Lesson video

Hello, everyone, welcome back.

It's really good to see you all again.

My name is Mr. Prike and today we're going to be looking at language in "The Story of An Hour" by Kate Chopin.

All you'll need for this lesson is a pen and paper or something to write on and with.

If you can try and move yourself away from any distractions, and when you're ready, we'll begin.

In today's lesson, we're going to look at what has happened in "The Story of An Hour" so far.

We're then going to finish the story, and remember, there's an exciting twist to come.

After that, we're going to look at how love is presented in the story.

And finally, we're going to look at how liberation is presented in the story.

Don't worry if you're not sure what liberation means yet, we'll cover that in this lesson.

Let's begin by looking at what happens at the beginning of "The Story of An Hour".

The story opens when Mrs. Mallard who suffers with heart trouble, is told the news that her husband, Brently Mallard has died in a railroad disaster.

When she hears this news, she weeps in her sister Josephine's arms. When she finishes crying, however, she decides to go to her room, but she would like to go alone.

She doesn't let anyone follow her.

When she's in her room, she sits down exhausted in her armchair, thinking about what has occurred that day.

A strange feeling begins to overcome her.

She's not entirely sure what that strange feeling is, but it makes her repeat the same word over and over again.

That word is "Free".

She mutters it to herself, "free, free, free!", and it turns out that she feels free from her husband.

She feels free from their marriage.

And she's thinking about her future and all of the days she now has without her husband, and she opens up her arms wide and welcomes them.

She feels free from their marriage and is excited about this new start, this new life, not the way we think a wife should react when her husband has died.

With that in mind then, let's have a look at these true or false statements.

Here I've got five statements, and I want you to identify whether they are true or whether they are false.

When I've read them to you, pause the video, make your selections as to which statements are true, and then resume the video so you can hear the answers.

Here we go then.

Are these statements true or false? Statement A.

Mrs. Mallard is afflicted by poor eyesight.

Statement B.

Mrs. Mallard's husband died in a railroad disaster.

Statement C.

Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine comforts her after she hears news of her husband's death.

Statement D.

Mrs. Mallard stays with Josephine as she does not want to be alone.

And statement E.

Mrs. Mallard discovers she is happy her husband has died because she feels free from her marriage.

Pause the video here and identify the true statements.

When you're done resume and you'll find out the answers.

Well done.

Let's take a look at some of the answers.

Statement A was false.

Mrs. Mallard is not afflicted by poor eyesight, instead, she is afflicted with heart trouble.

Statement B was true.

Mrs. Mallard's husband died in a railroad disaster.

And statement C is also true.

Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine does comfort her when she hears news of her husband's death.

Statement D however, was false.

Mrs. Mallard does not stay with Josephine, instead she wants to be alone.

She goes to her room and she doesn't let anyone follow her.

Statement E was true.

Mrs. Mallard discovers she is happy her husband has died because she feels free from her marriage.

If you got some of those answers correct, very well done.

If you didn't, please don't worry, but you might want to rewind the video so you can hear the summary of the beginning of the story again.

Let's move on to the next activity.

I mentioned before how Mrs. Mallard keeps repeating the word free over to herself.

I'm going to teach you some new vocabulary now which you could use to describe Mrs. Mallard.

You could say that Mrs. Mallard's feeling is one of liberation.

The word liberation means the act of freeing someone or something from another's control.

Mrs. Mallard feels free from her marriage and free from her husband's control, and so we would say that she feels liberated.

Let's take a look at some examples of sentences that use the word liberation.

Number one.

Liberation for the country came after people fought for their freedom.

Number two, as Amy leapt from the plane doors to complete her skydive, she felt liberated.

Let's look at that second sentence, we could change the word "liberated" for the word "free".

As Amy leapt from the plane doors to complete her skydive, she felt free.

Remember, that's the word that Mrs. Mallard keeps repeating to herself over and over again.

Let's read that part of the story.

"When she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips.

She said it over and over under her breath, free, free, free! The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes.

They stayed keen and bright".

So we could argue that her eyes and are keen and bright, because she feels a sense of liberation.

She feels free, she's no longer under her husband's control.

So, over to you.

Can you remember what the word liberation means? Pause the video here and copy and complete the definition.

Once you've filled in the gaps, resume the video to find out the answer.

Fantastic.

Let's take a look at the answers.

Liberation, the act of freeing someone or something from another's control.

If you've got one or both of those words, very well done.

We're going to finish this story now, pay particularly close attention to this, as when I'm finished we're going to play a quick multiple choice quiz to see how much you've understood.

