What strikes me most about Chopin's "The story of an Hour" is the situational irony. Written in the third person, dramatic point of view, the initial irony of the story is subtle. The first time I read this story, I thought of Mrs. Mallard as an elderly, ailing woman.
Chopin continues this writing, developing the character of Mrs. Mallard into a round character that the reader can relate to. In the end, Chopin delivers a tragic work of irony that the reader could not have been aware of until the delivery.
The continued flow of situational irony throughout this story makes it easy for the reader to relate to the characters. The first pieces of irony are subtle and appear to developing a round character to the reader. The irony continues to flow to the very end, where the huge, dramatic, ironic ending is delivered to the reader without any suspicion. This piece is written from the view point of third person limited omniscient. This style of writing on Chopin's part leads me to believe that she was fully aware that she was enticing her reader by use of tone and persona.
I read this story a total of three times. I enjoyed it for a number of different reasons, but my greatest reason was because I can easily see myself as the main character. I relate to this woman because if I were presented with such tragedy, only to learn that it was a mistake, I can imagine that I would "drop dead" when I found out that my grief had been in vain.