A Feminist Perspective of Kate Chopin's The Story of an HourKate Chopin uses the tool of irony in "The Story of an Hour" to carefully convey the problem inherent in female life unequal role in marital relations. Chopin develops a careful plot to demonstrate this idea, not socially acceptable in the late 19th century and, unfortunately, a concept that still does not enjoy widespread acceptance today, 100 years later, as we approach the end of the 20th century. . Louise Mallard's death, foreshadowed in the opening line "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble" takes on an entirely different meaning when the plot changes and the context of her sudden death is presented unexpectedly, not after the shock of the death of Husband. , but rather in her inability to bear the fact that he lives. While Chopin's use of irony presents a socially unaccepted concept in a more acceptable format, it is the author's use of perspective that increases the impact of his message. Chopin's point might be lost, perhaps entirely, if the reader were not informed from Louise's point of view. While the other characters are unaware of her true joy in death, although it is described as such "When the doctors arrived they said she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills", their definition of this joy amounts to the his love for her. Husband. In contrast, because Chopin writes from Louise's point of view, we understand that the intermittent love she feels for her husband, the love itself dismissed as the "unsolved mystery," pales in comparison to the joy she feels at the discovery that she can now live . with the "possession of self-affirmation which he suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of his being."...... middle of paper ......for his wife Louise, Chopin writes to underline the problematic assumption inherent in a relationship unequal in which an individual exercises their "mighty will" to bend others.Louise Mallard finds personal strength in her husband's death, ready to face the world as a whole person "She whispered a short prayer that life might be long. Only yesterday (before her husband's death) she had thought with a shudder that life may be long." The strength conveyed in the image of Louise bearing "herself involuntarily as a goddess of Victory" is unmistakable. However, the irony of the fact that her husband lives, and therefore she cannot, conveys the limited socially acceptable options for women. Once Louise Mallard recognizes her desire to "live for herself" and the impossibility of doing so within the confines of her marriage, her heart will not allow her to go back..