1. Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour

2. http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/
http://www.angelfire.com/nv/English243/Chopin.html

3. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/storyofhour.html
Click here for webtext with notes on the marked words and phrases

4. Kate worked on third collection, A Vocation and a Voice,
which included work previously rejected by magazine
publishers. Publishers who felt the work dealt too explicitly
with love, sex, and marriage rejected this collection. Included
in this collection is Chopin's most famous short story, "
The Story of an Hour," in which an ill woman learns of her
husband's accidental death. The story examines the
woman's reaction to her sudden and unexpected
independence and ends surprisingly when she discovers her
husband is actually alive. Even when the collection was
rejected, Kate continued writing, and aside from her short
stories she produced poems and submitted essays to
several St. Louis periodicals.
http://www.angelfire.com/nv/English243/Chopin.html

5. http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/interviews.html

6. Questions
1. Give an example of foreshadowing something that is important later
in the story
2. What do you learn about Mrs. Mallard from the description of her
face?
3. Are you surprised by this reaction? How does it differ from her
"public" reaction? (“She said it over and over under her breath: "free,
free, free!" )
4. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy [4] that
held her. This is a good example of what literary critics call an
oxymoron, two words with opposite meanings that are linked
together. Why does Mrs. Mallard find this joy "monstrous"?
5. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender
hands [5] folded in death; What does the description of Mr. Mallard in
this paragraph tell you about the kind of relationship Mr. and Mrs.
Mallard had?
6. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of
joy that kills. Irony occurs in literature when there is a contrast
between what is said and what is meant. In what way is this last

7. Questions
1. Give an example of foreshadowing something that is important later
in the story
2. What do you learn about Mrs. Mallard from the description of her
face?
3. Are you surprised by this reaction? How does it differ from her
"public" reaction? (“She said it over and over under her breath: "free,
free, free!" )
4. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy [4] that
held her. This is a good example of what literary critics call an
oxymoron, two words with opposite meanings that are linked
together. Why does Mrs. Mallard find this joy "monstrous"?
5. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender
hands [5] folded in death; What does the description of Mr. Mallard in
this paragraph tell you about the kind of relationship Mr. and Mrs.
Mallard had?
6. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of
joy that kills. Irony occurs in literature when there is a contrast
between what is said and what is meant. In what way is this last