by Kate Chopin
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.
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!” 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.
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.
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for her 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 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.
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
Question
Use the passage from “The Story of an Hour” to answer the question.
Which themes does the author develop in this passage? Select the two correct answers.
(1 point)
Responses
the power of independence
the power of independence
survivor’s guilt
survivor’s guilt
the fragility of women
the fragility of women
loneliness after loss
loneliness after loss
freedom from expectations
1 answer
The themes that the author develops in this passage are:
The power of independence - The passage highlights the protagonist's realization of her newfound freedom and autonomy after her husband's death.
Freedom from expectations - The protagonist reflects on how she will no longer live for someone else or be subject to the will of others, embracing her individuality.
Both of these themes are central to the excerpt and contribute to the overall message of liberation and self-assertion.
