Character Analysis - Kate Chopin

We will now practice combining our character analysis with Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.”

Download and read Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour". You can also read the embedded version below.

Practice Activity

As you read the story, please take notes on characterization. The following table, provided by the College Board, gives you an example of the type of analysis you should be completing on characterization in Chopin's story.

**Mrs. Mallard Character Analysis**
Perspectives	Quotation	Characterization
Description: Narrator	“afflicted with heart trouble”	sick, weakly
Description: Other Character
Character's Actions
Character's Thoughts
Character's Dialogue

Once you have finished with the story and have at least 80% of the above chart filled out, complete the brief practice quiz to see how your answers lined up with expectations from an exemplar. Remember that with literary analysis, the answers can vary and that it is the holistic understanding of the text that matters the most. Some of your examples might be similar to the exemplar, or completely different. This is fine as long as your examples and analysis can be supported by the text and holistically support a line of reasoning.

Self-Check: Writing Practice

Now that you have read the story and completed the organizer, practice writing a paragraph that analyzes a character in the story (it does not have to be Mrs. Mallard). Start with identifying the character’s perspective or how the character views the world. This might include the character’s biases, values, and motivations. After you have clearly identified the character’s perspective, work on supporting your ideas with evidence from the text. When you finish you should have a substantial paragraph of 7-11 sentences or roughly 100 words.

The following is an example paragraph provided by the College Board. After you've written your own paragraph, come back to compare it to this version. Did you cover the same basic topics? Were you successful in providing the required information?

Mrs. Mallard’s perspective was defined by her role as Brently Mallard’s wife. She lived for him and for their marriage and never even considered what she wanted for herself. She had learned to walk through life as a wife and a sickly woman who needed to be cared for by her husband, sister, and friends. Slowly, as she comes to terms with what her husband’s death means for her future, Louise realizes that she can now live for herself. She understands that her previous disquietude stemmed from adopting a myopic view of the world that didn’t allow her to develop as an individual. Now, her glance can turn to blue skies, the birds, and the “very elixir of life.” She can now view the world through what makes her happy. . . but all of this is shattered when she learns that he is, in fact, alive.

Characterization: Reflection

In this lesson, you reviewed the essential knowledge about how characters function in a literary work. By focusing upon not only character descriptions but also characterization, we can better understand how writers use a variety of techniques to create complex perspectives of characters.

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