Story Elements
Answer: Setting, character, and plot
What are the three main story elements that affect each other in a narrative?
Answer: First person, second person, and third person
What are the three main types of point of view discussed in class?
Define situational irony.
Answer: When the actual outcome is completely different from or the reverse of what was expected
Define "forestall."
Answer: To take preventative action
Answer: Mrs. Louise Mallard
Who is the protagonist in "The Story of an Hour"?
Answer: The Puritan society's strict gender roles and religious authority make it dangerous for a woman to assert herself legally
In "At the Foot of the Gallows," how does the historical setting (1656 Boston) influence the conflict Goody Hibbins faces?
Answer: Third person limited
What is the point of view in "The Story of an Hour"?
Answer: Brently Mallard coming home alive when everyone thought he was dead / Mrs. Mallard dying just as she embraces her freedom
What is an example of situational irony from "The Story of an Hour"?
Answer: In a loud or emotional manner
What does "tumultuously" mean?
Answer: She is intimidated/fearful and recognizes the injustice but feels powerless to speak out
What does Goody Blackstone's reaction to Goody Hibbins's execution reveal about her character?
Answer: It reveals the fear and social pressure that kept most women silent/compliant in colonial society
What is the impact of the author's choice to develop Goody Blackstone's character as a contrast to Goody Hibbins?
Answer: Omniscient provides all characters' thoughts; limited provides only one character's thoughts and feelings
What is the difference between omniscient and limited point of view?
Answer: When the reader knows something the characters don't; example: the audience sees the monster in the closet but the character doesn't
What is dramatic irony? Give an example.
Answer: A liquid or substance thought to have special, often magical powers
What is an "elixir"?
Answer: She sued carpenters who overcharged her and refused to apologize for asserting herself—essentially, being too independent for a Puritan woman
What crime did Goody Hibbins actually commit that led to her execution?
Answer: The compressed timeline creates urgency and allows decades of Mrs. Mallard's life to be revealed within a brief moment of clarity
How does the one-hour timeframe in "The Story of an Hour" impact the story's organization and intensity?
Answer: We would experience her emotional journey more intimately/directly, but might lose the objective framing and dramatic irony of the ending
How would "The Story of an Hour" be different if Mrs. Mallard told it in first person using "I"?
Answer: They think she died from happiness at seeing her husband alive; it's ironic because she actually died from grief at losing her newfound freedom
Why do the doctors say Mrs. Mallard died of "joy that kills"? Why is this ironic?
Answer: Repeated and annoying requests or demands; Josephine's importunities when begging Louise to open the door
What does "importunity" mean, and where does it appear in "The Story of an Hour"?
Answer: The "repression" suggests she has been holding back feelings; the "strength" suggests she has the capacity to face difficult truths about her marriage
How does Mrs. Mallard's physical description ("fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength") foreshadow her reaction to her husband's death?
Answer: The imagery of renewal, freedom, and life outside contrasts with her trapped domestic life and symbolizes her awakening to independence
In "The Story of an Hour," which elements of the setting (the open window, spring life, sounds) affect Mrs. Mallard's emotional transformation?
Answer: The fear and powerlessness of ordinary women witnessing injustice, creating empathy and showing the personal cost of silence
What does the third-person limited POV in "At the Foot of the Gallows" (through Goody Blackstone's perspective) reveal that an omniscient narrator might not emphasize?
Answer: The irony reveals the gap between societal expectations (a wife should be devastated by her husband's death) and Mrs. Mallard's true feelings (relief and joy at independence), showing her suppressed desire for freedom
What does Kate Chopin's use of irony communicate about Mrs. Mallard's point of view in the story?
Answer: Totally and completely; without question or limitation—emphasizing her complete ownership of her own life
In context, what does "absolutely" mean when Mrs. Mallard thinks the years ahead "would belong to her absolutely"?
Answer: She was killed not for witchcraft but for being intelligent, assertive, and unwilling to conform to gender expectations
What does the minister's whispered comment that Goody Hibbins's "only crime was having more wit than her neighbors" reveal about the true reason for her execution?