Name: Mrs. Rodgers
T-Chart Notes
Source 1
MLA Works Cited Page Citation (look at MLA Bibliographic Template handout):
"The Story of an Hour." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 263-264.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 January 2012.
Direct Evidence
Author
“Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis in 1851”
(Wilson 263).
“Five years after the publication of The
Awakening, Chopin died of a stroke in St. Louis
on August 22, 1904” (Wilson 264).
“When Chopin was four, her father died in a
train accident, and she was raised by her FrenchCreole mother and great-grandmother”(Wilson
264).
Summary, Paraphrase, Commentary
Birth and death dates- she died at age 53.
This train accident might have given her the idea to
write about Mr. Mallard’s train accident.
“At seventeen, she graduated from the Academy
of Sacred Heart. Two years later, in 1870, she
married Oscar Chopin, a Louisiana businessman
of French-Creole descent” (Wilson 263-264).
She was only 19 when she got married. Maybe that is
why she writes about feeling trapped by marriage.
She never had a chance to live on her own.
“In 1899, Chopin published The Awakening,
now regarded as her masterpiece. The novel’s
frank treatment of an independent woman who,
after an extramarital affair and a sexual
“awakening,” commits suicide rather than
conform to society’s mores, provoked outrage
among readers and critics”( Wilson 265).
“The Story of an Hour” is also about a woman who
wants to be independent from her husband. Chopin
was obviously frustrated by the lack of opportunities
for women during her time period. She was a feminist
who created controversy before women’s rights were a
political issue.
Name: Mrs. Rodgers
T-Chart Notes
Source 1
MLA Works Cited Page Citation (look at MLA Bibliographic Template handout):
"The Story of an Hour." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 264-267.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 19 January. 2012.
Direct Evidence
Summary, Paraphrase, Commentary
Themes
“Chopin suggests that Louise could not bear to
abandon her newfound freedom and return to life
with her husband, where she would be required
to bend her will to his”(Wilson 265).
The story is really about how she feels about her
relationship to her husband. She feels trapped by her
marriage.
“Chopin seems to be making a comment on
nineteenth-century marriages, which grated one
person- the man- right to own and dominate
another- the woman” (Wilson 266).
Women were supposed to be mothers and wives, but
not to have much control of their own lives. Chopin
apparently did not like the role her society forced on
her. The story suggests that women should want more
freedom.
“Mrs. Mallard is known in the beginning of the
story only as a wife; very little is revealed
concerning Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s relationship”
(Wilson 265).
Characters
“When Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband’s
death, she becomes ‘Louise,’ a woman aware of
her own desires, enjoying the prospect of being
freed from the confines of marriage”(Wilson
265).
“Her character represents feminine individuality;
she is a strong-willed, independent woman
excited by the prospect of beginning her life
again after the reported demise of her husband”
(Wilson 265).
At the beginning of the story she is described as weak,
but later in the story when she is called by her first
name, Louise, she descends the stairs “like a goddess
of Victory” (Chopin). The death of her husband gives
her a new identity.
Her first name is not mentioned until after her husband
dies. She becomes an individual, not just her
husband’s property.
Women were not very independent during this time,
so she was happy to get a chance at new life on her
own.