As we read, think about that word liberation and how its presented in the story.

"There would be no one to live for during those coming years, she would live for herself.

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.

A kind intention or a cruel intention made the accuracy no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him sometimes.

Often she had not.

What did it matter? What's good love? The unsolved mystery counts for in the face of this possession of self assertion which she suddenly recognised as the strongest impulse of her being free, body and soul free.

She kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission.

"Louise, open the door, I beg open the door, you will make yourself ill.

What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake, open the door." "Go away.

I am not making myself ill.

No".

She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

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

spring days and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own.

She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.

It was only yesterday she had thought with the shudder that life might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities.

There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory.

She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs.

Richard stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Someone was opening the front door with a latch key.

It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel stained, composedly carrying his grip sack and umbrella.

He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one.

He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry at Richard's quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

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

Wow, what a twist.

We all thought we knew how this story would end, and then Brently Mallard walks through the door, it turns out he was nowhere near that railroad disaster.

Poor Mrs. Mallard, however, dies when she sees her husband.

Remember, we know from the very first line of the story that she had a weak heart, and it turns out that the surprise and shock of seeing him was just too great.

She believes she was free, and yet he walks through the door at the end of the story.

I didn't see that twist coming, I wonder if you did at home.

Let's play a quick multiple choice quiz now, to see how much we understood.

I'm going to present you with three multiple choice questions about the plot.

Feel free to pause after each question, so you can select your answer, and then press play to find out whether you are correct.

When you're ready, we'll begin.

Question one.

Did Mrs. Mallard ever love her husband? Option one.

Mrs. Mallard never loved her husband.

Option two.

Mrs. Mallard loved her husband sometimes.

Option three.

Mrs. Mallard loved her husband all of the time.

Option four.

Mrs. Mallard loved someone else.

Pause the video here.

Make your choice, and when you're ready, press play to find out the answer.

Well done.

If you picked option two, "Mrs. Mallard loved her husband sometimes", you are correct.

Fantastic work.

Question two.

What does Josephine beg Mrs. Mallard to do? Is it option one? Josephine begs Mrs. Mallard to let her in the room.

Option two? Josephine begs Mrs. Mallard to open the door.

Option three? Josephine begs Mrs. Mallard to allow herself to be comforted or option four? Josephine begs Mrs. Mallard to go downstairs.

Pause the video here and make your choice.

Well done.

If you picked option two, "Josephine begs Mrs. Mallard to open the door", you are correct.

Brilliant.

Final question then, who walks through the front door at the end of the story? Option one, Josephine.

Option two, Richards.

Option three, Mrs. Mallard's husband, or option four, a doctor.

Pause the video here and make your choice.

If you picked option three Mrs. Madeline's husband, you are correct.

What a twist that was.

Let's review the end of the story then.

Mrs. Mallard is in her room alone, and she begins to feel a sense of liberation, a sense of freedom.

She looks forward to all the days which will be her own in the future.

She no longer has to live under her husband's control.

She feels like a goddess of victory.

She feels as if she's won a battle against her husband.

She's excited.

She's looking forward to her future.

When she leaves the room and sees Brently Mallard entering the front door downstairs.

Brently Mallard apparently had no knowledge of the railroad crash which was supposed to have killed him.

He was nowhere near that disaster.

Mrs. Mallard, however, who suffers from a heart condition, is shocked to see him.

And the surprise is so great that she dies.

With that in mind then, let's complete the next activity.

Write a summary of the story.

You can do this in one of two ways.

Firstly, you could copy and complete the sentence stems that you see on the screen now, or you could ignore these sentence stems completely, and as a bit of an extra challenge, you could write your own summary without looking at your screen.

Either way, pause the video to complete your task and press play when you're ready to resume and we'll go through what we could have had as answers.

Okay, let's have a look to see what we could have put for our answers.

Before I read through these, please don't worry if what you see on the screen is different to what you have at home.

Have a look to see if you've used any similar language or if you have any similar sentences, and if you do, give yourself a tick.

The most important part is that we get the main factors of the plot in this activity.

So sentence one.

"At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard who is afflicted with a heart condition, hears the news that her husband Brently Mallard has died in a railroad crash".

If anywhere in your answer you've mentioned about Mrs. Mallard's heart condition, or Brently Mallards death in a railroad crash, give yourself a tick.

Sentence two.

"After crying on her sister's shoulders, she goes up to her room and refuses to let anyone follow her"".

