Exploring the Text

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  1. What ambiguities do you find in paragraph 3; that is, what descriptions and details have potential multiple meanings?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What ambiguities do you find in paragraph 3; that is, what descriptions and details have potential multiple meanings?
  2. What tension between the interior world of Mrs. Mallard and the world outside the window does Kate Chopin develop in paragraphs 4–6?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What tension between the interior world of Mrs. Mallard and the world outside the window does Kate Chopin develop in paragraphs 4–6?
  3. How do you interpret the meaning of the description that Mrs. Mallard’s gaze was “not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” (par. 8)?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - How do you interpret the meaning of the description that Mrs. Mallard’s gaze was “not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” (par. 8)?
  4. What is the “monstrous joy” (par. 12) that Mrs. Mallard feels?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What is the “monstrous joy” (par. 12) that Mrs. Mallard feels?
  5. Mrs. Mallard remembers that her husband “had never looked save with love upon her” (par. 13); she reflects that “she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not” (par. 15). What do these conflicting descriptions suggest about their relationship?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Mrs. Mallard remembers that her husband “had never looked save with love upon her” (par. 13); she reflects that “she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not” (par. 15). What do these conflicting descriptions suggest about their relationship?
  6. What is the freedom that Mrs. Mallard seems to long for in this story?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What is the freedom that Mrs. Mallard seems to long for in this story?
  7. What does Chopin mean when she refers to Mrs. Mallard as carrying herself “unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (par. 20)?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What does Chopin mean when she refers to Mrs. Mallard as carrying herself “unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (par. 20)?
  8. What details, including passages, would you cite to support an interpretation of this story as a criticism of the institution of marriage? Are there indications that Mrs. Mallard was or was not a dutiful wife? Does Chopin characterize Brently Mallard as a good husband?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What details, including passages, would you cite to support an interpretation of this story as a criticism of the institution of marriage? Are there indications that Mrs. Mallard was or was not a dutiful wife? Does Chopin characterize Brently Mallard as a good husband?
  9. Who is the victim and who is the victimizer in this story? Or is this terminology inappropriate?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Who is the victim and who is the victimizer in this story? Or is this terminology inappropriate?