Gender Readings. Top Ten. Ренц Т.Г - 7 стр.

       There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through
the clouds that had met and piled above the other in the west facing
her window.
       She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the
chair quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat
and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob
in its dreams.
      Comment. The setting for the middle section of the story is Mrs.
Mallard’s room. Is the open window through which she looks of any sig-
nificance? Do the details that follow — trees, birds, rain, patches of blue
sky, peddler, and song — have anything in common? We notice also that
Mrs. Mallard is compared to a child who sobs in its dreams and may won-
der about the implications of this comparison.
      She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke
repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in
her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those
patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indi-
cated a suspension of intelligent thought.
      There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it,
fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive
to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her
through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
      Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning
to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she
was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two
white slender hands would have been.
       Comment. These paragraphs slightly alter the tone and pace of the
story. We are not told what Mrs. Mallard is waiting for. Whatever it is,
however, she feels it; she senses it coming as she looks out window. And we
see her resisting it — powerlessly. Do we perhaps also hear sexual over-
tones in the descri ption of what is “approaching to possess” her? Or do
we wish to assign religious or psychological significance to this imminent
possession and her ambivalent feelings about it? We notice, in addition,
that Mrs. Mallard is described as not conscious of what is happened to her.
Chopin says that there is “a suspension of intelligent thought”. She seems
to feel rather than think.
      When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her
slightly parted li ps. 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

                                  –7–