Blog 3 - Irony

     Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is full of irony. It is ironic that Mrs. Louise Mallard is young but dies from heart failure. “She was young, with a fair, calm face.” (Chopin,338) “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills.” (Chopin, 339) It is ironic that the sky resembles her situation. “There were patched of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.” (Chopin, 338) There is the huge dark moment of death, however there is still light shinning through, and that is her freedom. It is ironic that her husband, Brently Mallard, supposedly dies in a train accident, but Brently he was not even on the train. “He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one.” (Chopin, 338) The most ironic part was not only that Louise dies instead of Brently. But that Louise is soaking in her freedom and rejoicing all of her wonderful time to come. She is thinking about the long life that she is going to live all be herself. “She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window. Her fancy was running a riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.” (Chopin, 338) Her dreams are interrupted by her husband walking through the front door. Instead of living that long, wonderful, free life, her life actually ends at that moment. 

     There is also irony in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe. It is kind of hard to follow. It seems as though the narrator of the story is imagining that his old friend, Fortunato, is with him on the trip down to the vault. Although, it is possible that he kills Fortunato while they are in the vault. While on the trip the narrator is worried about Fortunato’s health and tries to do what is best for him. “We will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible.” (Poe, 526) It is ironic that the narrator thinks so highly of Fortunato and does not want to be responsible for what happens to him because the narrator is the one who kills him. “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” (Poe, 525) In the end we learn that his revenge is death. “In pace requiescat!” (Poe, 529), which means may he rest in peace. I also think the name, Fortunato, is ironic. I think of “the fortunate one” when I hear this name. However, in this case he is not so fortunate because he is killed.


                                                      Ironic???