In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin allows you to explore many ironic cases throughout the story, the main one being one in which a woman she feels unpredictably free after the presumed death of her husband. Chopin uses the bizarre story of Mrs. Mallard to illustrate the difficulties of achieving personal freedom and trying to be true to oneself to achieve self-affirmation while being part of something else, such as a marriage. In “Story of an Hour” the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, celebrates the death of her husband, but Chopin uses several ironic situations and some symbols to criticize Mrs. Mallard's behavior during the period of the supposed death of her “loving” husband. death.In the “Story of an Hour” we observe many cases in which irony manifests itself. According to the Urban Dictionary, irony is “a strange or funny situation because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what is expected.” Therefore one of the main ironic situations that occurs concerns the central character, Mrs. Mallard, not much is said about her character, but we know that she has a heart disease and is a devoted housewife. Mrs. Mallard's heart problem is one of the many symbols in this story, Chopin does not tell us much about her but we can interpret that Mrs. Mallard's heart problem should not be taken literally, it is a sign of her unconscious abandonment of her heart, of her identity as an individual is the meaning of how she sees herself. Now she has been told that her husband is dead, so she runs to her bedroom to be left alone. While her sister and a family friend are downstairs feeling sorry for her and thinking she is broken, Mrs. Mallard has an unsuspected feeling that she is now "free." Since this story was written in 1894, which was a very harsh time... middle of paper... she joyfully experiences this sense only while confined to her bedroom. And as soon as she leaves her room, the freedom she had only begun to understand is taken away from her in an instant. In reality she died of grief and great disappointment at her husband's return while waiting at the door. Throughout the story Chopin uses many ironic examples and symbols to illustrate the meaning of several major aspects of the story, we learn much more about Mrs. Mallard's major characters and come to understand that she did not recognize a world outside of herself. Works Cited Ewell, Barbara. "Kate Chopin." The role of wife and mother. Dec 19, 2013."Dictionary of dreams." Windows. iVillage. 19 December 2013. .Urban dictionary. December 18th 2013. .