Place, Time and Socioeconomic conditions

*What is noticeable about the social background of “The Story of an Hour”? Why
didn’t Ms. Mallard obtain a divorce?
-> The story was written in 1894, when women had fewer rights and choices than they do
today.

*Questions to ask about setting

1. What is setting? Historical period? Country or locale? Season of the year?
Weather? Time of day? What are the sights? Sounds? Tastes? Smells? What other
details establish a sense of place?
2. Are the characters in conflict with the setting? What do the characters want?
Does the setting keep them from getting what they want?
-> The setting is in keeping with the characters.
3. What does the setting tell us about the characters? What feelings or attitudes do
the characters reveal toward the setting? Fear? Pleasure? Challenge? Dislike?
Respect? Other feelings or attitudes?
-> Ecstasy
4. How would you describe the atmosphere or mood created by the setting? It is
gloomy? Cheerful? Mysterious? Threatening? Other descriptions? -> Tragic (when
the husband returns)
- Setting is often developed with narrative description, but it may also be shown with
action, dialogue, or a character’s thoughts.
- Typically, short stories occur in limited locations and time frames, such as the two
rooms involved in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” whereas novels may involve
many different settings in widely varying landscapes.
=> The confinement to the room/house reminds the readers of the confinement
(imprisonment/entrapment) of her marriage.
- Even in short stories, however, readers should become sensitive to subtle shifts in
setting.

*Functions of setting
1. Establishing mood/atmosphere
This is the emotional impact of the setting – emotions elicited from either the characters
or the reader in response to the setting:
e.g. the romantic mood of a beautiful island, the frightening atmosphere of a lonely
graveyard on a stormy night, the warm atmosphere of a family fathering on Christmas
Eve.
2. Revealing a turn in the plot
- Be sensitive to subtle shifts in setting as when the romantic island becomes a place of
fear and harship as food and water supples dwindle.
- When the warm atmosphere of a family gathering changes to a tension due to
conflicting opinions of the members
- When the grieving Mrs. Mallard retires alone to her room, with new spring life visible
out the window, this subtle shift in the setting helps change the direction of the plot *In
the story: when she withdraws herself into her room
3. Foreshadowing plot events
Example 1:
“There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she
sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach
into her soul.”
=> very positive adjectives
We don’t normally expect a widow to find the armchair comfortable -> We are in
suspense, we know that she will not be sad very long, something - a mood swing - is
going to happen)
Example 2:
“She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all
aquiver with the new spring life . The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street
below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was
singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.”
– the outpouring of life, full of vigour and vitality
What, in your opinion, is the emotional or moral state of the character? Does it affect or is
affected by the setting?
-> Emotional rebirth (from old winter life)
-> She affects the setting (even though she doesn’t look out the window). Without the
window, she might more or less behave the same way. The setting is in keeping her
moods.

*Imagery (Phép dùng hình tượng)

- An image is a sensory impression used to create meaning in a story (e.g. The can-can in
the title story)
- While visual imagery such as this is typically the most prominent in a story, good fiction
also includes imagery based on the other senses: sound, smell, taste, touch taste + visual
imagery: imagery of sight (e.g. a rose) – Hình tượng thị giác + aural imagery: imagery of
sound (e.g. the soft hiss of skis) – Hình tượng thính giác + olfactory: imagery of smell
(e.g. the smell of spilled beer) – Hình tượng khứu giác + tactile/tactual imagery: imagery
of touch (e.g. bare feet on a hot sidewalk) – Hình tượng xúc giác
+ gustatory imagery: imagery of taste (e.g. the bland taste of starchy bananas) – Hình
tượng vị giác
Example:
“delicious breath of rain”
+ Rain is not something living that can breathe, and yet Ms. Mallard feels as if the rain
is breathing on her -> Tactual/Olfactory imagery
+ The complexity of this image is increased still further by the word delicious, which
conveys a feeling that rain can also be eaten like some tasty food -> Gustatory imagery

*Setting can strongly affect the plot, functioning almost like another character
“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it?
She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of
the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the
air.”
“Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing
that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--
as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.” -> animated creature

