Mid-Term Writing Test

Part A:

2. Why does Louise Mallard suddenly stop crying? Indicate the place in the text.

Louise Mallard suddenly stops crying when she realizes that without her husband, she will be free. She first feels sad because of his death; however, she feels releived afterwards. This quote indicates when she suddenly changes her mind, and stops to cry, "She said it over and over under her breath : 'free, free, free!' The vacant stare and the look that had followed went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright."

3. How does she feel about her future as a widow? Cite the line in the text using just the first few words, then a series of dots...?

Louise Mallard feels eager and confident about her future life as a widow. For her, the death of her husband is a good event after all. The paragraph that starts with, "There would be no one to live for during those coming years..." indicates perfectly how she feels about her future.

4. How does Louise's sister and her friend, Richards, feel about the Mallard's marriage?

They think that Louise is deeply in love with her husband, and that he is everything to her. What they don't know is that she feels stuck with him, and the love she has for him is more like an obligation. When Louise is in her room, living a "monstruous joy," Josephine, her sister, thinks she is making herself ill from sorrow.

7. Explain how Louise can feel joy and sadness at the same time.

Louise's marriage must have been against her will, since she doesn't seem to enjoy her life with her husband. Louise feels like a slave, and when her husband finally dies, she feels free. The fact that she passed all those previous years with her husband makes his death painful at first sight; however, she realizes how free she is without her husband, and that creates a great joy in her. Actually, what she feels is the Stockholm syndrome. She is like the hostage, and her husband, the hostage-taker; therefore, she feels loyal to him because of that syndrome.

Part B:

Kate Chopin, in "The Story of an Hour," uses irony several times to make a bigger effect on the readers. First, Josephine and Richards think that Louise is feeling sad in her room, and making herself ill because of that sadness; however, Louise is actually living a great joy, the joy of a prisonner who is released after several years in jail. They are scared that the news of Brently's death would give her such a great shock that it would kill her. It is ironic that what they think she is feeling is actually the complete opposite of what she is really feeling. They are trying to comfort her, because they think she is suffering terribly, but she is living the best part of her life.

Second, it is ironic that Louise feels joy and sadness at the same time. It can be explained by the fact that she probably loved her husband a little, even though he was a symbol of oppression for her; moreover, she lived the Stockholm syndrome, which is a sign of sympathy from a hostage to his hostage-taker. Also, Louise seems like a very fragile person, and she probably felt more secure with her husband, he was a symbol of stability and protection. When she obtains her freedom, she is deeply happy, but freedom comes with responsabilities, and I am not sure she could have dealed with them.

Third, the most ironic part of the story is when the husband, Brently Mallard, comes home at the end. All the dreams, all the projects, all the joy that Louise had imagined suddenly vanish. The shock is so great that Louise's fragile heart could not bear it. That part makes the whole story what it is worth. The joy that Louise felt was of an extreme intensity, but of a very short length. It is ironic that when she is finally free, she realizes that she isn't. The disappointment is so great, that I don't think she could have lived anyway. It is as if she had to die. After having lived that moment of freedom, she could not live without it. Also, it is very ironic that Louise doesn't die when she learns that her husband is dead, like Josephine and Richards thought, but when she learns that he is actually alive! The shock that was the most painful killed her. We could have thought that the most painful shock was the news of her husband's death, but actually, it was the fact that he lives.

(438 words)