"The Story of An Hour" EOC Practice

Read the following quote from paragraph 3:

"When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her."

Why does Mrs. Mallard want to be alone after hearing the news of her husband’s death?

• She wishes to spare her sister and her husband's friend from the sight of her grieving.

• She feels that any details of his death would be too much for her weak heart.

• She wants to be away from any items in the house that would remind her of her husband.

• She does not want anyone with her as she processes her feelings about her husband.

Answer explanation

Mrs. Mallard comes to realize how she feels about her husband and her marriage, which she wished to do alone.

How does Richards’s presence in paragraph 2 affect Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to the news?

• He is responsible for the accident that killed her husband, and his presence disturbs her.

• What he witnessed establishes the truth about her husband's death.

• His presence comforts Mrs. Mallard as she hears the news about her husband.

• He wants to tell her only a few details about her husband's death.

Answer explanation

The author mentions Richards as someone who was in a newspaper office when the news of Brently Mallard’s death arrived, thereby providing evidence that Brently is dead.

How does the setting of a room, front door, and staircase communicate the theme of the story?

• The setting is limited and confining, expressing the restrictions and lack of freedom felt by Mrs. Mallard.

• The spaciousness of the room expresses the freedom Mrs. Mallard feels in her marriage.

• The rising staircase represents the feeling of hope Mrs. Mallard feels that her husband is alive.

• The setting is colorful and vibrant, communicating the multiple layers of Mrs. Mallard’s relationship with her husband.

Answer explanation

The limited and confining space of the setting symbolizes how Mrs. Mallard feels about her marriage to her husband.

Which sentence from the story indicates Mrs. Mallard’s first realization that her reaction to her husband’s death may be unusual?

• 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.

• 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.

• She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!”

• 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!

Answer explanation

This sentence indicates the moment she is “beginning to recognize” her feelings and she tries to fight them as she realizes they are not as expected.

Which sentence from the story best symbolizes Mrs. Mallard’s new sense of freedom following her husband’s death?

• “Go away. I am not making myself ill.”

• Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

• She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.

• When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.

Answer explanation

The open window she gazes out of symbolizes freedom, and the hints of spring represent a new life.

Which of these statements best summarizes the story?

• Mrs. Mallard grieves when she discovers the news of her husband’s death. However, after she enters her room to be alone, she slowly realizes she is happy with the sense of freedom that comes with her husband’s death. She ponders her life with her husband and grows excited with the new opportunities now before her.

• Upon receiving the news of her husband’s death in a railroad accident from her sister, Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief. She enters her room and slowly realizes that she is happy that her husband has died, because his death represents a new freedom. She goes downstairs later and sees her husband come home. She dies as a result, “from the joy that kills,” according to the doctors.

• Mrs. Mallard enters her room when she discovers that her husband has died in a railroad accident. Later, after a period of grieving, she heads downstairs to discover that her husband is very much alive. Mrs. Mallard dies from the shock. The doctors conclude that she has died “from the joy that kills.”

• Mrs. Mallard spends time grieving her husband’s death in a room by herself. The room has a chair she sits in, and there is a window that allows Mrs. Mallard to look out over the area around her. She notices spring blooms and a peddler. She spends much time in this room until she realizes her husband is actually alive.

Answer explanation

This summary fully captures the main events and key characters from the story.