If in your answer you've put about Mrs. Mallard wanting to be alone, give yourself a tick.

And sentence three.

"A strange feeling of liberation begins to overcome her".

Remember, liberation means the idea of feeling free.

So if you've mentioned anywhere about Mrs. Mallards feeling free or strange feeling overcoming Mrs. Mallard, give yourself a tick.

Sentence four.

"It is revealed that Mrs. Mallard is looking forward to a future without her husband that control her".

Again if you put about Mrs. Mallard feeling free from her husband and her marriage, give yourself a tick.

Sentence five."However, Mrs. Mallard receives a shock when she leaves her room and sees Brently Mallard walking through the door".

If you've mentioned in your summary about Mr. Mallard returning to the family home, give yourself a tick.

And finally, sentence six.

"Her shock is so great that she dies.

Her heart is too weak to deal with such a surprise".

If you've written in your summary about what happens to Mrs. Mallard, give yourself a tick.

Brilliant work everyone.

Next we're going to consider Chopin's use of language.

Authors write stories for a reason, they may have something they want to say to a reader, something they want to criticise or support or reveal the importance of.

Short stories help authors get their message across.

So what does Kate Chopin want to get across in "The Story of An Hour"? I think the writer explores two big ideas here, love and liberation.

Remember, liberation is about freedom from control.

We're going to look at two sentences from "The Story of An our", and we're going to consider how love and liberation are presented in them.

I'm now going to show you an example of the activity that you're going to be completing for me in just a moment.

This example is what I'm going to complete for you, so you can see the type of thing that is expected of you.

That means that you can put your pen down, and all I want you to do is to listen and watch really, really carefully until I say so.

The first thing we're going to do is look at how language is used by Kate Chopin to present love in "The Story of An Hour".

So, here's the first example.

Here I've got a quotation, and I've got three questions which are going to help me analyse that quotation.

Let me read the quotation for you.

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

Let me read the questions to you now.

Number one, what does this quotation mean? Number two, what does the word "storm" suggest about Mrs. Mallard's grief? And number three, what is this quotation telling us about Mrs. Mallard's love for her husband? So I'm now going to answer all three of those questions.

Remember, this is me showing you what to do, so you don't need to do anything here, just watch and listen really carefully.

The first question is what does this quotation mean? So I'm going to provide the following answer.

This quotation means that Mrs. Mallard is overcome with her sadness, her grief has hit her hard, and she has to let it run its course.

Now that I know what this quotation means, I can answer questions two and three, which require a little bit more detail.

So let's move on to question two.

What does the word storm suggest about Mrs. Mallard's grief? Here's my answer to question two.

Storm suggests her grief is very strong, it has hit her suddenly and she cannot control it.

When I think of storms, I think of thunder and lightning and rain, I think of the strength of the weather, and that's why that I've said storm suggests her grief is very strong.

Now I'm going to answer question three.

What is this quotation telling us about Mrs. Mallard's love for her husband? Here's what I've put.

I think this quotation is telling us that Mrs. Mallard does love her husband in a way, because otherwise she might not have reacted like this.

As you can see, I've provided three clear answers to the three questions about this quotation.

Now It's your turn.

On the next slide you're going to see a brand new quotation and three new questions, and you're going to be looking at how Kate Chopin uses language to present liberation.

Get ready to pause so you can copy and complete the sentences and the quotation when you need to, and I'll also be here to help you through the questions.

Here's a new quotation and three brand new questions.

I want you to think about how Chopin uses language to present liberation.

Remember, liberation means to set free from someone's control.

So really what I'm asking you to do, is to think about how Chopin uses language to present freedom.

Let me read the quotation and the questions for you.

"She felt it, creeping out of the sky reaching towards her".

Question one.

What does this quotation mean? Question two.

What does the word creeping suggest about Mrs. Mallard's feelings of liberation? And question three.

Why do you think Kate Chopin says liberation is coming from the sky? Pause the video here so you can copy down that quotation and the three questions.

We'll be needing them for the next few slides.

When you're ready, press play and we'll begin with question one.

Okay, question one.

What does this quotation mean? So let me read the quotation again.

"She felt it, creeping out of the sky reaching towards her".

As you can see, I started an answer for you to help, if you would like you can use that, if not, you don't have to, you can start an answer completely by yourself.

Pause the video here so you can answer that question, what does the quotation mean? And when you're ready, press play so we can go through the answers.

Fantastic, well done.

So, I asked you what does this quotation mean? Before I put my answer on the board, as always, please don't worry if what you have at home is different to what I'm about to put on the screen.

