1- The story of an hour

The thems In the story of an hour are freedom and

oppression in marriage freedom is the most important
feeling in life. Mrs. Mallard first feels it when she goes up
to her room and stands in front of the open window. She
tries to stop this feeling became it is not allowed. The
society does not accept it. Finally, she opens her arms to
welcome her freedom and plan for her future. Once her
husband comes back, she loses that feeling and prefers to
die than to live in oppression. Marriage is oppressing for
men and women. No one has free will in marriage. Each
one forces the other to do things against their own will.
The writer shows that this happens even in the kindest
marriage. This oppression can cause problems like the
‘heart trouble’ of Mrs. Mallard. Her joy represents how
oppressed she is like a bird in a cell that wants to get free.

The PLOT

The exposition of the story starts by telling the reader

about Mrs. Mallard’s 'heart trouble’. Her sister Josephine
is carefully trying to tell her news of her husband’s death.
Mr. Richard’s friend brings the news from the
newspaper’s office.
The Rising Action is when Mrs. Mallard gets the news by
crying loudly in her sister’s arms, which is not a normal
act by a woman. It shows how emotional she is. She goes
to her room alone. she stands in front of an open window.
She sees the blue sky between the clouds. She hears the
birds singing and listens to someone singing a song. She
smells rain in the air. All of their senses make her feel
something is coming close to her and she tries to stop it.
She wants to stop the thought of free will. She suddenly
knows that she becomes free. She understands that
freedom is the most important thing in life. Even love
cannot be compared to the beauty of freedom. She
becomes joyful because of this feeling. She starts to plan
for the coming years that she will live for herself.

The climax is the most important memory in the story

when her husband returns home. The shock of his
returning back is unbearable. She loses her freedom once
again. She is going to be oppressed forever. All her plans
disappear in front of her eyes. Life loses its meaning
without freedom. Nobody knows her thoughts except the
reader.

The Resolution is when Mrs. Mallard falls dead. The

doctor says she dies of a heart attack because of joy. The
readers know that this is false. It is an irony. Mrs. Mallard
would rather die than live without her freedom.
The conflict in the story of an hour is when her husband
returns home. The shock of his returning back is
unbearable. She loses her freedom once again. She is
going to be oppressed forever. All her plans disappear in
front of her eyes. Life loses its meaning without freedom.
Nobody knows her thoughts except the reader.

The character Mrs. Mallard is the protagonist and round

character because she changes from one feeling to
another. In the beginning. She gets the news of her
husband’s death by sadness and grief, but later she knows
that she becomes free ‘body and soul’. Her joy of freedom
is not accepted, but she accepts it because she feels it is
the most important feeling in life. She changes from a sad
oppressed woman into a strong, happy free woman. She is
not a dynamic character because she does not change any
action in the story, so she is a static character and a
passive one. She would rather die than react or ask for her
freedom.

Mr. Mallard is flat, but dynamic all the story changes

once he reappears.

The motivation for the character of Mrs. Mallard in The

story of an hour is the feeling of freedom. It leads her to
change her thoughts and her feelings. Once she stands in
front of the open window, she perceives nature in a
different way that she does not feel before. Freedom of
body and soul makes her love the future and pray to have
a long life. Her husband comes back home, so she loses
her sense of freedom which makes her lose her life as
well. Thus the hope to win her freedom one day is the
force that makes her live.

The style In The story of an Hour, Kate Chopin uses

formal diction with little use of dialogue. Most of the
paragraphs include many adjectives that describe the
character’s feelings and how Mrs.
Mallard sees the world around her, for example, a
comfortable roomy armchair – delicious breath of rain –
blue sky – fair calm face. The syntax and sentence
structure are simply to the point. Each sentence has
importance. She used repetition of some words to show
their high significance, for example, ‘free, free, free’ –
‘free! Body&Soul Free’ – ‘Spring days, and summer
days, all sorts of days’. The imagery in clouds is natural
things like trees, blue sky, clouds, and birds to show
happiness and satisfaction. The figures of speech include
similes like ‘as a child’ – and ‘as a goddess of victory’.
The tone starts with sadness and then moves to the
resistance of happiness, sinful feelings, the rise of
ambition, happiness, and victory.

