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A T
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“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
Build Vocabulary
Spelling Strategy To form the plural of a word ending in a consonant plus y, change the
y to i and add es: importunity becomes importunities. For words that end in a vowel plus y,
simply add s to form the plural: days, monkeys.
Using the Prefix foreThe prefix fore- means “before” in the sense of time, place, or condition.
A. DIRECTIONS: Write the letter of the best definition of each of the following words having the
prefix fore.
____
1. foreleg
a. action taken before a loan is lost
____
2. forenoon
____
3. forecast
b. part of a book that comes before the main
section
____
4. forewarn
____
5. foreword
____
6. foreclosure
c. front leg of any animal having four or more
legs
d. prediction made before a weather system
arrives
e. another word for the morning, the part of
the day before 12 o’clock P.M.
f. give notice before a bad event occurs
Using the Word Bank
forestall
repression
tumultuously
importunities
elusive
B. DIRECTIONS: Select the Word Bank word that relates best to each situation, and write the
word on the line.
1. Mrs. Mallard’s previous actions regarding her feelings about her marriage
2. Josephine’s whispered pleas at her sister’s bedroom door
3. the way Mrs. Mallard’s imaginings about the free days ahead of her went through her mind
4. Richards’s attempt to keep the shock of seeing her husband alive from Mrs. Mallard
5. the mysterious, unsolvable nature of love
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Grammar and Style: Appositives and Appositive Phrases
An appositive is a noun or pronoun placed near another noun or pronoun to give additional
information about the first usage. An appositive that can be dropped from a sentence without
changing the meaning of the sentence must be set off with commas or dashes. If the appositive
is essential to the meaning of the sentence, it is not set off by commas. When an appositive has
its own modifiers, it is an appositive phrase.
Appositive: Her husband’s friend Richards was there. (Richards is essential to the meaning of
the sentence because we need to know which of her husband’s friends is meant. No commas
are used.)
Appositive phrase: Louise’s joy—a feeling of complete freedom from repression—almost
overwhelmed her. (The appositive phrase is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.
Dashes are used.)
A. Practice: Underline the appositive or appositive phrase in each sentence. Where necessary,
add commas.
1. A breeze a delicious breath of rain swept through the house.
2. The well-known author Kate Chopin gave the opening address at the meeting.
3. Louise Mallard felt trapped by marriage a repressive institution.
4. The announcement of Mallard’s death was a mistake a serious error with dire
consequences.
5. One Victorian author Kate Chopin had strong opinions about the place of women in society.
6. That peddler the one standing under her window stared up at her.
7. The family chose Brently’s brother Aaron to speak at Louise’s funeral.
1. Mrs. Mallard found herself whispering a single word over and over. That word was “free.”
2. An oak barrier kept Josephine from seeing what her sister was doing. The bedroom door
was the barrier.
3. She felt unfettered by the restraints of time. She felt like a soaring eagle.
4. Brently Mallard returned suddenly, as if from the dead. He was Louise’s husband.
5. People said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart stopped at the shock of seeing her husband alive. A
joy too strong to bear stopped it.
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and Expansion (1850–1914)
B. Writing Application: Combine each pair of sentences into one sentence containing
an appositive.
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Reading Strategy: Recognize Ironic Details
In literature, as in life, irony occurs when there is a contrast between what is stated and
what is intended, or between expectations and reality. Authors create irony by supplying details that lead us to expect an outcome different from what actually happens.
DIRECTIONS: Think about “The Story of an Hour” in terms of the ironic details that Chopin has
provided—words that led you to think one thing about the events and the characters when actually something else was true. List four of these details below and tell what they led you to expect and what the ironic result was.
Ironic details
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What you expected
What actually happened
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Literary Analysis: Irony
Irony is a contrast or a difference between what is stated and what is meant, or between
what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Situational irony occurs when a result turns out differently than expected. For example, from the actions of Mrs. Mallard and her
friends, readers expect that she will be overcome with grief at the news of her husband’s death.
Instead she exults in her freedom. Dramatic irony occurs when readers know something a
character does not know. Readers know a few seconds before Mrs. Mallard, for example, that
her husband is actually alive. Think of other stories you have read that use irony.
DIRECTIONS: On the lines provided, identify stories you have read that use irony. Quote or summarize a passage that is an example of situational irony and one that is an example of dramatic irony. Then explain the irony in each passage.
1. Situational irony: Students should choose a passage that illustrates how the outcome of
an action or situation is different from what the reader expects.
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2. Dramatic irony: Students should choose a passage that illustrates how the readers are
aware of something that a character in the story does not know.