It really doesn't matter, but well done.

If you do have some similar language to what I have put, if not, please don't worry.

Here's what I found.

This quotation means that, now Mrs. Mallard's sadness has died down, she is beginning to feel a sense of liberation.

Now that her husband is gone, she is welcoming this new freedom she has.

If you put anything about the strange feeling that Mrs. Mallard feels when she's sitting in her chair.

If you put anything about a feeling of liberation, give yourself a tick.

Very well done.

Let's move on to the next question.

What does the word creeping suggest about Mrs. mallards feeling of liberation? Before you pause the video to answer this question, think about that word creeping.

Here's a little hint, think about the speed someone would go at if they're creeping.

And what does that tell you about the feeling that Mrs. Mallard is experiencing? Pause the video here so you can copy and complete the answer I started off for you, or just like the last question, you can have a go completely by yourself.

Press play when you're ready, and we'll go through the answers.

Well done.

Here's what I found.

The word "creeping" suggests that Mrs. Mallards feeling of liberation is slowly taking over her.

She is secretly excited by and looking forward to a future without her husband.

As always, please don't worry if your answer looks different form what I've got on the screen, but hopefully you'll be able to pick out some similarities between my answer and your answer.

Let's move on to question three.

Question three is, why do you think Kate Chopin says liberation is coming from the sky? of all of the places? Why is this feeling coming from the sky? Here's a hint.

Think how wide and open the sky is.

Pause the video here so you can copy and complete the answer I've started or as before, you can start off your own answer by yourself.

Press play when you're ready, and we'll go through the answers.

Well done.

This was a tough one.

So really impressive work.

Here's what I found.

I think Chopin says liberation is coming from the sky because the sky is endless.

It reaches far and wide and is not restricted by anything, it is free.

Just like Mrs. Mallard now feels.

Fantastic work on that activity, they were some tough questions, and I'm really, really impressed with what you've come up with.

Let's move on to the next activity.

The next activity is for you if you would like an extra challenge.

Here are two quotations.

I want you to think about how Chopin uses language to present love and liberation in these quotations.

"Love, the unsolved mystery", and there was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory.

I want you to think about these quotations like we thought about the previous two quotations, but this time, there are no questions or prompts to help you, it's completely down to you.

Have a go, but if you think it's too challenging for you, please don't worry, let the video play and the final activity will commence.

So, we come to our final activity, and I'm going to ask you one very simple question.

Did you like the twist at the end of the story? Personally, I loved it.

I didn't see the twist coming at all, and it really surprised me when Brently Mallard walks through the door at the end of the story.

And it surprised me even more that that meant Mrs. Mallard died because the shock was too much for her to cope with.

As you can see, I've given you two sentence openers to help you answer this question.

Sentence opener one is to help you if you liked the twist at the end of the story.

Sentence opener two is to help you if you didn't like the twist at the end of the story.

Try and explain your ideas in as much detail as you possibly can.

Pause the video here to complete the task, and when you're ready, press play and we'll go through what your answer may have looked like.

Well done.

Now, I'm going to show you what your answer may have looked like, but this is really an opinion based question, so there are going to be so many different answers to this.

That means that you shouldn't worry if your answer looks different to what is on the screen.

So, let's look at the answers for people who really liked the twist at the end of the story.

An acceptable answer to this question would be, "I really liked the twist at the end of the story because it really surprised me".

A good answer might read.

"I really liked the twist at the end of the story.

It really surprised me.

The writer spends so much time talking about Mrs. Mallard's freedom, so I did not think it would be snatched away from her at the very end.

I really thought Brently Mallard was dead".

This is a good answer, because it goes into a lot more detail as to why that person liked the story.

So let's look at some answers that you may have written if you didn't like the story or the twist.

An acceptable answer might be, "I did not like the twist at the end of the story, because I thought it was predictable".

A good answer might read.

"I did not like the twist at the end of the story because I thought it was predictable.

The writer spent so much time talking about Mrs. Mallard's freedom that I knew it would be taken away from her again by the end".

Again, this is a good answer because it goes into a lot more detail as to why this person did not like the story.

And that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

A really big well done on all of the fantastic things that you have achieved today.

Don't forget to complete the exit quiz on the next slide, and if you're able to, please take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher so they can see all of the fantastic things you've learned today.

If you'd like to, you could also ask your parent or carer to send a picture of your work to @OakNational on Twitter so that I can also see what you've been doing.

Thank you for joining me again today, take care and I look forward to seeing you next time.