*Plot analysis
“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was af licted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to
break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.” + The story’s first
sentence plunges us into an immediate sense of conflict. + The mention of Mrs. Mallard’s
“heart trouble” foreshadows its later importance in the plot, and the paring of her weak
heart with the “news of her husband’s death” creates (both instant and permanent) tension
that grips the reader and propels the story forward. (If she gets shocked, she will die
instantly)
=> Kate Chopin’s excellent craftsmanship with only one word “heart trouble”
“She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless,
except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself
to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.”
-> This is an important juncture in the plot. To deal with the grief (the first antagonist)
caused by her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard has retired to her room, allowing no one to
follow her. When she is alone in front of the open window, however, her grief is quickly
controlled, although sobs still come out intermittently.
+ As we will see, Mrs. Mallard will confront a series of antagonists depending on her
stage of character development. In this stage, she is still the somewhat 19 th-century wife
coming to terms with the unexpected grief – social conventions: sitting emotionless and
sobbing. (Her sob is a physical reflex, not an emotional reaction. It is unconscious. It is
not necessarily because of her love towards her husband)
+ Soon after this emotional lull, though, new dimensions in her character will arise, and
another will arise. It is predictable (comfortable and roomy chair, open window, patches
of blue sky).

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it?
She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the
sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.” ->
It was her sense of guilt (fearfully). She fears her freedom. Because it’s new. People are
generally afraid of the new, the adventure, the strange, the uncertain. And she is still
fearful of social norms (cultural/moral/social “dos” and “donts”).

“Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing
that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--
as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.” -> The more immoral,
the more enjoyable
=> This alluring description clearly distinguishes the “thing” from grief, indicating that is
is a second antagonist and potentially more ambiguous than grief, causing internal
conflict in Mrs. Mallard. She tries to “beat it back with her will,” deepening the internal
confict.

(1) “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted
lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!"
-> She was reluctant b/c of the constant pressure of social norms
(2) “The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They
stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed
every inch of her body.”
-> change in her physical responses
(3) “She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear
and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.” Process: (1) still
constricted => (2) empowered => (3) unshackled

- After only a brief existence, Mrs. Mallard submits to the feeling of freedom that
accompanies the husband’s death.
- She sees the opportunity to escape domestic repression and devote time to herself. Her
postitive physical responses to this acceptance, with the “keen and bright” eyes and
warming blood, make it clear that this “exalted perception” is a positive breakthrough for
Mrs. Mallard.
- The internal dilemma seems solved, and she refused to consider that hers may be a
“monstrous joy.”
- Her acceptance of this feeling does not come across as a surprise plot event because we,
the readers, have been prepared. Her development is credible.

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could
love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which
she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.”
- Mrs. Mallard has settled into the final stage of her character development, fully
welcoming her freedom and “self-assertion.”
- The nature of the conflict now shifts: Her antagonists are those forces that would have
detracted from her newfound selfhood (or independence).
- She’s still bothered by grief but the emotion is no longer the major antagonist that it was
earlier in the story.

*Sample Exam Question

freedom (monstrously strong) # social consciousness (young)
How would the story have been changed if Mrs. Mallard had been more critical of
herself for thinking these thoughts of freedom? – theme (change)! The plot and
other aspects of the story will all be destroyed.
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life
through that open window.”
- By begging Louise Mallard to open the door, Josephine here functions a kind of social
consciousness – another potential obstacle to Louise’s emerging sense of freedom. -
Bolstered by the “elixir of life,” Louise Mallard handles the complication with a “No.”

“She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a
feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.
She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood
waiting for them at the bottom.”
Louise Mallard’s triump here, as she returns to public view, seems complete. Her sister’s
entreaties are described as “importunities,” which minimizes their importance in
Louise’s newfound sense of self.
- She shows a “feverish triumph in her eyes,” an image hinting slightly of the rash nature
of her breakthrough, and carries herself down the strairs. Victory of selfhood/identity over
social norms.
- She has recovered from a shock. She has overcome. She is a strong woman.

“Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who
entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella.” -
Brently Mallard’s return, the story’s climax, is the one obstacle that Louise Mallard
cannot overcome, and her dream for change is exposed as somewhat fragile. - Her
freedom from discriminatory marital conventions is based entirely on the random
act of her husband’s “death,” rather than on solid social change or personal
decisions to live differently (both nearly impossible options for her). – should be
given in the essay’s conclusion

