Select the correct text in the passage.
It was unusual for women during Kate Chopin's time to be independent. Through her portrayal of Louise in "The Story of an Hour," Chopin hints that independence was a forbidden joy for a woman. Which of these excerpts from Chopin's story convey this idea?

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.



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 act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.



Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. 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 Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

Respuesta :

The correct answer is: "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 act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination".

This excerpt conveys the idea that women were not independent during Chopin's time. In this passage, Louise Mallard is expressing that now she would "live for herself". This indicates that now that her husband is dead, she has the freedom to decide for herself. At that time, women had no control over their decisions and they could not refuse to obey their husbands. But now that she is a widow, she no longer has to comply with anyone else's demands on her.

The excerpt that convey her idea about women and freedom is the third one. In this excerpt the character is left alone and she considers her condition, not really free but without a will being imposed on her. Chopin's thought about being a crime for someone to impose their will on another makes her a staunch believer in freedom, aligned to the Elinghtment philisophy of her time.

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