Show:
Story Elements
Characterization
Context Clues
Theme
Structure
100
This describes where and when the story takes place.
What is setting?
100
She is characterized as being "blameless".
Who is the dead woman?
100
Based on context clues provided in line 5, the reader can conclude that this word means facial expression.
What is "countenance"?
100
Throughout the story, the fact that the dead woman remains anonymous makes the story...
What is universal?
100
The following quote from paragraph 12, "...those little intimate familiar details which bring back to life the one who has left." foreshadows this important event in the story.
What is the revelation of the mother's true identity through the intimate letters.
200
This is what drives the plot of a story.
What is conflict?
200
Based on this quote in paragraph 2, the reader can infer that the dead woman's son is very stern.
What is "Kneeling beside the bed, her son, a magistrate with inflexible principles..."?
200
Based on context clues in line 6 of paragraph 2, readers can infer this meaning of the word, "smote".
What is hit?
200
These lines from paragraph 19, "There was none, but only under the words, "The man who adores you," the name "Henry." Their father's name was Rene. Therefore this was not from him." establish this as the theme of the story.
What is hypocrisy?
200
This is the purpose of the first three paragraphs.
What is to characterize the dead woman and her two children?
300
These personalities have unique traits and drive the actions in the story.
What are characters?
300
In paragraph 2, she is characterized as being "bathed in virtue"
Who is Sister Eulalie?
300
This is the likeliest meaning of the word, "convulsed" in paragraph 10.
What is physically shaken?
300
The lines, ""These ought to be put in the grave with her; they ought to be used as a shroud and she ought to be buried in it." are significant because the letters reveal what about the dead woman.
What is her secret life?
300
The first line of the story is an example of this type of irony.
What is verbal irony?
400
This represents an important idea or a message in the story.
What is theme?
400
The following quote is an example of the type of characterization in which the narrator directly describes a character: "the woman had died without pain, quietly, as a woman should whose life had been blameless"
What is direct characterization?
400
Based on context clues provided in paragraph 17, what is the meaning of the word, "epistles"?
What is letters?
400
"... and without looking again at the mother upon whom he had passed sentence..." The above line from paragraph 22 does this for the theme of the story.
What is: it refines the theme?
400
"He looked sad, with that assumed sadness of the priest for whom death is a bread winner." The above line from paragraph 6, effectively reveals this trait of the priest.
What is hypocrity
500
This is the message that the writer wants readers to get from the story.
What is theme?
500
The following quote from paragraph 15 is an example of this important aspect of characterization: "You remember how mamma used always to read her old letters; they are all there in that drawer. Let us, in turn, read them; let us live her whole life through tonight beside her!"
What is character motivation?
500
In paragraph 19, this is the meaning of the word, "rummaged".
What is quickly looked through?
500
The author, Guy the Maupassant, uses this literary element as a primary means (main way) of developing the theme of the story.
What is characterization?
500
The writer uses events and characters to reveal the tone of the story as this.
What is sarcastic?