Instructions
Read the following short story, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, carefully. After reading, answer the questions that follow in full sentences. Your answers should be thoughtful and based on evidence from the text.
The Story of an Hour (1894)
By Kate Chopin
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands of her husband, folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, not in the least travel-stained, and carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
But Richards was too late.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.
Comprehension Questions
- Vocabulary in Context: Based on how they are used in the story, what do you think the following words mean?
a. afflicted
b. tumultuously
c. elixir - Initial Reaction: Describe Mrs. Mallard's immediate reaction to the news of her husband's death. How does this contrast with her later feelings in her room?
- Symbolism of the Window: What does Mrs. Mallard see, hear, and feel as she looks out the open window? What might this open window symbolize for her in that moment?
- Character Analysis: The story states, "she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not." What does this reveal about her marriage and her feelings toward her husband, Brently?
- Understanding Irony: This story is famous for its use of irony.
a. Situational Irony occurs when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected. Explain the primary example of situational irony at the end of the story.
b. Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters do not. Explain the dramatic irony in the final line: "the joy that kills." - Critical Thinking: What does this story, written in 1894, suggest about the institution of marriage and the role of women during that time period? Use evidence from the text to support your argument.
Answer Key
- Vocabulary in Context:
a. afflicted: Troubled by, suffering from, or affected by a problem or illness. (In the text, she suffers from "heart trouble.")
b. tumultuously: In an agitated, disorderly, or turbulent way. (Her chest "rose and fell tumultuously," indicating a strong, chaotic emotional and physical reaction.)
c. elixir: A magical or medicinal potion, often one that is supposed to grant long life. (She feels she is "drinking in a very elixir of life," meaning the freedom she senses is life-giving and invigorating.) - Initial Reaction: Mrs. Mallard's immediate reaction is to weep with "wild abandonment" in her sister's arms. This is a conventional and expected display of grief. It contrasts sharply with her later feelings of "monstrous joy" and freedom when she is alone in her room, realizing she is no longer bound by her marriage.
- Symbolism of the Window: Through the window, Mrs. Mallard sees signs of new life and continuation: trees "aquiver with the new spring life," the "delicious breath of rain," birds twittering, and patches of blue sky. The open window symbolizes the future, freedom, and the new possibilities opening up for her now that her husband is gone. It is her portal to a world where she can "live for herself."
- Character Analysis: This line reveals that Mrs. Mallard's marriage was not a happy or fulfilling one, at least not for her. While she acknowledges that her husband was kind and loving, she felt repressed and controlled by the "powerful will bending hers." The marriage, for her, was a form of confinement that suppressed her own identity and desires. Her love for him was inconsistent and secondary to her fundamental need for "self-assertion."
- Understanding Irony:
a. Situational Irony: The primary situational irony is that Mrs. Mallard gains a new will to live a long life at the very moment she believes her husband is dead, only to have her own life cut short when she discovers he is alive. The event that she believes has freed her (his death) leads to her own death when it is reversed. The freedom she cherishes for an hour is what ultimately kills her.
b. Dramatic Irony: The dramatic irony in the final line is that the doctors and other characters believe she died from the overwhelming joy of seeing her husband alive. However, the reader knows the truth: she died from the shock and horror of seeing her newfound freedom instantly taken away. The "joy that kills" was not happiness at his return, but the loss of the joy she had just discovered in his absence. - Critical Thinking: (Student answers will vary but should be well-supported.) The story suggests that marriage in the late 19th century could be a profoundly oppressive institution for women, even in a marriage that was not abusive but merely conventional. Louise Mallard feels her identity is subsumed by her husband's ("there would be no powerful will bending hers"). Her secret, ecstatic reaction to his death implies that for a woman of that era, personal freedom and self-assertion could only be achieved through widowhood, not within the marital bond. The story critiques the societal expectation that a woman's entire existence should be dedicated to her husband, revealing the hidden desire for individual identity that this expectation could crush.