The Irony The first irony in the story of an hour is

Situational irony Mrs. Mallard plans her future years after
the death of her husband. She prays to live a long life. She
opens her arms to welcome her new life that she will live
for herself. Yet, all this turns out to be in vain because she
dies quickly once she sees her husband coming back
home.

The second irony is Verbal irony 

Ironically, The doctor says Mrs. Mallard dies because of
the ‘joy that killed’. The readers know this is false
Because her heart trouble kills her when her husband
comes back. We know that all her plans disappear in front
of her eyes. She feels that she is going to be oppressed
again. Life loses its meaning without freedom. These
thoughts are only known by the readers.

A child who has cried at self to sleep. The narrator

compares Mr. Mallard to a child who cries to sleep. It
shows her sadness and her innocence. 

The figures of speech are the similies

‘as a child who has cried itself to sleep’
The narrator compares Mrs. Mallard to a child who cries
to sleep. It shows her sadness and her innocence.
‘Like a goddess of victory’ 
The narrator compares Mr. Mallard to a goddess who
wins Battles against enemies. The only enemy here is her
oppression. Getting back her freedom is like victory. The
words goddess and victory show how important the
freedom she finally feels.

The point of view of The Story of an Hour: is A third-person narrator

using (he/she/they). The narrator is limited-omniscient. The narrator
knows what goes in the mind and thoughts of Mrs.Mallard only.

The setting of The Story of an Hour: Place > Mrs. Mallard’s home and
her room. Time > one hour. Foreshadowing: is the statement that
allows the reader to expect what is going to happen in the future of the
events. It is the hint that makes the work of art coherent and
harmonious.

Foreshadowing in the story of an hour The story begins by telling the

reader of Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble” which foreshadows her death
at the end of the story. We don’t know what kind of trouble she suffers,
whether it’s physical or emotional. In the end, the doctors say she dies
of a heart attack because of joy!

Imagery in the story of an hour:

She sees trees, blue sky, and clouds.

She feels the comfort of the armchair.
She hears the birds twittering and someone singing a song. She smells
the rain in the air.
All the imagery shows her positive feelings and happiness.

Symbols in the story of an hour:

1. The open windows: are a symbol of freedom. She goes to the

window asking for an escape from her prison. She sees life
differently and opens her arms to accept her new life.
2. The heart trouble: is a symbol of the difficult and oppressed life
 she lives. It shows that her life is not easy. Her marriage is not
happy. A young woman like her should not have such trouble, but
she has been denied the right to be free which makes her ill.

2- A Rose for Emily

The PLOT The exposition of the plot of the story a rose of

Emily starts in a fictional town in the south. The funeral
of Emily is attended by many people. Through flashbacks,
the narrators tell us about Emily and her family. Her
father dies when she 30. She has no one after his death so
she gets sick and refuses to accept his death for a long
time. After six months, she starts to get normal when she
meets Homer Barren (the Yankee). The actions arise in
the story because Emily and Homer start meeting each
other every Sunday afternoon. This causes many rumors
and is not accepted by the Conservative townspeople.
They don’t believe Homer is a ‘marrying man’. She
becomes infamous. The people send for her cousins. The
climax heightens when she goes to the druggist to buy
arsenic. She is suspected to kill herself out of shame, but
she then buys a toilet set for men with ‘H.B’ on it, The
action falls when Homer is seen again going to her house
and then disappears forever. She becomes isolated. Her
body, face, and hair change. Seven years later, she teaches
China painting lessons and refuses to pay taxes. The plot
is resolved when the townspeople enter her upstairs room.
They find the room prepared for a bride, but there is a
corpse of a man lying in bed. On the other pillow, there is
a strand of Emily‘s hair. This means that she has killed
him and kept sleeping beside his body till before the night
she dies. 

the Conflict In a Rose for Emily, the main character faces

conflicts. First, she is in conflict with her father who
refuses all kinds of suitors and wastes her youth. She gets
attached to him and refuses to leave his dead body for
three days as a kind of control over him. Second, when
she met Homer, she is in Conflict with his reckless nature
and feels the best way to control him is to kill him and
keep his body secretly. The third is her conflict with the
townspeople who do not accept their relationship outside
marriage and interfere in her life without her permission.
Finally is the conflict between the protagonist and herself.
After her father‘s death she decides to live the life she
wants, but to do so she has to forget the family traditions.
This causes a conflict between what she wants and what
she should do.

