False Gems and the Story

¶ … False Gems" and the Story of an Hour"

Irony and symbolism are important literary techniques in Guy de Maupassant's "The False Gems" and Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." Both stories work around characters that are better of not knowing the truth because it upsets their nature and existence. The truth is sometimes more painful than we should know and these characters prove it.

Both stories operate from the perspective that things are never quite what they seem to be. In "The False Gems," Mr. Lantin is convinced that he and his wife are happily married. Even after he has been married to her for six years, we are told that he "discovered that he loved his wife even ore than during the first days of their honeymoon" (523). What Mr. Lantin does not know is what his wife has been doing to keep herself and him happy. Mr. Lantin was never the wiser until he sold the jewels out of desperation. Similarly, Louse does not know what kind of life she can have until she is confronted with the fact her husband is dead. When she thinks about being single, she is happy and the shock of her husband being alive kills her because she realizes how she will not have the lie she dreamed about just a few minutes before.

Irony is significant in both stories. We are told that Mr. Lantin "begged his wife to get some lady to accompany" (523) her to the theater. We are told that she is opposed to such an arrangement' (523) but eventually consents to his desires, much to his delight. The irony here is that she does indeed find someone to accompany her to the opera but it is not a friend that Mr. Lantin would approve of considering the fact that the couple is married. It is also ironic how Mr. Lantin blindly assumes that his wife can take charge of the family household and run that household on Mr. Lantin's meager means. He allows himself to be stupid in this regard because things seem to be going along so well for the couple. In this way, we can understand how ignorance is certainly bliss. In "The Story of an Hour," Louise is at first frightened by the prospect of being single, but as she becomes more comfortable with the idea, she likes it. We read that as she is thinking of her future, she opens and "spread her arms out to them in welcome" (636). She becomes aware that she is no longer her husband's prisoner.

Symbolism is important in both stories as well. In "The False Gems," the most obvious symbol in the story is the gems serving as a symbol for the Lantins' marriage, which is false. Mr. Lantin is completely unaware of how false his marriage is but he should have realized that something was different when he things were running better than smoothly. In "The Story of an Hour," death becomes a symbol of life for Louise. She becomes aware that there would be no "powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and believe that have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature" (636). With her husband dead, she is free to become a free and happy woman.