Mrs. Mallard's Emotions and Society's Expectations

What can we infer about Mrs. Mallard’s feelings toward her marriage?

• She is deeply in love with her husband and will miss him terribly.

• She feels a sense of freedom and relief at the thought of living for herself.

• She is indifferent to her husband’s death and feels nothing about it.

• She is completely unaware of her true feelings about her husband.

What does the springtime imagery outside Mrs. Mallard’s window suggest?

• The weather is simply changing to spring.

• Mrs. Mallard feels rejuvenated and hopeful for the future.

• It contrasts with her grief and sadness over her husband’s death.

• It symbolizes her regret over losing her husband.

What can we infer about Mrs. Mallard’s emotions when she whispers, “Free, free, free”?

• She is in denial about her husband’s death.

• She is shocked and unable to process her emotions.

• She feels liberated and excited about her newfound independence.

• She regrets the loss of her husband’s support.

Why does Mrs. Mallard die at the end of the story?

• She is overwhelmed by happiness upon seeing her husband alive.

• She suffers from grief at the sudden return of her husband.

• She cannot bear the realization that her freedom is gone.

• She has always been physically frail, and the shock was too much.

What can we infer about society’s expectations of women based on Mrs. Mallard’s reaction?

• Women were expected to be entirely self-reliant and independent.

• Women were expected to feel confined and resist marriage.

• Women were expected to conform to their husbands’ wills and sacrifice personal desires.

• Women were allowed to freely express dissatisfaction with their marriages.

Which line best supports the inference that Mrs. Mallard feels freedom after her husband’s death?

• “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same.”

• “Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.

• “When the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room alone.”

• “She was young, with a fair, calm face.”

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Which detail from the text supports the inference that Mrs. Mallard feels hopeful for the future?

• “She would have no one to live for during those coming years.”

•  “The delicious breath of rain was in the air.”

• “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own.”

• 1. “There was something coming to her, and she was waiting for it, fearfully.”

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What evidence shows Mrs. Mallard felt relief, not just sadness, about her husband’s death?

• “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.”
  

• “She carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.”
  

• “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes.”
  

• D. Both B and C.

Which line supports the inference that Mrs. Mallard had conflicted feelings about her husband?

•  “There was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder.”

• “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.”

• “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”

• 1. “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.”

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What textual evidence supports the inference that society's expectations limited Mrs. Mallard’s independence?

• . “There would be no powerful will bending hers.”

• “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.”

• “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.”

• “She descended the stairs with her sister’s arm around her waist.”

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CCSS.RI. 9-10.1

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