Biography 

• 1850-1904

• Along with Gilman, Eliot etc, Precruser to feminist writers of the 20th century

• Published in Vogue, The Atlantic, etc

• Most of her work takes place in Louisiana

• Story Of An Hour, The Storm

• The Awakening

• Didn't write until later in life

• The publishing of The Awakening in 1899 was criticized based on moral as well as literary standards. Her best-known work, it is the story of a woman trapped in the confines of an oppressive society. Out of print for several decades, it is now widely available and critically acclaimed for its writing quality and importance as an early feminist work.

• Not a feminist or suffragist ala George Eliot

• Writing gives women individual identity not written by men (POV)  

Journal

• Did your response to Mrs. Mallard change at any point in the story? Where and why? If not, what was your consistent response to her? What sort of personal and social values do you think influenced your reading of the story? 

About

• The story may also be pseudo biographical to describe an event in the author’s life. 

• This story is also like The Storm in the sense that both stories were very touchy subjects for the time period.

Summary

Mrs. Mallard’s husband has just been pronounced dead in a rail road accident and her sister has to break the news to her knowing Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble. Mrs. Mallard had a paralyzed inability to accept the significance of the situation at first. After she receives the news she went into her room alone with a “storm of grief”, sat in the arm chair, and seemed to reach into her soul. Then she stared through the open window, noticing the patches of blue sky shining through the clouds. She cried herself to sleep and continued to sob in her dreams. While she was in her chair she stared off through the window at the patches of blue sky, not in reflection but intelligent thought. While she was staring off she began to know that something bad was coming to her.  

With more time she starts to recognize what was coming for her. She tries to fight off what she believes is coming for her until she abandons herself. Once she abandons herself, she repeats to herself “free, free, free”. The vacant stare and look of terror left her eyes once she was free. She begins to welcome her own death. She states that she had only loved her husband sometimes. Her sister, Josephine, heard Mrs. Mallard begin to whisper “Free! Body and soul free” and begun to worry that Mrs. Mallard was making herself ill. Mrs. Mallard was “drinking in a very elixir of life through the open window. She eventually got up, opened the door for her sister, and walked down the stairs together where Richard was waiting. When they got downstairs Brently Mallard walked through the door. He was nowhere near the accident.

When his wife saw him she died from joy.

Questions?

• Is Richard a friend or someone trying to take the spot of Mr. Mallard?
• "and yet she loved him---sometimes" <--What do we think of this quote?  
• According to Seyersted, Chopin was "never a feminist in the dictionary sense of the term," she never joined any organizations or clubs and was reportadly dismissive of the importance of suffrage, but did introduce a "discreet feminist touch" to her writing. How does this idea relate to this story? 

Analysis

• Heart problem is mentioned right away.  

• During this time period women did not have much of a say and they were yearning to become more independent.

• No matter where you stand on the story you don’t jump to conclusions. Your opinion on Mrs. Mallard will most likely change throughout the story.

• She is excited about her husband's death because of all her newfound freedom.

Characters

Louise Mallard

In the beginning of the story, she seems to be a kind hearted, loving wife who was devastated by the news of her husband’s death. This quote, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance,” lets the reader know that something is different about her. Instead of being devastated and in shock, she comes to acceptance immediately after hearing the news. The point when she goes into her room alone and stares outside at the clouds is when it becomes evident that she isn’t really all that

loving and kind hearted. It seems as though she was trying to fight off her real feelings about her husband’s death in her room (when it says she was trying to fight off something that was trying to possess her). She really feels happy about her husband’s death. She also feels as though she is now free. It even says that she only loved her husband sometimes. Louise was also looking forward to her free future in the spring and summer. This quote, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shutter that life might be long,” lets you know that when her husband was alive she did not want to live long, but now that he is gone, she hopes to live a long time without him. Now at the end, Louise dies when she sees her husband who is alive and well. I don’t think that she died because she was happily shocked he was still alive. I feel as though when she saw her husband, all her new found happiness and

freedom was stripped away from her in an instant, and that is what upset her heart and killed her.

Josephine

She was the gentle, supportive sister in the story. She wanted to be the one who broke the news to Louis gently so it would not upset her as much knowing that she has a heart condition. She was also concerned for her sister’s health due to the fact that she tells Louise to open the door because she feared that Louise would make herself sick.

Richards

His motives and integrity are questionable in this story. He can be analyzed in one of two ways. The first way being that he is a genuine friend of the Mallards. Richards had twice confirmed the information of the train accident before delivering the news to Josephine. This can

be perceived as him being careful to get such information correct before letting anybody know. The other way being that he had alternative motives in the story. Example: The text says, “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.” The way the text is written, the word “only” lets the reader know that Richards should have done more to make certain that the information was correct. The text also states that he hastened to tell the family the news. Somebody bearing such news should be a little more deliberate and less hasty.

Symbolism

• When she becomes “possessed” it is a literary technique to describe her new freedom. 

• The heart problem as a metaphor for love
• What about the descriptions of the weather? Where else have you seen this? Can you relate this to The Storm?
• The spring as metaphor for new life and how it is all going to change? 
• The open window represents a new window of life
• The joy that kills 
• The story can also relate back to The Storm with the metaphors of weather. The dark clouds can represent a sign of something bad coming.  

Gender

Point of View

Irony

• The fact that spring represents a new life for Mrs. Mallard is an ironic twist because she dies at the end instead of being able to enjoy her new life. 

Ending

Adaptations

Wordle

Bibliography

Previous Paper Topics

1. How does close reading change when a story "gives away" the ending? We have seen this a few times (Story of an Hour, The Lottery), so write a paper about how close reading is affected by immediate knowledge of how a story will turn out by the end. 
2. In the stories we read for our discussion of plot, we talked about how plot can be used to critique various things, whether literary, political, or otherwise. Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how plot is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 
3. An issue we have discussed is how misinterpretation of facts, or events, can lead to various choices being made (The Gospel According To Mark, The Lottery, Story Of An Hour, Cask of Amontillado etc). Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how misinterpretation is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 
4. An issue we have discussed a lot in class is how characters can be perceived in certain ways due to the different themes we have addressed in class this semester (Natasha, A&P, Sonny's Blues, Story Of An Hour). Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how perception is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far.