- Imagine the shock must have felt in seeing her husband, and therefore her repressive
domestic role returning to her so suddenly. In a bitterly ironic twist, the return of Louise’s
husband is a tragedy for her.
- The story ends tragically with a heart attack that is triggered, we assume, by the shock.
The quickly developing Louise Mallard has handled earlier complications easily,
claiming total victory, in fact, just moments before.
- Confronted with Brently Mallard at the front door, however, Louise knows she cannot
overcome this final complication.
- Can we see the assigned cause of death – “joy that kills” – as an ironic statement? Could
it be, however, the momentous joy that killed her when it suddenly had to stop? -> (1) –
die of shock b/c her husband retires – is non-ironic and (2) – die of joy – is ironic. Yes,
both are possible. If we choose the 2nd option for interpretation. Death could be seen as in
a positive light. Death could be a better solution than a suffering life. Her death could be
seen as a triump (and hope) “Thà một phút huy hoàng rồi chợt tắt/…” She would not need
to live in an imprisoning marriage. She would just need to live happily in only one hour.

Despite the tragic death, the story contains triump and hope, too, in (1) the strong social
statement the author made for her time and in (2) the portrayal of a strong female
character who is able to develop a sense of selfhood and freedom. (Think about Hồ Xuân
Hương in Vietnamese literature).
Although Louise Mallard paid the price, she was able to feel what it was like to be
herself, and not just Brently Mallard’s wife – at least for one joyful moment. (Think about
Xuân Diệu’s famous lines)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POINT OF VIEW
*Narrator
In a narrative, the selection and presentations of events may all be governed by a choice
of narrator.
● Who is the narrator?
● How much do they know?
● Why are they chosen to tell the story?
*Point of view

The world outside the NARRATIVE *Third-person narrator

(always remain outside the story): one who remains outside the world of the narrative,
yet can reveal – to varying degrees – the characters’ motivations and thoughts to the
reader
(1) Third-person omniscient (knowing all): Ngôi ba toàn tri
They analyze. They know everything about the characters with detailed analysis but the
focus is still on the main characters

Example: Mary Evans was driving home after yet another difficult day. Doubts and fears
about her job and her marriage tormented her. Her worries were well founded: her boss
was increasingly dissatisfied with her work, and most importantly, her husband, Nick,
was thinking of leaving her. Suddenly, man on the pavement, lost in worries of his own,
stepped into the room without looking. Mary braked hard, but too late. The man was
knocked to the ground. Mary’s friend, Anna, who was passing, ran over to her, but Mary
was too shocked to speak or even think.
(2) Third-person limited (sympathetic)

Limited to ONE character

Example: Mery Evans was driving home, wondering what to do about the problems that
had come up at the office that day, and her boss’s obvious displeasure. And Nick, her
husband, how would he behave when she got home? If only she knew why he was
behaving so strangely! Suddenly there was a man in front of the car. Instinctively, her
foot pushed hard on the brake. The man’s terrified face appeared in front of her for an
instant, then disappeared again. Everything seemed to go blank. From what seemed a
million miles away, someone was calling her name.
(3) Third-person objective (dramatic) – reporter/photographer

Not analyze, just observe/record

Example: Mary Evans was driving home along Seymour Road. There had been problems
at the office again that day. And at home, the behaviour of her husband, Nick, had
changed recently. Suddenly a man stepped out in front of the car. Mary braked, but the
car hit the man and he fell to the ground. The blood drained from Mary’s face, and she sat
motionless behind steering-wheel. A woman ran over and shoued to her through the
winds but she didn’t reply.
*First-person narrator (always remain inside the story): one who is supposedly
involved (directly or indirectly) in the events and hence has a particular angle on them

(1) First-person minor character/observer: Indirectly involved. No penetration. No

right/capacity to analyze. Just observe/record

Example: I was walking home along Seymour Road. The evening was fine, and I was
looking forward to dinner at my local Greek restaurant. Suddenly I heard a screech of
brakes and looked around. I recognised Mary Evan’s car, and saw a man in front of it, and
then heard the horrile thud of body against car. I ran over. Mary had gone completely
white. I shouted “Mary, Mary!” through the window, but she was obviously in a state of
shock, and didn’t seem to recognize me at all.
(2) First-person main character: Directly involved

Example: It had been another awful day at the office, one problem after another, and my
boss crticizing me all the time. And I wasn’t looking forward to my evening very much
either. My husband, Nick, had been acting strangely all week – I really worry about
losing him. I just wasn’t thinking about my driving, and the next thing I knew there was a
man right in front of me. I remember braking, but it was too late — there was nothing I
could do. I can’t remember any more.

