Story of An Hour

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

• begins theme of freedom as sets up situation/ worry about what will happen to a lone female at this time
• ‘great care’/’gently’ suggests that she is weak/fragile. This supports the female stereotype which will be challenged in the text as she gains power
• initiates a reason to feel sorry for this wife who has been made a widow

Question 2

She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.

Answer 2

• ‘sudden’/’wild’ reinforce overdramatic female grief stereotypes
• ‘abandonment’ is used as she has been abandoned by her husband but she will also soon abandon the constraints of being a female in 1894
• ‘wept’ makes clear that she is emotional affected by this news and makes us feel sorry for her pain

Question 3

When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.

Answer 3

• really begins key moment as she finds herself alone in her room
• ‘storm’ unpleasant and dangerous spell of weather but is passes. Suggests that her pain will pass.
• ‘alone’ is how she will be forever now. This makes us feel sorry for her.

Question 4

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair.

Answer 4

• this begins to spark anticipation in the key moment

- ‘open’/’comfortable’/’roomy’ indicate that her future might actually be positive

Question 5

Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

Answer 5

• intensifies grief felt by her which is a reason to feel sorry for her (she is physically unable to move/function due to grief)
• also intensifies how exciting the freedom will be as it contrasts with how painful things were for her at the start of the grieving process
• ‘sank’/’pressed down’ emphasise how much she (a fragile female) was living only through her husband.
• ‘haunted’/’soul’ links to the death of her husband, the death of her old life, and perhaps the death of her future (as she is. when full of grief, unable to see the positive future awaiting her).

Question 6

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.

Answer 6

• this sparks the excitement for her future/she notices positive sights around her
• ‘open’/’new spring life’ suggest that she is ready for a new start/new life born in spring, as with nature, positive imagery builds the theme of freedom.

Question 7

The delicious breath of rain was in the air.

Answer 7

-she is enjoying these new thoughts

‘delicious’ indicates that she likes the taste of this, it is appealing to her

Question 8

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.

Answer 8

• The list of examples here intensifies the positivity for her here, her new life will be wonderful
• ‘song’/’singing’/’twittering’ she can now hear life going on, pleasant sounds indicating enjoyment

Question 9

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.

Answer 9

• the setting here raises concerns about the unstable nature of her future.
• the theme of freedom is made important here as the reader, and Mrs Mallard, are unsure whether this will result in a positive future or not.
• ‘blue sky’ indicates a nice, warm, positive day
• ‘clouds’ are foreboding and make us question the future

Question 10

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.

Answer 10

• still at the beginning of the intense key moment, here Mrs Mallard is compared to a child. This furthers the idea of her being fragile and weak, stereotypical women in 1894, and makes the reader feel sorry for her because she will have no one to look after her and be unable to look after herself at this time.
• ‘thrown back’ is overdramatic but also intensifies how upset she was.
• ‘motionless’ indicates that she was paralysed by pain
• ‘as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams’ makes Mrs Mallard seem small, and innocent, and unable to escape the feeling of loss even when sleeping. This is another way that we feel sympathy for her.

Question 11

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.

Answer 11

• in the middle of the key moment Mrs Mallard begins to acknowledge her feelings
• this intensifies the theme of freedom as it creates anticipation for its arrival ‘comet to her’/’waiting for it’

Question 12

But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Answer 12

‘creeping’/’reaching’ makes this process slow down and the reader begin to worry if the freedom will ever arrive. It fill both us, and Mrs Mallard with anticipation.
-‘scents’/’sounds’/’color’ make the experience sound pleasing and enjoyable (the opposite to our initial expectations upon the death of her husband/her grief)

Question 13

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!”

Answer 13

• this section of the key moment is Mrs Mallard fully accepting her feelings for her potential new life.
• repetition of ‘abandoned’ from earlier reinforces the idea of loss (her old life and her husband). ‘escaped’ also heightens this.
• repetition of ‘over and over’/’free, free, free’ reinforces how much Mrs Mallard now wants/needs this new life.

Question 14

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.

Answer 14

• freedom is within her reach now
• ‘vacant’ emptiness feeling has gone, along with her fear of the future ‘terror’
• ‘beat fast’/’warmed’/’relaxed’ is how she feels now about her life which has soo quickly been altered.

Question 15

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.

Answer 15

-the memories of her life with her husband reinforce the idea of loss (something we feel sorry for her for). Although she is now desperate for her own free life, she acknowledges that her marriage was not all bad.
-‘tender’/’face that had never looked save with upon her’ show that he will miss him, he did love her.
‘‘weep again’ indicates the grieving process which she will be overcome with again soon. Female stereotype of crying and emotions

Question 16

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.

Answer 16

• Mrs Mallard is now determined to achieve her freedom. ‘belong to her absolutely’ This begins to conclude the key moment.
• ‘opened’/’welcomed’ again reinforcing her lust and positivity for her own future

Question 17

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.

Answer 17

although her marriage was not all bad, there was love there, she must address that her husband had been in control (as are all men in 1894) and that she now knows she would be in complete control of her life from now on. she boldly states that ‘she would life for herself’.
-links to the idea of female power/rights movements - intensifying freedom

Question 18

“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.

Answer 18

• peak of key moment. Full acceptance of new future
• ‘body’/’soul’ indicate that every aspect of Mrs Mallard is affected by the death of her husband and the consequences which follow. Her psychological and spiritual wellbeing but also her physical body and future.

Question 19

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.

Answer 19

• true euphoric excitement is felt by Mrs Mallard here.
• ‘riot’ indicates that there is a sense of chaos felt here, as she has never been in this situation before (neither have any of the women trying to achieve freedom in 1894-1900s). -repetition of examples ‘Spring days, Summer days, all sorts of days’ shows that she is looking forward to the rest of her life. She is no longer physically and emotional restrained in anyway by her husband of the grief of his death.
• the reader is with her now also experiencing her excitement and willing her to live a long and happy free life.

Question 20

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.

Answer 20

• Mrs Mallard here is literally praying for her new life: the life that she had been scared of and paralysed by at the beginning of the text.
• this intensifies her strength and desire for freedom

Question 21

There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.

Answer 21

• Mrs Mallard has won ‘victory’/’triumph’. She has her freedom and is in control and powerful ‘goddess’.
• this contrasts with the fragile weak female stereotype explored at points throughout the text
• the reader is proud of Mrs Mallard here and pleased for her

Question 22

She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs.

Answer 22

• female solidarity

- linking to rights movements of 1900s

Question 23

He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

Answer 23

• the conclusion to the text and of the key moment sees the reader revert to feeling sorry for Mrs Mallard. She has had her freedom stolen from her, after only just beginning to taste it.
• the reader feels genuinely upset for her
• ‘piercing’ indicates the sharp unexpected pain felt by her as her freedom was snatched
• ‘cry’ reverts back to her emotions of the weak female

Question 24

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease–of the joy that kills.

Answer 24

• the final lines conclude in a cyclical structure to the beginning of the text reaffirming Mrs Mallard’s fragile female state.
• ‘heart disease’ killed her (linking to love, loss of her husband, but more important the loss of the love she had for her new future free life)
• she had felt ‘joy’ for the first time in something she had control of. This was then stripped from her, by a man, which reinforces the lack of chance, freedom, and opportunity for 1894 women.
• we feel sorry for Mrs Mallard and those she represents