The Story of an Hour Irony and Symbolism Essay Example

The Story of an Hour Irony and Symbolism Paper In Kate Chopins short story The Story of an Hour, the narrator portrays issues of love, freedom, and independence on a physical and mental level. This story was written based on the 19th century woman. The time when a woman had minimum rights, and barely had a role in society. Even in a loving relationship, a woman was still unequal to a man; she did not have the freedom she desired. Chopin uses irony, symbolism and reverse theory to express Louise Mallards thoughts as she grieved her husbands death and embraced her newly found freedom. Throughout the text, Chopin uses two types of irony; situational and dramatic. This story is mainly based on ironic issues, meaning that the readers are portrayed one picture and the opposite thats not expected is what eventually happens. When Mrs. Mallard received the news about her husbands death, she faced a series of mixed emotions, which were kind of conflicting. She briefly grieves her husband, and at the same time is bombarded with thoughts of the free life that awaited her with this occurrence. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sisters arms alone. She would have no one follow her {paragraph 3}. The dramatic irony comes to play when Josephine, Mrs. We will write a custom essay sample on The Story of an Hour Irony and Symbolism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Story of an Hour Irony and Symbolism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Story of an Hour Irony and Symbolism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Mallards sister is worried that her sister has locked herself in her room tearing up, when shes really in the room thinking about how wonderful her lifes going to be. Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door†you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heavens sake open the {paragraph 17}. Another instance of dramatic irony is at the end of the story right before Mrs. Mallard dies. The author presents a situation where Louise Mallard dies of being overjoyed at the sight of her husband. In reality the rony is that she dies of the shock and distress in seeing her husband standing before her. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease†of Joy that kills {paragraph 23}. Symbolism the particular idea or quality that is expressed by a symbol (Merriam- Webster). In this story the author uses symbols to represent her ideas in expressing Mrs. Mallards feelings. There are three major uses of symbolism in this story. The first example of symbolism is Louise Mallard being afflicted with heart trouble. The heart trouble signifies her discontent with her marriage and the sadness at her absence of freedom. The second occurrence of symbolism is the opened window. The opened window represents freedom, as Mrs. Mallard lets out the old air in the room and lets go of her old life she welcomes the fresh air and a new life. The new life she is now about to experience now that she is finally free from her unhappy relationship. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air {paragraph 5}. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory {paragraph 20}. Chopin also uses the statement above from paragraph 20 to show symbolism. The symbols in this paragraph are feverish triumph and goddess of victory. This represents Louise triumph and being victorious over her restricted marriage. There would be no powerful will bending to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature {paragraph 14}. The idea of reverse theory is used to bring a little twist into the story. Reverse theory is actually used throughout the story but is not revealed until the end. Throughout the story, the author makes the audience believe that Mr. Mallard died in a tragic railroad accident. At the end of the story it is revealed that Mrs. Mallard was the one that actually died at the shock of seeing her husband. When she saw that her husband did not die, her thoughts and vision of a new life were shattered, and thats when the story became tragic in reality and ended with the passing of Louise Mallard. The theme of Chopins story is very unified, starting and ending the story emphasizing on Mrs. Mallards heart issue, which portrayed a mental and physical significance to her life. Ironically, the last hour of Mrs. Mallards life was victorious for her and she had a chance to envision part of the freedom that she always wanted.