*Points to remember

- When you analyze the point of view of a story, your primary purpose usually is to show
how the point of view shapes a theme.

- You need to examine the author’s technique to understand why the point of view the
author has chosen helps lead readers to an understanding of the story.

- Because narrators are fictional constructions – thủ pháp nghệ thuật, it is possible to
invent narrators who are fantastic in various ways and for various purposes (e.g. an
animal or a dead/mad person may be a narrator).

- Thus, the narrator

+ is not the author

+ may be unreliable

+ does not necessarily hold or reflect the author’s views

- Even if the narrator knows almost everything about every character, the narrator is still
limited in some way (since all human beings are limited in some way)

- It is only by piecing together several or all of the elements of fiction (plot, character,
setting, point of view, etc.) that you can move forward an understanding of the
theme/author’s view.

*Narrator as a madman: first-hand experience

TRUE! Nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say
that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them.
Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the
earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! And observe how
healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.

(Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”)

*Vocabulary

- first-person/third-person narrator

- Dual/double point of view/ multiple points of view (đa ngôi)

Example: a mysery whodonnit

- shifts in point of view (e.g. 3rd-> 1st per.)

Example: She lay and drowsed, hoping in her sleep that the children would keep out and
let her rest a minute. It had been a lot of day. Not that she was tired. It was always
pleasant to snap a minute now and then. There was always so much to be done, let me
see; tomorrow…Tomorrow was far away as there was nothing to trouble about.

(Katherine Anne Porter “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”)

Analysis: We don’t have the feeling of suddeness/abruptness. We have the feeling of

something done smoothly => a sense of sympathy/intimacy between the author and the
main character, bringing the readers come closer to the world of the main character: We
feel as if the character is talking to us directly. We feel we are trusted, the character is
outpouring/revealing their heart to us. But how? The author steps into the world of the
main character – walks inside the story.

*Point of view in “The Story of an Hour”

1. Third-person objective

*First two paragraphs:

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to
break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in
half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had
been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with
Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure
himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful,
less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

- General observations: A third-person narrator tells Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an

Hour”

- In the first two paragraphs, the narrative is told in a neutral voice. The actions of the
characters are described without emotion or comment. The first paragraph, for example,
could be printed in a newspaper, as it merely describes the who, what, and why of the
situation.

=> The narrative voice is reportorial

 *Last four paragraphs

She arose at length and opened

the door to her sister's
importunities.
Richards stood waiting for them
at the bottom.

Someone was opening the

front door with a

latchkey. It was Brently Mallard… When the doctors came they said she had died

of heart disease--of the joy that kills.

In the last four paragraphs, the narrative voice is again that of an observer; the narrator
only reports what an observer would see as Mrs. Mallard descend the stairs from her
bedroom and Brently Mallard comes through the front door.

=> The voice is reportorial again

2. Third-person limited (sympathetic)

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men
and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A
kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon
it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could
love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which
she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

- In about a dozen paragraphs between the first two and the last four the reader is invited
into Mrs. Mallard’s room to trace the emotions and thoughts and flash across her mind.

- This part of the narrative is at the heart of the story; a repressed woman has been set free
by the “death” of her husband. The point of view shifts to offer the reader a glimpse into
her “moment of illumination.”
=> The narrative voice is emotional and analytical
*Conclusions

- Dual point of view: third-person objective and third-person limited

- There is a shift from third-person objective to third-person limited then back third-
person objection as the reader moves from the outside world of social expectations and
norms into the protagonist’s inner world of shocking revelations then back to the outside
world.

- The major part of the narrative (dealing with the protagonist’s inner world) is told
from the third-person limited point of view, allowing the readers view events through
the eyes of the protagonist and thus making her more understandable/sympathetic.

- The third-person objective narrator is necessary because the opening of the story begins
with the reader knowing something Mrs. Mallard doesn’t, and ending of the story (NOT
to be confused with the resolution of the conflict takes place after Mallard had already
died).

- If any of the minor characters were telling the story in first person (first-person
observer), readers would be exposed to a more or less similar version of Mrs. Mallard’s
weak heart and death, and the story would end without the reader knowing the real cause
of her death.

- If Mrs. Mallard were telling the story in first person (first-person main character),
readers would be exposed to a totally different explanation of her weak heart without
knowing whether she is dead or not after losing consciousness, and the story would
probably end very differently – and somewhat earlier.

- In either case, the theme would change.