Comparison of “The Bear” and “The Story of an Hour”
Posted by: Imran in Interesting, School StuffAnton Chekhov and Kate Chopin use dramatic irony, in different situations, to show that marriage is not always the right option for everyone.
In “The Story of an Hour” the Mr. Mallard is thought to have been killed in a train wreck. When Louise first came to know the news, was very saddened. She skipped the “shocked” phase and went straight to crying and grieving for her husband. As she sat and thought further about the situation, came to realize that she had no reason to grieve or be saddened. She was “free free free”. This was in fact her true feeling, and her true character became visible at the surface. Though on her way downstairs, she saw the door knob turn, and the person that walked through the door was none other than…her “dead” husband. This time she didn’t miss the “shocked” phase, and from this immense “shock” she died, “Of the joy that kills.”
The play “The Bear” was also similar in that the husband had died, and the beginning was filled with grief and pain, as we see Mrs. Popov in her “room all day as if she was in a convent” [Luka; servant]. As the story progressed, Mrs. Popov became less and less saddened, but instead angrier, and angrier at Smirnov [the man that came to collect the money that Mr. Popov owed him]. But the end took a dramatic turn and Mrs. Popov surfaced her true face. When Luka entered the room, Mrs. Popov and Smirnov were immersed in a “prolonged kiss”.
Both of these stories, by the end, show that marriage may not be the right choice for everyone. In “The Story of an Hour” the irony occurred at the end when Louise died, “of the joy that kills.” This surprise ending was exactly the opposite of what is going through the readers mind, as they follow through the story. The form of irony that the author used was dramatic, because the death of a spouse causes a lot of pain to the other. Louise cried for barely a few minutes, and realized that she was now “free free free!” And at the end, when the suspense was finally over, and Mr. Mallard entered the house, Mrs. Mallard was so shocked, and obviously unhappy, that she dropped dead. The doctors had said that “she had died of a heart disease – of the joy that kills.” They thought that the happiness killed, her, but the reader knows that it was the unhappiness of knowing that she would no longer be “Free free free!” Similarly in “The Bear” Mrs. Popov is not expected to fall in love with Smirnov, nor Smirnov to fall in love with her. They are in the middle of a heated argument which has just turned into a dual [with pistols], and all of a sudden they are caught by Luka in a “prolonged kiss”. In both cases we see that neither of the wives truly had much love for their husbands in the first place, whether it be, being happy that Mr. Mallard died, or falling in love with a person that was not to fond of Mr. Popov. Neither story ended as expected, both revealing that neither of the wives were truly committed to the bonds of marriage.
