Name:
T-Chart Notes
MLA Works Cited Page Citation (look at MLA Bibliographic Template handout):
Chopin, Kate.“The Story of an Hour.” Holt McDougal Literature: American Literature. Ed. Janet Allen, et al.
Evanston, Ill.: Holt McDougal, 2010. 784-787.
Direct Evidence
Summary, Paraphrase, Commentary
Character – Mrs. Mallard
“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 to them in welcome” (Chopin 786).
A new world opens up to her without her husband,
allowing her to become her true self and have her own
identity. She embraces her independence.
“There would be no one to live for her during
those coming years; she would live for herself”
(Chopin 787).
She will be free from the domestic duties of being a
wife.
“ ‘ Free! Body and soul, free!’ she kept
whispering” (Chopin 787).
Her life will no longer revolve around her husband.
She will be able to make her own choices.
Setting
“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” (Chopin 786).
What see sees out of the window reflects her feelings.
The marriage that confines her is like the clouds, and
the blue sky represents her freedom.
“There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and
she carried herself like a goddess of Victory.
She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they
descended the stairs” (Chopin 787).
Her new freedom is cut short when she goes down the
stairs.
“Someone was opening the door with a latchkey.
It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little
travel-stained, composedly carrying his gripsack
and umbrella” (Chopin 787).
Her husband has the key to the locked door which
represents the confinement of her marriage.