“The Story of an Hour” Quiz

Questions?

Q 1. Which of the following is NOT part of Mrs. Mallard’s initial responses to her husband’s reported death. 1.Unable to take the news. 2.With a look of terror 3.With a blank stare. 4. Crying over her husband’s death.

Q 2. Which of the following is NOT part of the description of the “something” that visits her as she is alone in her room? 1.It visits her from outside, through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air. 2.She tries to resist it first. 3.It is the result of her rationalization over her loss and her position. 4.She does not see it as joy.

Mrs. Mallard With ‘heart’ trouble,” in need of protection. “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...” Weak physically, she is now facing a radical change in her life with strength.

Her Responses Crying  being by herself with a dull gaze at the window  “something” visits her “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. ”

Some Examples of Her Responses (2) 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. And she opened and spread her arms out to them [the years of freedom to come] in welcome.

1. He abuses his wife. 2. He is loving but controlling. 3. He is persistent in loving her. 4. He violently imposes his will on a fellow creature. Q 3 What’s the problem with Mr. Mallard?

Ref. Mr. Mallard 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. … [In the future, 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. ”

Q. 4 Which below is NOT the function of the narrative frame of this story? 1.It serves to see Mrs. Mallard from a social perspective. 2.The Introduction provides some background information 3.The Conclusion surprises both the reader and Mrs. Mallard. 4.It provides the social background of the story.

Q 5. Why is self-assertion more important than love for Mrs. Mallard? 1.She is strong, so she cares a lot about herself. 2.She hates her husband. 3.She has always wanted to be free. 4.It means being alive with the strongest impulse of her being.

Q 6 The Ending “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills.” What does this mean? 1.She dies of joy since, after all, she loves her husband; 2.She dies of the shock and disappointment over her husband’s return and her loss of freedom; 3.She dies of the shock and a mixture of feelings of happiness and disappointment. Mrs. Mallard, after all, is one with a ‘heart’ trouble. But why does the author Kate Chopin make her protagonist so weak? Do you find it realistic?

A Note on Annotation Try to talk more about your own responses to the specific details (a word, an image or an action) of the text and to its overall meanings. Add * to the parts where you try to summarize the plot.