unit 4 The Dream of an Hour

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1、TEACHING PLAN FOR UNIT 4The Dream of an HourBackground InformationKate Chopin (1850 1904), was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century.Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1884) a

2、nd A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included Desirees Baby, a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana; The Story of an Hour and The Storm.Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899). In time, literary critics determined that Chopin addressed the

3、concerns of women in all places and for all times in her literature.Sth. about her family :Kates father died in 1855, when Kate was only four. Two women influenced Chopins life the most. First was her great-grandmother, Madame Charleville, who after being raised by her mother, a refugee from an abus

4、ive marriage, married for love in a time when marriages generally occurred for social or financial purposes. Madame Charleville instilled in her great-granddaughter a fascination with the lives of women, through her wonderful and often shocking stories about women split between desire and duty (Toth

5、, Unveiling 13-4). Yet the greatest gift Chopin received from her great-grandmothers stories was the importance of a womans independence (Toth, Unveiling 15). Very shortly after Madame Charlevilles death, Madam Mary OMeara, one of the Sacred Heart nuns, entered Chopins life.vii As her teacher, Madam

6、 OMeara encouraged Chopin to develop her skills with the pen by using writing as therapy for her losses. OMeara believed that writing “would let Chopin hear and find and use her own voice” (Toth, Unveiling 39). Years later, her belief would prove true.After her fathers death, Kate developed a close

7、relationship with both her mother and her great-grandmother. The year 1863 was a bad one for Kates family: her great-grandmother died, as did her half-brother, George OFlaherty. Kate married Oscar Chopin on June 9, 1870, in St. Louis. Chopin was a member of the St. Louis French Creole community. The

8、y honeymooned in Germany, Switzerland, and France, but returned to America early because of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.For the next ten years, Kate and Oscar lived in New Orleans at 1413 Louisiana Avenue, where Oscar eventually entered the cotton business as a factor. During thi

9、s period, she had five sons and one daughter and still remained active in the city social life. Summers were spent at Grand Isle, a resort community on the Gulf of Mexico. Kates independence grew, including the unheard-of practice of walking unaccompanied throughout the city. Difficult yearsIn 1879

10、Oscars cotton brokerage failed, and the family moved to Cloutierville, Louisiana, south of Natchitoches, to manage several small plantations and a general store. They became active in the community, and Kate absorbed much material for her future writing, especially regarding the Creole culture of th

11、e area. Their home at 243 Highway 495 (built by Alexis Cloutier in the early part of the century) is now a national historic landmark and the home of the Bayou Folk Museum.When Oscar died in 1882 of swamp fever (like her half-brother two decades earlier), he left Kate $12,000 in debt (approximately

12、$229,360 in 2005 dollars) 2. Kate attempted to manage the plantations and store alone but with little success. She engaged in a relationship with a married farmer.Her mother implored her to move back to St. Louis, and Kate and the children gradually settled into life in St. Louis, where finances wer

13、e no longer a concern. The following year, Kates mother died.When Kate suffered a nervous breakdown, her doctor suggested she write as a way to calm herself. She took his advice, and soon re-discovered her natural story-telling.“The Story of an Hour” originally bore the title of “The Dream of an Hou

14、r,” revealing that Louise Mallards hopes of gaining a life in which she lives as a New Woman can only be a dream for her. Louise appears externally as a model True Woman. When a telegram arrives telling of her husbands death in a railway accident, Louises sister gently breaks the news so that Louise

15、s weak heart will not fail over being left alone without a husband. The first clue to her desire to break out of her role comes immediately following the news. While many women react to the same news “with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance,” Louise “wept at once, with sudden, wild aba

16、ndonment” (Chopin 76). Instead of wasting time fearing a life of loneliness, Louise seems to have already anticipated a life by herself with excitement, although the real meaning does not set in until a little later. She weeps suddenly, as if to get quickly past the grieving period. A few moments la

17、ter, “when the storm of grief had spent itself,” Louise goes to her room alone (Chopin 77). There the reality of her new life begins to set in.In the paragraphs that follow, Louise becomes increasingly aware of a feeling coming over her. At first, her senses awaken and she looks at natures “new spri

18、ng life” outside her window (Chopin 77). Instead of becoming angry at a world that lives and thrives when death has entered her own world, Louises awareness of new life increases her own potential to change (Day 113). Next she becomes conscious of “something coming to her and she was waiting for it,

19、 fearfully” (Chopin 77). She tries to fight off the thing coming “to possess her” but cannot and “when she abandoned herself” the words that come from her mouth are “free, free, free!” (Chopin 77-8). Louise becomes possessed by the realization that she now stands free to live her life as she chooses

