*Central Theme ¡§Freedom¡¨
*Key points of story that help identify the internal/external conflict.
*Climax and whether the ending is a catastrophe or resolution.
I. To begin w/ lets look at what the internal conflict is:
Louise felt repressed in her marriage to her husband, in a sense she wanted to be free from him.
1. Look at 1st paragraph, which sets the stage for this story.
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.
2. Describe the setting in her room, which is the setting in the story.
There stood, facing the open …show more content…
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
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.
II. External Conflict:
Louise feels that her society is repressing her she wants to have the same freedoms as her husband.
III. Climax:
The climax is at the end when she dies.
long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long. „² Irony (Before when she felt repressed she thought her life might be too long.
She arose at