TP: SHORT STORIES

+ GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. Why is Freedom a main concept in the stories? What kind of freedom are they looking for?
2. What kinds of women are described in general in the stories? Describe the typical characteristics
they have.
3. What is the context of the stories? What happened in those days with the role of women?
4. What kind of endings do the stories have? What do the stories have in common?
5. Why are frustration, depression and unhappiness common feelings among the main characters
in the stories?

+ ENDINGS
The yellow wallpaper: Ending

By the end, the narrator is hopelessly insane, convinced that there are many creeping women around and that she
herself has come out of the wallpaperthat she herself is the trapped woman. She creeps endlessly around the
room, distorting the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the locked room and sees the full horror of the
situation, he faints in the doorway, so that the narrator has to creep over him every time!

o What's really going on with the woman in the end?

Eveline: Ending

Eveline decides not to go away with Frank after all. The author doesn't really tell us why she makes that decision, but
from the way she behaves it is as if she is having a panic attack.

o What's the real reason Eveline decides to stay?

Story of an hour: Ending

The doctors interpret her heart failure as one of "joy," the idea being that the strain of sudden grief and then sudden
relief was simply too much for her heart. In this scenario, the joy of seeing her husband alive stopped her heart
because of her weakened state. The usual objective interpretation is that her real "joy" was taken away from her by
her husband's appearance.

o The death of the protagonist represents happiness or sadness? Why?

+ STORY OF AN HOUR
1. Why does Mrs. Mallard really die? 4. What are some symbols in "The Story of an
2. If you were going to write some fan fiction Hour"?
inspired by "The Story of an Hour," What would 5. What is the role of women in the text?
be the back-story behind Mr. and Mrs. Mallard's 6. Why does she feel unhappy in her marriage?
marriage? 7. When Mrs. Mallard looks out of the window,
3. What are the conflicts in "The Story of an Hour"? what does the window symbolize (represent)?
 + EVELINE
1. Describe Evelines home life. 5. What is Evelines duty to her father? What
2. How does she expect her new life to be different? promise did she make to her dying mother?
3. Is Buenos Aires a symbol? Why? 6. What is her duty to herself? Does she really
4. What was her mother like? What happened to believe she has a right to happiness? Why or
her? Does Eveline identify with her mother in any why not?
way? 7. Do you think Eveline made the right decision?
Why or why not?

+ THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

1. What is important about the title, The Yellow 6. By the final section of the story, what is the
Wallpaper? narrator's relationship to her husband? To the
2. What are the conflicts in The Yellow Wallpaper? wallpaper?
3. Does she feel comfortable living in the house? 7. Identify what has driven the narrator to the brink
4. What is her physical condition? of madness? How does she try to free herself
5. Do you think John really has no comprehension of from this element? What is her greatest desire?
the seriousness of her illness?