Fortunato, you are luckily meet. ( Poe ). But we find out that he is not so lucky he is just part of Montresor evil plan to kill him.
Hello!!! Joseph,
ReplyDeleteIn "The Story of Hour" as you mention since the beginning we notice that there is something wrong and that the story is not going to have a happy ending. I guess what gives you this negative idea is Mrs. Mallard "Heart problem." this problem make you believe that us going to be the cause of her death but it i all the contrary. Her hear problem is related to her feeling, she was not happy with her life there for her "heart was not healthy." so the great irony about her death is that she actually was happy about her husband death and the fact that he was alive meant that she was going to lose her freedom, and had to go back to that sad life where she was going to be a prisoner in her house and controlled as a machine.
In the "Cask of Amontillado" there is many symbols and especially dialogues that present irony. the two biggest examples i can give you are the fact that Montresso was worry about Fortunatos cough... while Montressor was planning his confined demise. another one is The fact that Fortunato that wass depicted as a very rich man with high class, and power was dress and describe as a clown that was fooled to be in some way murder.
Good Job man.. hope my insights are helpful in the understanding of these two short literary works.
Hi,Josepth!I believe that you try to understand both stories, but you could not find the irony aspects of them. Well, in "The story of an Hour" The story stuation is an irony because Mrs. Mullard is not sad because of her husband death. She feels happy because she imagine herself free. Her death is not because she was happily suprised by her husband return; instead of that, she died because she was not free, and she was goint to live with her husband again. Also, another ironic aspect was the setting because if someone was died, the setting should be melancholic, but it was vivid.
ReplyDeleteThe Edgar Allan Poe story is full of irony. The character's names, the setting and the dialogues are ironic. When you said that Montessor is worried about Fortunato because Montessor say that Fortunato's health is precious, the real meaning is not that, he uses this kind of frases because he wants Fortunato feels safe, and Fortunato can go with him with no problem. Montessor intention is evil, so he pretend to be the perfect friend to kill Montessor.