Courtney Chappell
Angela Drummond
English 1302
May 1, 2018
Round/Dynamic or Flat/Static Character
The Kate Chopin stories all consist of married women. You have women who love their husbands and you would think they should all vow to just their husbands but within the stories they all differ in some type of way with their marriage. Although the stories aren’t exactly focused on their marriage themselves you are still able to identify the person they actually are with the textual evidence that is given. In, The Story of the Hour, Mrs. Mallard would be considered and viewed as a dynamic character. In, Respectable Woman, Mrs. Baroda would be viewed as a dynamic character as well. Meanwhile in, The Storm, Calixta would be a round character.
Mrs. Mallard in, The Story of the Hour, I would consider her to be a dynamic character because her as a person she changes a lot throughout the story. She was put in a hard situation with accepting the news of the husband being deceased. Her sister had to be very gentle on how the information was delivered to her because she had a bad heart and they didn’t want to harm her in the process of giving her the bad news. Mrs. Mallard first handled the news like anyone else would when they find out their spouse isn’t coming home. She was hurt and she wept. She later ran to her room where she cried some more but then she realized that she was free and alone. Myself personally I wouldn’t think about that the very first day I found out news like this because it is something sensitive and to imagine you’ll never get that person back. Her character changed from being sad and showing sorrow, to being ok with being alone. However, she wasn’t just ok with being alone it seemed as though she became very content with it because she had been married so long and she really didn’t have any alone time for herself. After being ok with accepting herself being alone she came out of the room only to discover that her husband wasn’t dead at all he was actually alive. She became so confused that it caused her to have a heart attack. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease –of the joy that kills” (Chopin Pg.2). However, in reality she was in complete shock because she had just came to terms with herself being alone. Mrs. Mallard’s character was up and down throughout the story, especially with it being a short story. I could see her character possibly changing days or months later but not within the same hour of finding out bad news.
Mrs. Baroda in, Respectable Woman, I felt as though she was also dynamic because she also changes throughout the story with her views on one particular person, which includes Mr. Gaston’s friend, Gouvernail. She was completely against him coming to visit and even when he arrived she was still against him being there even though she hid it very well from him. She did let her husband know that she was bothered by him being there. However, towards the ending of this story Mrs. Baroda fo...