The character first character is Emily Grierson Emily is

the main character of the story. She is a flat character
because she beliefs do not change throughout the story,
but her character is dynamic because she can change the
events by her own will. Her reaction to her father’s death
is denial and more attachment. She wants to keep his
body to keep his company and have more control. She
poisons her lover and keeps his company till her death.
Her refusal to pay taxes is also the same till her death. She
isolates herself and lives in her own world. Nobody
knows anything about her till her death. The one relation
she has is not accepted by the townspeople because it is
outside marriage, but she seems to ignore them until she
decides to take action and kill Homer to keep him with
her. She is described as a monument and an idol that does
not change like a tradition. She is pitied for the treatment
she gets from her father which affects her character for
good making her an outcast.

The second character is Homer Barron, he is described as a

big, dark Yankee. He is of a lower social status than Miss
Emily and the Southern people. The townspeople see him as
a playful, funny, But unmarring man. His relationship with
Miss Emily is scandalous. It is not accepted by the people
because it is outside marriage. His character seems to be flat
without changes, but his appearance in the town changes the
course of action in the story, so his character is dynamic. He
is poisoned by Miss Emily Who is too clingy to let him leave
her. He is found on her bed after 40 years of his
disappearance.

The Themes of a rose for Emily are death and control is

one of the major themes in a Rose for Emily. The story
starts with Emily’s funeral which makes the town get
control over her house finally, being like a prison for
many years. The death of Emily’s father 40 years earlier
makes her gain control over him, after being his prisoner
for a long time. She tells the townspeople that he is not
dead so she can keep his body with her. She later commits
murder by killing her lover to gain control over him and
keep him for herself forever. Tradition versus change is
another important theme in the story. Emily and her
isolated house represent the traditions of the old south.
The whole town change throughout the story. The old
building disappears and the old people die like colonel
Sartoris, but they consider Emily and her old house as an
ancient monument to remind them of their history and
traditions. Emily herself does not change as a character.
She totally refuses to change anything in her house. She
refuses to accept the change when her father dies. The
struggle she faces, when she loves Homer to keep her
family’s traditions, makes her murder him to keep him
and at the same time keep her prestige.

The Style in a rose for Emily William Faulkner uses

complex language that represents the style of his time.
The language is formal with very little use of dialogue. It
is descriptive of the characters and the places they go to,
like the description of Emily’s house and the rooms inside
it, the description of Emily’s body, face, and hair, and the
description of Homer. The diction used is formal,
complex, and descriptive. Order & sequence/
foreshadowing & flashbacks. The writer uses
foreshadowing to make the reader predict action in the
story. Emily buys poison. The townspeople expect that
she is going to kill herself using it. It is discovered, after
her death, that she uses it to kill Homer in her house.
Flashback is used to tell about actions that happened
before the story begins. The story starts with Emily‘s
funeral. There are many flashbacks to Emily‘s father’s
death, her legal problems with the townspeople, and her
meetings with Homer Barron. The story ends when the
townspeople open her secret room and find Homer’s
corpse in it.

The setting of a Rose for Emily A small town in the south

called Jefferson, Mississippi. It is a fictional town related
to the home state of the writer William Faulkner. The
story’s main target is Miss Emily‘s house, which is
described as a traditional monument and does not change
while all other houses do. The time is Miss Emily’s
funeral Who dies in her 70s. There are many flashbacks to
her father’s death, Her relationship with Homer, Her
arrogance, and her refusal to socialize with the
townspeople or to pay her taxes. The crime she commits
is discovered after her she is buried.
The Point of view In the story A Rose for Emily, the narrator
uses the first-person narration style. It is not one narrator who
tells the story, but it is the collective voice of the townspeople
using the pronoun (we). The whole town tells the story of Miss
Emily, the traditional and mysterious character. They don’t
know a lot of information about her except what they can
witness. It is a limited - omniscient point of view.

