1. More literary Elements Found in Realist Writing
Symbols, Irony, & Theme
More literary Elements Found in Realist Writing

2. How do I know A Symbol is a Symbol?
1. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically - symbols nearly always signal their existence by emphasis, repetition, or position.
2. The meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire context of the story. A symbol has its meaning inside not outside a story.
3. To be considered a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kind from its literal meaning.
4. A symbol has a cluster of meanings.

3. Irony
is a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity.
Irony is used to suggest the difference between appearance and reality, between expectation and fulfillment, the complexity of experience, to furnish indirectly an evaluation of the author's material, and at the same time to achieve compression.

4. Verbal Irony
Verbal – what is said is actually the opposite of what is meant/intended. Verbal irony occurs when a narrator or character says one thing and means something else.

5. Dramatic Irony
Dramatic Irony – occurs when a reader perceives something that a character or narrator in a work of literature does not know. It is also the contrast between what a character or narrator says and what a reader knows to be true.

6. Situational Irony
Situational – the discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.

7. Theme
(the moral of the story)

8. The Story of An Hour
Kate Chopin Pg

9. Plot Summary
Mr. Mallard is presumed dead. Mrs. Mallard processes the information. Mr. Mallard is not dead. Mrs. Mallard dies.
Mrs. Mallard is told that her husband, Mr. Mallard has died. She goes to her bedroom to process the information. Alone in her room she is actually excited by the fact that she is “free”. She leaves her room to find Mr. Mallard alive, and she dies.

10. Ironies:
Josephine and Richards expect Mrs. Mallard to react to Mr. Mallard’s death. Lines ironic or not? = NO
Mrs. Mallard’s private reaction to her husband’s death = situational irony
Mrs. Mallard’s true feelings about being a widow = situational irony
Mr. Mallard’s return = situational irony
Mrs. Mallard dies of a “joy that kills” = dramatic irony

11. Heart Troubles Symbolic? / Ironic? / Both? VERY first thing mentioned
“knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”
LAST thing mentioned
“When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills”

12. Mrs. Mallard’s Room
Limited setting - it is confined largely to a room, a staircase, and a front door. How does this limitation help to express the themes of the story?
Mrs. Mallard locks herself in the room but keeps the window open – symbolic? Ironic?
“can see an open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”
“the notes of a distant song which someone singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves”
“there were patches of blue sky showing”

13. Death & The Story of An Hour
Symbolic? Ironic? Both?
Mr. Mallard is presumed dead
Mr. Mallard is not dead
Mrs. Mallard is dead
Dies “of joy that kills”
Title
Whole story only last the duration of an hour.
It is the story of Mrs. Mallard
How can we connect the idea of a short period of time to the story's subject main subject, death? What do you think Chopin might be trying to say about the importance of time in one's life by setting the story in such a limited timeframe?

14. The Basics About theme
Theme is like the moral of the story. It’s the message or meaning.
Theme is bigger than just these characters in the this story.
Theme and subject are not the same thing. Theme is a debatable opinion about a subject.
The abstract meaning in the story applies to the real world we live in.
Literary works contain many themes.
The theme belongs to you, not the author.

15. Ways to Find theme Look for changes in the main character.
Watch for clear statements of theme.
Examine the title
Look at the conflict

16. Thematic Conclusions? Relationship of between the Mallards?
What view of marriage does the story present? The story was published in 1894; does it only represent attitudes toward marriage in the nineteenth century, or could it equally apply to attitudes about marriage today?
If this is, in some sense, a story about a symbolic journey, where does Mrs. Mallard "travel"?

17. Classwork – Theme Paragraph
Answer in a fully elaborated paragraph:
What the theme of “Story of an Hour” is?
What I’m looking for:
Start with a topic sentence that answers the question
Has small pieces of text (4-8 words) used as evidence
Evidence is cited according to MLA rules (Chopin 392)
Ideas are fully explained/elaborated – what do you mean?
Paragraph is neatly written and void of mechanical errors