by Kate Chopin
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.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
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.
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Question
Use the passage from “The Story of an Hour” to answer the question.
Which phrase describes a theme suggested by the details in the passage?
(1 point)
Responses
hiding the true self
hiding the true self
loss of innocence
loss of innocence
human versus nature
human versus nature
coming of age
coming of age
1 answer
The phrase that describes a theme suggested by the details in the passage is hiding the true self.
This theme is indicated by the way Mrs. Mallard reacts to her husband's death, as her initial grief is followed by a deeper, more complex realization of her feelings about her marriage and personal freedom. The societal expectations of mourning and the constraints of her role as a wife may also suggest the theme of concealing one's true self and emotions.