The Tone in a rose for Emily It is a gothic story, the tone is

pitiful ‘poor Emily’, but critical as well. She is pitied by
the townspeople for what she suffered, but at the same
time, she is criticized and bullied for being crazy like her
aunt and for having a  relationship out of a marriage and
social status. The mood is sad, horrific, and ominous.
Miss Emily is Mysterious and secretive at the end, she
appears to be murderous as well.

Literary devices In A Rose for Emily, first the symbols

Emily’s house is a symbol of tradition and death, the
house is kept as a monument in the town without any
changes for decades. It represents the history and
traditions of the old south. The townspeople accepted
Emily’s refusal to change anything in and out of the house
as a kind of respect to their own traditions. The house also
represents a tomb ‘macabre’. It is where Emily her father
and her lover die. The only sign of life is the servant. 
Another symbol in the story is the strand of hair that is found on
the pillow beside Homer’s skeleton. It represents love lost for
the sake of death. Emily poisons Homer to keep him by killing
him, but she actually kills herself too and sleeps beside him even
when she gets too old. She never goes out after this. She rarely
meets or talks to anyone, she waits for death beside her love. A
Rose in the title is a symbol of peace. Emily is finally at peace
after her death. She is handicapped by her mental illness which
imprisoned her inside her own mind, her house, and the macabre
tomb room. The roses are finally given to her when she is
buried. She is free now.

Secondly, the Imagery The writer uses all kinds of sensory

imagery in a rose for Emily. The reader can completely imagine
the characters by reading the description of Miss Emily (small,
fat) Homer (a big dark ready man) the servant (old Nigro)
The narrator describes Emily’s house and the inside rooms in
detail. Dust signifies the carelessness and the lack of life in the
place. The smell that disturbed the town is also important. It
signifies death.” Will you accuse a lady of smelling bad?”
Shows how they respect ladies “it smelled dust and disuse”.
The touch of the leather sofa in Emily’s house.
The sound of Homer’s buggy every Sunday afternoon “swift
clop-clop-clop”.
Emily’s voice “her voice was dry and cold’, Homer’s voice
“with a big voice”.

Third, the irony The "Rose" in the story A Rose for Emily is an
irony. It is meant to be a kind expression of farewell that shows
Kindness and Pity. The townspeople use “poor Emily " words to
show that they pity her. However, the reader knows that they
despise her because she doesn’t think anyone for her is good
enough to marry her as her father did too. They are trying to
belittle her, they gossip about her scandalous relationship with
Homer the Yankee laborer, they bring her relatives to make her
feel ashamed, and they keep watching and spying on her to
reveal her mysterious secrets. When she buys the arsenic poison,
they think she is going to suicide. No one tried to stop
her from doing so, they feel that is best for her. They somehow
drive her to murder so that she can isolate herself and live
peacefully with the man she loves without shame and
interference from them. They are relieved to see Homer's body
on her bed. It made them feel they are right Afterall. They feel
better than her. They won the battle of Virtue against the
arrogant family.

Fourth, the figures of speech in a rose for Emily

Personification: appears in the description of Miss Emily's
town being taken over by garages and cotton gins. It shows how
powerful is industry that it can destroy and change an entire era.

A Metaphor: an example is when miss Emily is compared to “a

fallen monument’, a traditional duty and an obligation". It shows
how people feel about her as an obligation, not as a dear
neighbor.

Similies: examples are “motionless as that of an idol” . and

“bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water”
Emily is first compared to an idol to show how far she is from
being a normal human who can socialize and interact with
others. It shows the townspeople’s fear as well as respect to
what she represents. She is compared to a bloated body in water
which shows how sad and difficult her life is.