20、, to claim independence, to no longer answer to a husband and to finally be a New Woman. Although she admits her husband loved her and she “loved himsometimes,” she does not see what “love, the unsolved mystery, could count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recogniz

21、ed as the strongest impulse of her being!” (Chopin 78). Playing the role of a True Woman, Louise never develops her individual identity, since it should have been found through her husband. Her husband has acted as a “barrier separating Louise from her self-identity,” but his death gives her the cha

22、nce to define her own identity (Day 113). This, of course, involves the discovery of her own sexuality. The words used to describe her realization of her freedom are very sensual, accentuating the strong sexual side of a New Woman. Louise “abandoned herself” to her new freedom. Her eyes become “keen

23、 and bright,” while “her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 78). She even says, “Free! Body and soul free!” as she grasps that now her body belongs to herself alone, no longer to her husband (Chopin 78). While sex, for a True Woman, provides a

24、 means of pleasing her husband, a New Woman celebrates and acknowledges her individual sexuality.In addition to claiming her sexual desires, Louise also claims her own name. When the story begins, the narrator introduces her as Mrs. Mallard. Thereafter, the narrator refers to her only with pronouns,

25、 until she seems to have completely grasped the meaning of her new life. Then, the narrator reveals Louises first name through her sister. However, her sister only uses the name twice before the narrator reverts back to the pronouns, as if to reveal that her freedom will not last long. A few paragra

26、phs later, her husband walks through the door, unaffected by the train accident that happened miles away from him. Louise awakens from her dream of freedom only to die at the thought of facing the shocking reality. She claims her sexual desires, her name and her New Womanhood, and then her newly con

27、structed life collapses. Her fresh vision of life “cannot survive within a marriage constructed on a phallocentric culture where the patriarchal ordering of language, subjectivity, and desire dominates” (Day 113). Her heart, which she would have used to love her husband as a True Woman and to love h

28、erself as a New Woman, gives out under the shock of having its worlds so drastically shaken up and Louise dies.TEXT1. organization of narrative writing1) beginning (p1-2): news2) development (p3-19): her dream3) climax (p20-22): her husband came back alive.4) ending (23): death of her2. analysis of

29、the textP1: newsP2: How did the people around her tell her the news?Did they tell her the news by using the words “death”, “killed”?How do you tell her the news?What do you think of her friend?P3: How as they assumed, would Mrs. Mallard react to the news?What was her reaction to the news?She wept at

30、 once but she didnt react with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. This indicates that while the woman was sensitive, spontaneous, and passionate, she was not a weakling. She was demonstrative of her feelings. She was brave, strong-willed. The inclusion of this detail prepares the read

31、er for the later development of the story.What would you do when your friend is in trouble?Comparation “leave me alone” in China and in USA.P4: What is there in her room?P5-6: shift of the settingWhat can she see outside of the window?What can you see when you are happy/sad?What are the symbolic mea

32、nings of the setting?Literally, the description indicates a shift of setting in the story. But it suggests symbolically a new phase of Mrs. Mallards life which could be as dynamic and lively as the scene outside the window. She was using all her senses to enjoy this new awakening in her life: she wa

33、s watching and seeing, listening and hearing, breathing and smelling.P8: What did she look like? What kind of character does she have?Where was she looking in fact?P9: What was this “something”? It refers to freedom and her longing for the change of her life. Why was she waiting for it fearfully?She

34、 should be sad, be mourning for her lost husband. Her freedom is build on the death of her husband. Its immoral and obey the traditional ethic in her society.Which did she long for better, love or freedom?P10: Why did she try to beat it back?P11: Paraphrase the sentencesP14: Describe the relationshi

35、p between she and her husband.Why did she stop the struggle of feelings and feel relaxed now?Is there an awakening of the woman?P15: Which did she long for better, love or freedom?P18: What was her feeling towards Josephines request?P19: What does “a very elixir” refer to?It metaphorically suggests

36、that the brief moment of illumination served as a wonder medicine which could make her life more interesting.Why did Mrs. Mallard pray that life might be long while the same idea caused a shudder the previous day?Because when her husband was alive, she was not able to live like an independent human

37、being and she dreaded when she thought that this life without freedom might last for a long time. As a woman brought up in her society she would not have imagined ever breaking away from this. But now, the accident had suddenly given her freedom. She would be able to live a life for herself as an independent human being. So she prayed that life would be long in the future.P20: What does “triumph” “victory” stand for?P23: Comment on the ending of the story.II. EXERCISES4