Free Essays on Gargantua

Francois Rabelais’ Gargantua: A Record of Life in Contemporary 16th Century France Francois Rabelais’ satirical book Gargantua appeared as Europe was experiencing the widespread transition from the late middle ages into the early modern era. During this period of the High Renaissance, a shift in consciousness and values was occurring that was typified by the new movement of humanism. Rabelais illustrates this new humanist mentality through his biographical writings of a giant named Gargantua. Embedded within the story of Gargantua’s life lies Rabelais opinions and attitude towards religion, individualism and the institutions of the church and the monarchy. Throughout Gargantua, Rabelais criticizes such subjects as scholasticism, belief in the supernatural, the adherence to rules, the monarchy, the church and the vice of monasticism, and advocates a humanist education and individualism. Through his use of diverse and comical characters placed within a racy and scatological storyline, Rabelais is able to give the reader a unique glimpse into the i ntellect and morality of contemporary French society at a time in between eras. He opens his work with a piece supporting the authenticity of the record of the young giant’s genealogy. According to Rabelais’ Gargantua, Grandgousier, the giant king of Theleme, and his wife Gargamelle were expecting a child. It was during the eleventh month of Gargamelle’s pregnancy that she had eaten too many tainted tripe and gone off to play games and frolic at the Willow-grove. It was here that Gargamelle began to feel â€Å"disturbed in her lower parts†, and proceeded to give birth to a child from her left ear. This large child was appropriately named Gargantua. Though this sounds strange and unbelievable, Rabelais supports his statement with following argument: Is this a violation of our law or our faith? Is it against reason or against Holy Scripture? For my part I find nothing... Free Essays on Gargantua Free Essays on Gargantua Francois Rabelais’ Gargantua: A Record of Life in Contemporary 16th Century France Francois Rabelais’ satirical book Gargantua appeared as Europe was experiencing the widespread transition from the late middle ages into the early modern era. During this period of the High Renaissance, a shift in consciousness and values was occurring that was typified by the new movement of humanism. Rabelais illustrates this new humanist mentality through his biographical writings of a giant named Gargantua. Embedded within the story of Gargantua’s life lies Rabelais opinions and attitude towards religion, individualism and the institutions of the church and the monarchy. Throughout Gargantua, Rabelais criticizes such subjects as scholasticism, belief in the supernatural, the adherence to rules, the monarchy, the church and the vice of monasticism, and advocates a humanist education and individualism. Through his use of diverse and comical characters placed within a racy and scatological storyline, Rabelais is able to give the reader a unique glimpse into the i ntellect and morality of contemporary French society at a time in between eras. He opens his work with a piece supporting the authenticity of the record of the young giant’s genealogy. According to Rabelais’ Gargantua, Grandgousier, the giant king of Theleme, and his wife Gargamelle were expecting a child. It was during the eleventh month of Gargamelle’s pregnancy that she had eaten too many tainted tripe and gone off to play games and frolic at the Willow-grove. It was here that Gargamelle began to feel â€Å"disturbed in her lower parts†, and proceeded to give birth to a child from her left ear. This large child was appropriately named Gargantua. Though this sounds strange and unbelievable, Rabelais supports his statement with following argument: Is this a violation of our law or our faith? Is it against reason or against Holy Scripture? For my part I find nothing...

Investigating the environemtal impacts from plastic bags Research Paper

Investigating the environemtal impacts from plastic bags - Research Paper Example The Case Against Plastic Bags The manufacturing process requires 12 million barrels of oil per year, creating over 100 billion plastic shopping bags (Gamerman). With only about a 5% recycling rate (inspiration green), the landfills will overflow with bags that are not recycled or reused. A number of wildlife groups report discarded plastic bags are eaten by a variety of land and sea creatures with fatal effects. These concerns and other create the larger argument for environmental stewardship: The Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin, 1968) and TANSTAAFL (Dolan, 1971). Both of these writings warn of the economic â€Å"free rider† problem that is the bane of environmental stewardship The free rider problem refers to the polluting or overuse of the natural resources since no tax or fee is associated with dumping. The tragedy of the commons is the overuse and overgrazing of the common land. Since each herdsman wanted to maximize profits, they exploited the free grazing land by adding m ore and more cattle. Soon, the grazing land was destroyed, unable to recover and nobody could feed their cattle. The herdsmen who believed in proper stewardship either went broke or joined the others in selfish overuse. Pollution and contamination work the same way. Traditionally, industry would dump waste into rivers, bury toxins on site and spew horrid smoke into the air because the water, land and air were considered a common good; and companies could dump waste at â€Å"no cost†. With the Environmental Protection Agency and State environmental departments cracking down on polluters with fines and criminal penalties, this practice has abated, but does continue to a lesser extent. The neo-tragedy argument includes recycling and the after-effects of environmentally resilient products. TANSTAAFL (Dolan) originated in science fiction by Heinlein; the acronym means â€Å"there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch†. Dolan adopted the acronym in order to present his economic argument that pollution rights should be sold as an economic good. A calculation of the maximum mass of each pollutant potentially and immediately sorbed into the environment would lead to an inventory of polluting rights. These rights would be sold at auction to industries with a waste disposal problem. Other constituents would have to design non-polluting mechanisms to compete. Obviously, the cost of pollution would be set by the market. (Dolan) The money raised through the auction plus fines on pollution cheaters would pay for remediation. The plastic bag opponents take this argument one step further and assign responsibility for individual litter and recycling to the manufacturer. As much as 4% of trash in landfills consists of plastic bags. (DOE) As consumers use more and more plastic bags, even to contain trash, the landfills will take longer to naturally reclaim the natural resource of land. In an interesting study, small communal group, the Hutterites, were observed . (Hardin, 3) The finding was that when the colony size approaches 150, individuals begin to under-contribute and over-demand. Smaller groups manage by shame; however, larger groups lose that capacity. The commonistic approach of the Hutterites loses manageability in larger