Notes

Eden Bernabe
TTH-Humanities 112
February 26, 2015
A) Answer the questions:
A. The story was written in 1894, but it does not mean that the setting of the story is in that year. Mr. Mallard’s friend received a telegram, so 1894 is a good year for the story since telegrams were used from 1850 until 1900. The story takes place on the Mallard’s house. The setting affects the story because in the 19th century most of the people get married in their early twenties. Mrs. Mallard was not affected at all after losing her husband.
B. The role of Josephine is the same as the reader. When Mrs. Mallard was in her bedroom, Josephine was worried about her. Josephine thought that Mrs. Mallard would make herself ill. When I was reading the story for the first time, I thought that she would kill herself; I did not know very well the character, same as Josephine. We (including Josephine) were wrong about our thoughts.
The role of Richard is that he brought the bad news, and Chopin says that “he had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram,” ironic because at the end those messages were wrong.
C. Brently is not unkind with Louise, I think it was common in the 19th century. In those years, women did not have too many rights, so men had the power. I think women used to spend all the time in their houses and taking of the kids, something that maybe Louise did not like.
D. “Facing the open window” refers to her new life, that it is open, independent, free. Mrs. Mallard closes the door to her room, a meaning of closing a part of her life, and opening a new one ( the open window)
E. Women nowadays are more independent, they can do whatever they want, because they do not depend of the husband. The view of the marriage in the story represents the roles of the husband and the wife.
1. a) So when I read the first paragraph, I imagine the new life of the wife (independent and alive) and the husband (death). At the end of the story was the opposite. Mr. Mallard is alive and Mrs. Mallard is death. Which type? Its situational irony.
2. When she mentioned “heart trouble” I thought it was about health, but I think that it’s more emotional. What I am trying to say is that Mrs. Mallard was not feeling well in her marriage, she maybe was not feeling love; she was unhappy and did not feel free. It is symbolic because at the end the doctor says that she had died of heart disease. Really important in the story.
3. The lack of independence that women had looks that is common in the 19th century. With this story we can say that women are not happy with their life once they marry. Women lose their rights when they marry because men take control of everything.
4. One symbol is the open window that it’s in Mrs. Mallard’s bedroom. It represents the new open, free, independent life that Mrs. Mallard is going to face.
B) At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard was told that her husband died so she went to her bedroom and sat in the chair. The author says “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” She was depressed, unhappy and thought that her life was over. We can relate it to the artwork of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, called Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. In this sculpture, Theresa of Avila experienced a mystical religious vision, and her expressions could be similar with Mrs. Mallard in the moment when she was at her bedroom. We can also relate that Theresa had visions, same with Mrs. Mallard; she had visions about her new life, her new independency.
C) So we divided the presentation in 3 (summary, questions, and comparison with an artwork) I volunteer to do the comparison of the story with the artwork. Harsh wanted to do the summary, and Alan answered the questions. We met at the library and talked about our part of the presentation and we agree to work on Google Docs, which is fantastic for group projects. We discussed about the themes, symbols, and others questions from the story by messages.
D) A hardcopy attached to the end of this paper, it’s the Google document that we worked together online.