“The Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin–Reading for Character, Setting, and Figurative Language

Written in 1894, when women still didn’t have the right to vote, or many other rights, this is considered one of the first “feminist” writings of the era.

We’re going to use this piece to teach you how to read with intent to discover something to analyze, and you’ll see the level of analysis I will require.

FIRST—read through, this is YOUR copy, so you may mark it up. For the FIRST TIME I recommend that you just read it to get a feel of the text. When you’re done, then we’ll go on to the second read.

Reactions: what did you think? What struck you, right off the bat, about this piece?

SECOND—now we’re going to look at the first element of CHARACTER. Read through a second time, but this time in the margins record EVERY emotion she’s experiencing. Some are very quick and fleeting, some last much longer.

Read through again, this time making note of SETTING in the story. Where does each section take place?

When you realize that every detail, every word, is chosen carefully, then you realize that there is significance in WHERE this brief story is set. Let’s look at each element of the setting, along with the descriptions, and what they try to bring to the story.

Literary Terms: Irony

1. Verbal irony. Like sarcasm, say the opposite of what you mean
2. Situational irony. The opposite thing happens than the reader expects. The situation is reversed.
3. Dramatic irony. When the reader knows what’s going to happen, but the characters don’t, and there’s nothing the reader can do about it.

Literary Devices and Terms

Because there are so many terms, and any one or thirty of them may appear on the AP Exam, we’re going to learn as many as we can. But to make it easier, each of you are going to tackle a smaller chuck of the terms, define them, find examples of them in literature, and find/create a mnemonic device or illustration to help your classmates remember the term.
You may work in partners or groups to help each other, but each person is responsible for 3 or 4 terms (depending on the class size). Refer to the handout of Lit Terms to know to see what I want and how I want it.

Create a table with four rectangles on Google docs, put a term and it’s accompanying information in each box, then SHARE your page with me by THURSDAY before midnight. On Friday we’ll compile and print them out, and each of you will have a helpful booklet of 58 terms to memorize. We will have quizzes on these terms in the next couple of weeks, 15 terms at a time, so start memorizing them.

Lit Terms to Know

HOMEWORK: Submitted to me on Google Docs before next class meeting.

Write up our discussions in coherent, clear paragraphs, one for each question. Begin with restating part of the question, so that if someone were to read it out of context, it’d still make sense.

For example: “The symbols in ‘The Story of an Hour’ are vital to understanding how Mrs. Mallard reacts to the news of her husband’s death.”

1. What are some symbols in “The Story of an Hour”? How do they relate to the plot and characters?
2. How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?
3. Based on your knowledge of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, descriptions, and behaviors, make a general claim about who she is as a person. Support your claim with two pieces of evidence from the text.