Cadenas 1
Ximena Cadenas
Mr. Stiles
AP Language, Period 1
02 March 2020
Body Paragraphs – Diction, Tone & Shift
Chopin’s diction shifts by gradually increasing in intensity, in order to depict the rising
intensity of Mrs. Mallard's emotions during the story's hour. By noting the “physical exhaustion
that haunted her body and seemed to reach her soul” the lady is evidently going through pain and
at first, the audience believes ist because she is mourning the death of her late husband. Doing so
reassures the audience she felt great grief in losing her husband, meaning she must have loved
him. But later on the author goes from a dark diction of words to a more hopeful and vivid use of
words when he says she felt colors “creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the
sounds, the scents, ... that filled the air.” Given that Chopin seeks to depict a woman's desire for
freedom, she makes sure to make emphasis on the difference in atmosphere and how it is all
more peaceful when a woman feels free,
Chopin's diction makes an abrupt shift in the last two paragraphs, which helps to create
the abrupt tone of the twist ending. By going from giving so much detail and creating so much
vivid imagery in the previous paragraphs to just abruptly and plainly stating it was her husband
that opened the door, is hinting that life is boring and not that exciting as opposed when you’re
free. Doing so, want it or not puts men in a position where he’s the hindrance in a woman's life.
Cadenas 2
Given that Chopin is a woman, she easily describes the happiness women feel in freedom, by
using vivid diction.