The first instance that the reader witnesses Chopin’s imagery is when Louise leaves the company of her sister and her husband’s friend and enters her room by herself. As she is sitting in a chair and looking out the window, she sees new life beginning all around her. The trees outside her window have new leaves growing on them. The smell of rain in the air symbolizes the beginning of life and her new awakening. Perhaps the most vivid symbol appears

at the end of this paragraph. It states: “The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eves.” The distant song reaching her represent the new life she wishes to lead calling to her. The sparrows are joining in this song and also represent the springtime and he beginning of new life.

The frequent imagery of Louise’s new life directly relates to the tragic irony of the story. Ironically, Louise is overjoyed at the news of her husband’s death. She hides this fact from her friends and family. The entirety of the short story is filled with the growing dreams and hopes of Louise’s new life on her own. The reader sees that the Mallard marriage was an unhappy one and becomes as excited as she does about her new beginning. The reader follows Louise as she agrees to leave the solitude of her room with her sister and return downstairs. Once downstairs, an event beyond imagination occurs: some one is unlocking the door and entering the home. Brently has indeed arrived home unharmed and without any knowledge of the horrible accident in which he was supposedly involved in. Louise, in her tender condition, shrieks and dies on the floor before him. The doctor pronounces that she has “died of heart disease – of joy that kills.” It is not in fact the joy of having her husband “come back from the dead”, but actually the fact that she has tasted a freedom that is once again being denied from her and

Some topics in this essay:
Brently Mallard, Ironically Louise, Story Hour”, Kate Chopin, Louise Mallard, short story, tragic irony, Kate Chopin’s, life beginning, “the story hour”, outside window, louise’s life, story louise, beginning life, story hour”, “the story, distant song,