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Question 1

“Like a log”Give some analysis for this quote. Refer to foreshadowing

Answer 1

Lawrence gives us clues to Walter’s fate from the beginning of the story, when Elizabeth bitterly says to the children that he “can lie on the floor” when he comes home and that he’ll be “like a log.”

Question 2

What is the main characters name?

Answer 2

Elizabeth Bates.

Question 3

What significance does the fire have in this short story? Give a quote to support your answer.

Answer 3

.

Question 4

Who is the protagonist in the story?

Answer 4

Elizabeth bates

Question 5

What is the opening image of the story?

Answer 5

A chugging locomotive coming around the bend.

Question 6

What’s Elizabeth’s sons name

Answer 6

John

Question 7

When Elizabeth gives her father some tea and bread, what does he tell her?

Answer 7

He tells her that it’s time for him to remarry

Question 8

What is Elizabeth’s husbands name?

Answer 8

Walter Bates

Question 9

What quote explains that Elizabeth is pregnant at the end of the story

Answer 9

“Like Ice in her womb”

Question 10

What is the daughters name?

Answer 10

Annie

Question 11

What household does Elizabeth visit to ask of Walter’s whereabouts?

Answer 11

Mrs Rigley

Question 12

After Elizabeth has waited for another forty-five minutes, her mother-in-law enters the cottage, crying hysterically. Elizabeth asks whether Walter is dead, but all her mother-in-law tells her is that he has been in a serious accident.

Answer 12

Give a quote that shows this part of the story, and analyse it.

Question 13

What happened to Walter in the mine?

Answer 13

He got smothered in a cave in.

Question 14

What happens when they first bring Walters body through the door. Think about what symbolic significance it may have.

Answer 14

As they bring Walter into the parlor and lay him on the floor, one of the men accidentally tips over a vase of chrysanthemums.

Question 15

In what state does Walter usually arrive home, and how does Elizabeth act as a result of this, in terms of her mood and tone?

Answer 15

He regularly comes home drunk after working in the mine, making the local pub more of a home than his actual home. Elizabeth is accustomed to the dull, dreary routine of waiting for him, but she still feels anger and annoyance when dinner must be delayed. Every comment she makes is said “bitterly,” and she herself is described as “bitter.”

Question 16

Name some key themes in this story.

Answer 16

• Nature of love
• isolation of the human soul
• relationships
• death

Question 17

Name some motifs in the story.

Answer 17

• the fire
• the chrysanthemums
• darkness
• suffocation ( Walter in pit & both I the relationship)

Question 18

Name the main key symbol in the story

Answer 18

The chrysanthemums

Question 19

Analyse this key quote IN DETAIL and then pick out a small phrase of it so it is easy to remember. :
“She looked at his naked body and was ashamed, as if she had denied it. . . . She looked at his face, and she turned her own face to the wall. For his look was other than hers, his way was not her way. She had denied him what he was—she saw it now. She had refused him as himself. . . . She was grateful to death, which restored the truth. And she knew she was not dead.”

Answer 19

At the end of the story, as Elizabeth tends to Walter’s body, she suddenly understands that she was culpable in creating the rift that had grown between her and Walter. In this moment, the anger that had been such a part of her life has dissolved, and she yearns to feel a connection to her husband. However, when she looks closely at his body and face, he seems like a stranger. Only now can she see her husband clearly, separate from the anger and resentment that colored her view of him throughout their marriage. Her shame at realizing that she had “denied him” his true self leads to her epiphany. No longer shielded by her martyrdom, she understands the truth: she has done harm to Walter by constantly trying to make him into someone he wasn’t and never embracing the man he actually was. She had let her own disappointments and annoyances overshadow the crux of their partnership. Only now, with Walter dead before her, does she understand the truth, and her realization that she herself is not dead suggests that she will now change her outlook on her life

Question 20

How does john unknowingly foreshadow his fathers death? Give a quote: (hint “** ** * **”

Answer 20

John unwittingly predicts the potentially grim future that awaits him because he will be expected to be the “man of the house” now that Walter is gone. In these small details of the children’s physical appearance, we get hints of their bleak future.

Question 21

What does the Local dialect/accent emphasise about the small community?

Answer 21

Mrs. Rigley to find out whether her husband had seen Walter that evening, Mrs. Rigley asks “’Asna ’e come whoam yit?” The men who eventually bring Walter’s body home tell Elizabeth “E wor smothered!” when describing Walter’s fate. Surrounding these interludes of coarse dialect is Lawrence’s elegant, carefully calibrated prose, which helps emphasize the separateness of this particular community from the rest of the world.

Question 22

What does Elizabeth’s well spoken posh accent say about her in terms of community?

Answer 22

emphasizes that she is isolated not only from her husband but also from the community in which she lives.