ENGLISH 4 : MODULE 03 : LESSON 09 INTRO: EXPRESSIONS: NO LOVE LOST
Assignment
Complete the reading for this lesson.
Complete the self-checks in the lesson.
In the Assessments area, submit your completed note-taking guide for 03.09 No Love Lost.
Use this note-taking guide to organize what you learn.
You will submit this guide for grading at the end of this lesson, and you will use these notes to complete the quiz in the next lesson.
Instructions
Read Fletcher and Ollie McGee’s epitaphs from Spoon River Anthology and read “The Story of an Hour.” Respond to the following questions using evidence from the texts to support your answers.
Spoon River Anthology
What do you know about Ollie and Fletcher McGee as individuals and as husband and wife after reading their epitaphs? Answer the question in a paragraph of 4-6 sentences, using evidence from the text to support your response.
“The Story of an Hour”
How does Mrs. Mallard feel when she thinks of her life after her husband’s death? Why does she feel this way? Answer the questions in a paragraph of at least 4 sentences, using evidence from the text to support your response. Compare Spoon River Anthology and “The Story of an Hour” and Make a Modern Connection
Respond to the following prompt in a 6–8 sentence paragraph. Remember to use evidence from each text to support your response.
Writers often use their texts to make a comment on society. Think of a modern text (poem, story, novel, movie, or television show) that explores marriage. In what ways are the characters Ollie McGee from Spoon River Anthology, Mrs. Mallard from “The Story of an Hour,” and the character from your modern text similar? How does each character feel about her marriage and about her husband? What is each writer saying about marriage through their characters?
LESSON
On the next episode of The Real Housewives of the Early Twentieth Century…
He Said, She Said
In 1915, Edgar Lee Master’s published Spoon River Anthology, a collection of epitaphs that memorialize the residents of a small town. Each epitaph is written by the person it memorializes—essentially they each share a snapshot of their own lives. Most often, those lives were not particularly happy.
Some of the most intriguing epitaphs are written by husbands and wives, each giving their perspective on their marriage. The last words of these couples reveal the dynamics of their dysfunctional relationships.
Read the last words of Ollie McGee and her husband, Fletcher McGee:
He Said, She Said
Slide 1
Ollie McGee
Have you seen walking through the village
A Man with downcast eyes and haggard face?
That is my husband who, by secret cruelty
Never to be told, robbed me of my youth and my beauty;
Till at last, wrinkled and with yellow teeth,
And with broken pride and shameful humility,
I sank into the grave.
But what think you gnaws at my husband’s heart?
The face of what I was, the face of what he made me!
These are driving him to the place where I lie.
In death, therefore, I am avenged.
Listen to Ollie’s words –
Slide 2
Fletcher McGee
The days went by like shadows,
The minutes wheeled like stars.
She took the pity from my heart,
And made it into smiles(Here he is saying that she made him stop feeling sorry for her and he started to enjoy treating her badly.)
She was a hunk of sculptor’s clay,
My secret thoughts were fingers:
They flew behind her pensive (thoughtful) brow
And lined it deep with pain.
They set the lips, and sagged the cheeks,
And drooped the eye with sorrow.
My soul had entered in the clay,
Fighting like seven devils.
It was not mine, it was not hers;
She held it, but its struggles
Modeled a face she hated,
And a face I feared to see.
I beat the windows, shook the bolts.
I hid me in a corner
And then she died and haunted me,
And hunted me for life.
Listen to Fletcher’s words
Question 1
What word would Ollie McGee use to describe her husband?
Loving
Disinterested
Manipulative
Thoughtful
Feedback
Question 2
Would he agree with her? Use a line from his epitaph to support your answer.
Feedback
Question 3
Which lines from Fletcher’s epitaph prove Ollie’s accusation:
“That is my husband who, by secret cruelty
Never to be told, robbed me of my youth and my beauty;
Till at last, wrinkled and with yellow teeth,
And with broken pride and shameful humility,
I sank into the grave.”
“I beat the windows, shook the bolts.
I hid me in a corner”
“They flew behind her pensive brow
And lined it deep with pain.”
“My soul had entered in the clay,
Fighting like seven devils.”
Feedback
Question 4
Which lines from Fletcher’s epitaph reveal that Ollie, after her death, got revenge for the way he treated her?
She took my strength by minutes,
She took my life by hours
She took the pity from my heart,
And made it into smiles
And then she died and haunted me,
And hunted me for life.
Feedback
Cause and Effect
Consider what you have learned about a woman’s place in society at the turn of the twentieth century while reading Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” How does this story relate to the same ideas in the Spoon River Anthology epitaphs?
The Story of an Hour
SHOW INTERACTIVE
Cause and Effect
Question 1
“She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.”
Why is it unusual that Chopin describes this view from Mrs. Mallard’s window?
It is a comforting environment, but it doesn’t help Mrs. Mallard’s grief.
It is not the atmosphere typically associated with death or mourning.
It is a beautiful scene, but Mrs. Mallard can’t see it through her tears.
It is not what you would expect to see from a window in the city.
What does this view foreshadow?
Mrs. Mallard’s relief when she sees her husband again.
Mrs. Mallard’s desire to spend the afternoon with her sister.
Mrs. Mallard’s sense of relief at the thought of freedom.
Mrs. Mallard need to get away from her stuffy house.
Feedback
Question 2
What do these sentences reveal about Mrs. Mallard?
“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. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.”
“She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”
The idea of losing her husband made Mrs. Mallard so sad she couldn’t stand to live a long life without him.
The thought of spending the rest of her life without her husband made Mrs. Mallard wish for a shorter life.
The knowledge of her husband’s death made Mrs. Mallard appreciate all the time she got to spend with him.
The prospect of freedom renewed Mrs. Mallard and made her excited about living a long, independent life.
Feedback
Question 3
Considering the first sentence: “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”
What is ironic about the last sentence of the story? “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease–of the joy that kills.”
Check your understanding.
How would Mrs. Mallard’s friends and family interpret her death from “the joy that kills”?
Check your understanding.
How should an outside observer, aware of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts interpret her death from “the joy that kills”?
Check your understanding.
In this lesson, you will read stories of relationships worthy of their own reality television series. Consider archetypes as you read. How do the women in these relationships match up to those traditional notions of women?
Read and take notes on the No Love Lost note-taking guide as you complete this lesson. You will submit your answers to the questions in the note-taking guide at the end of this lesson. You will also use those notes to complete an assessment in a future lesson.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
analyze texts to determine a theme
compare texts to understand different perspectives on a topic or theme
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