1a. What does Mrs. Mallard learn from her sister Josephine at the beginning of the story?
2a. What is Mrs. Mallard's immediate reaction to the news?
3a. Who enters the house just as Josephine and Mrs. Mallard are descending the stairs? What happens to Mrs. Mallard?
4a. How does Mrs. Mallard experience grief, happiness, and shocked disappointment? Chronicle her progression through these emotions as the story reveals them.
5a. In the context of nineteenth-century marriage, is Mrs. Mallard's joy at her husband's "death" understandable? What circumstances in today's society might make such a response acceptable?
1b. Why does Josephine have to break this news gently to her sister?
2b. What sights and smells does Mrs. Mallard experience at the open window in her room? What do these sights and smells represent to her and cause her to recognize?
3b. How does Mrs. Mallard appear as she walks down the stairs? What does her appearance reveal?
4b. Why is the story called "The Story of an Hour"? How does Mrs. Mallard come to a new realization during this time period?
5b. If you were Mrs. Mallard, would you tell your sister how you really felt about your husband's death?
Irony. At the end of the story the doctors say that Mrs. Mallard died of "joy that kills." How is this an example of dramatic irony? What actually caused her death?
Reversal. What are the two reversals that happen in the story? What does the first reversal reveal about Mrs. Mallard? Why does the second reversal have such an impact?
1. Write a tombstone inscription for Mrs. Mallard that her friends and family will read. Include a reference to how she died.
2. Imagine that you are Mrs. Mallard and that you are sitting alone in your room, thinking about the death of your husband and about your future life. Write the journal entry that she might have written at that time. Be sure to write about your future plans.
3. Write a paragraph for your teacher exploring the love-hate relationship Mrs. Mallard has with her husband.
Combining Sentences. Combine the following pairs of sentences using single words, phrases, or clauses. You may also delete some words.
1. She sank into the armchair. She was pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
2. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair. She was quite motionless.
3. There was something coming to her. She was waiting for it.
4. Her pulses beat fast. The coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
Writing Biographical Criticism. Research the life of Kate Chopin, paying particular attention to the ways in which her life experience affected her fiction.
Sources used:
Writing a Personals Ad. Research gender roles at the turn of the century. Then, pretending it is 1900, write an ad for the Personals section of the local newspaper seeking a conventional spouse.
Research:
Sources Used:
