I.

Introduction

A. Overview of the literary text

The story of an hour was written by Kate Chopin. It is about the thoughts of a woman
after she is told that his husband died. The story first appeared in Vogue in the year of
1894 and this story is one of the most popular works of Kate Chopin today. It was written
on April 19, 1894, and first published in Vogue on December 6, 1894, under the title
“The Dream of an Hour,” one of nineteen Kate Chopin stories that Vogue published. It
was reprinted in St. Louis Life on January 5, 1895.

B. Plot summary

This story is all about Louise Mallard, she has a heart trouble and so she must be
informed about her husband’s death carefully. Her sister Josephine told her about the
death of her husband Brently. After knowing about her husband’s death Louise sit down
and look out at an open window. Tears are still in her eyes saying free over and over
again. Her heart beats fast and she feels very warm.

She sees trees, smells approaching rain, and hears a peddler yelling out what he’s selling.
She hears someone singing as well as the sounds of sparrows, and there are fluffy white
clouds in the sky.

Her sister Josephine keeps on knocking the door, begging her to please come out, and
warning her that she’ll get sick if she doesn’t. Louise tells her to go away. Louise hopes
that she will live long. And then she opens the door and go out, she starts walking down
the stairs where Richard the friend of her husband is waiting.

Suddenly the door open, and Brently comes in. He was not included in the train accident
and he was even not aware that happened. Josephine screams and Richard tried
unsuccessfully to block Louise from seeing him. The doctor pronounced that he died in a
heart attack brought by great happiness.
II. Literary Review

A. Reader-Response Criticism

Is another literary theory, focusing on the audiences or readers experience of any literary
work.

Reader response ask the readers to examine, explain and defend his/her personal reaction
to a literary text. This answers the questions:

Does the text have anything to do with your personal life?

Does it hold the same opinion and perspective that you have?

Does the text challenge your opinion?

What is there you like the most in the text?

How could it have been better?

There are many ways in writing a reader response analysis,

You can agree with the whole story.

You can dis agree with the whole story .

You can agree or dis agree with some parts of the story.

You can take one situation from the story and agree or dis agree to it.

B. How did the reader response to a text

As what we have researched most of the readers liked it because of its uniqueness, from
the first paragraph. Things that happened were unexpected.

The story puzzled the readers. And the story answered their questions at the end of the
story. The story was different from other stories.

They liked the story because of its twists that were unexpected.
C. Application of reader response criticism in any literary works.

1. The Lottery Reading Response

“In this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the
whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and
still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner” (Jackson). In
the short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is a story about a village that conducts
what would be considered a disturbing and cruel tradition each year amongst the
villagers. The village tradition involves a drawing amongst each head of household and
their family members to determine who wins the lottery each year. The drawing is
completely random and everyone in the village must participate. Although most readers
would assume that when someone wins the lottery they are being rewarded but in the
case of this village it is not the case. A villager winning the lottery results in death, more
specifically the other villagers stone he or she to death. In the short story, The Lottery, by
Shirley Jackson, involves the usage of certain characters to explain how traditions and
cultures of a community are not always considered morally good traditions to have.
Jackson uses this concept to allow her audience to imagine a reality that they would not
want to live in or be apart of.

Shirley Jackson’s use of characters in the short story allows for a better perception of
how immoral the tradition is. For instance, Old Man Varner, who is known to be the
oldest man in the entire village. Old Man Varner reveals that he has seen the Lottery
drawing be conducted each year, seventy seven times. “They do say,” Mr. Adams said to
Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, ‘that over in the north village they’re talking of
giving up the lottery. ‘Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools,’ he said. “Listening
to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be
wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while”
(Jackson). Another villager tells Old Man Varner that other villages are considering
ending the lottery drawings. Old Man Varner then goes on to say that those villagers are
crazy to end the tradition. He then compares it to society becoming cavemen or jobless.
Old Man Varner is a prime example of why the tradition is so disturbing. As an authorial
reader, I can see that he is a man of tradition and believes in keeping the lottery exactly
the same and any change would be catastrophic to the village. As an actual reader, I feel
that Old Man Varner is not taking advantage of the power he does have being the oldest
member to influence the village better. Old Man Varner only uses his knowledge and
influence on the village to convince them not to ban the lottery. As a reader I would
assume that Old Man Varner would try to stop the lottery from ever occurring again since
he has already witnessed seventy- six murders of innocent people. Old Man Varner is
blinded by what most readers would consider a cruel tradition.

The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson depicts a village tradition considered to
be crude and immoral. This tradition, also known as a The Lottery, is conducted once a
year during the summer. Everyone is required to participate in the lottery each year. The
participants include the head of households and family members in each home. The
person who wins the lottery is then stoned to death by the rest of the village members.
Jackson uses Old Varner Man’s character to reveal how the lottery is corrupted and no
one seems to notice how immoral it is. Old Man Varner is revealed as a man who
believes in keeping things exactly how they are and he uses that influence to cause other
villagers to believe and act the same way. Jackson shares with her audience an
undesirable reality and how traditions of people can sometimes be overlooked even
though they are considered immorally wrong.

By: Taylor Braynt

2. Reader Response Criticism-Romeo And Juliet

Reader response criticism gained popularity due to its staunch opposition to the Russian
formalist style of analyzing literature. Reader response criticism places power in the
reader and takes into heavy consideration the reader’s feelings and biases entering and
during the reading of a piece of literature following the formula “Reader+Text=Meaning”
(Bressler 74). Implying that meaning subjectively comes from the reader I plan to take a
critical look at William Shakespeare’s classic play Romeo and Juliet focusing on its
views of love and view of life in the Renaissance.

Romeo and Juliet is said to be one of the greatest works of classic literature and the
epitome of romance writing. . Though now personally I find the work a bit over-dramatic
and an unrealistic view of love and life in the time period but can understand how
depending on the age group reading this work and the personal experiences of the reader
can drastically effect how the work is viewed.

I first read Romeo and Juliet my freshman year of high school when I was 14 years old,
the same age as Juliet. I was with an older gentleman and I was convinced very much like
Juliet that we would be in love forever and that only death would tear us apart. That was
my first encounter with the work, and at the time I believed that it was exactly how love
is and how love worked. It was my inexperience and naivety like Juliet’s that lead me to
feeling that way. It took the harsh realities of living that showed me that love and life is
not and cannot be like that. One relationship should not be worth dying for at such a
young age. But I recall watching this play in high school thinking that was exactly what
love was. This is how it should be. A girl and boy should easily be willing to die for one
another and to protect their love.
I am now 21 years old, have been through a few more relationships have had a few more
life experiences under my belt and reading Romeo and Juliet again it was only met with
pained groans and a heavy amount of cynicism. What had changed? Why had my heart
that was so willing to accept the concepts of love at first sight and a love so passionate
that one would be willing to lose their life over suddenly turned to stone? Is it possible
that this work is only effective when the reader is young and willing to accept these
possibilities?

I personally do enjoy the play, I love the language and the diction and found the humor
marvelous, but I also found it soppy and overly dramatic. Despite me having a current
boyfriend I would never dream of dying for him yet alone to think of suicide if something
were to happen to him. But the play also brought up several other personal correlations
into my real modern life. In growing up with the Southern tradition of debutante the
aristocratic society does not for me seem so far off. In fact, it was quiet familiar. Dancing
with people that you do not know, being concerned for the family name understanding
that rank is the only thing and that there are some people you are simply not to associate
with. I understand the fear of being associated with someone the family considers to be a
threat or just unworthy.

There are other concerns I had with looking at Romeo and Juliet the fact that this play
happens in such a short amount of time, the play is said to take place in only one week. In
one week this couple meets, marries, has sex, and die for each other. I doubt that was
how things moved in the Renaissance, despite it being a much faster pace to courting than
we in modern times are accustomed to. The courting process then and even in the
Southern debutante tradition could be anywhere from weeks to months, formally about
three months, still hardly enough time to form a relationship with someone worth dying
over. Especially considering that the man is usually several years older than the female
and the poor girl is often only marrying to make her family proud in both traditions,
Juliet’s mother herself said she was married off when she was younger than Juliet to her
much older husband.

I have a hard time stomaching the idea that a couple in one week’s time was infatuated
enough to die for within one week. Though the people of the time especially in the upper
class did believe in the concept of love at first sight, one week is hardly enough time to
decide that this is the person worth spending the rest of your life with and then ending
your life over.

Love at first sight was a concept I was willing to accept until recently. And even is
talking with others about the topic some are willing to admit that they believe in it and
others scoff at the very idea. Perhaps the issue is societal. That when we are young we are
willing to entertain the notion of extremes in love and our society allows it. As long as we
are between the ages of 12-16 years old it is perfectly socially acceptable to be infatuated
in such a way and to fall in and out of love so quickly not only that it is almost
encouraged. As if our society knows that all it will take is that first serious break up to
snap us back to our senses and back to the reality that this is not how life works. We then
snap out of it and our hearts harden. We then cannot accept the idea of love at first sight
and a love so strong and so fiery that we are willing to die for it or cannot live without it.

In closing Romeo and Juliet is a fantastic work of literature written by the world’s most
famed playwrights. This is considered to a classic love story but has been met with
increasing cynicism and skepticism about its relevance in today’s society. Enjoying this
piece through reader-response criticism allows each reader to draw their own personal
conclusions and be affected by their own personal biases which create a unique reading
experience from person to person.

III. Literary Analysis

A. Positive response from the readers

They liked the story because it was unusual. The story grabs their attention. And they
liked it because it was ironic, who would think that Mrs. Mallard would die because of
the happiness that was brought to her because of the death of his husband. We all thought
that it was because of her agony but it turns out that it was because of great happiness.

B. Negative response from the readers

That the ending of the story gave them questions that are hard and are impossible to
answer. This was just the negative side of the story according to the response of some of
the readers from the story on an hour.

IV. Conclusion

The story gave us unexpected happenings and are unusual. It was ironic but it gives us a
remarkable experience who would expect that Mrs. Mallard would die because of great
happiness and not because of the agony that she should be experiencing. That because of
the death of her husband she could say that she was free.

In the story of the story of an hour some liked it and others not. But for us, we liked it
because same from the other readers it was unique you really cannot predict what would
happen next. And because you thought that Mrs. Mallard would die because of agony but
it was totally opposite.
V. References

Kate chopin.org. (2019, November 17). Kate chopin “the story of an hour”. Retrieved
from https://www.katechopin.org/the-story-of-an-hour/

Spark notes. (2019). The story of an hour summary. Retrieved from

https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/summary/

Perdue. (n.d). Reader response criticism (1960s-present). The lottery reading response.
Retrieved from
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory
_and_schools_of_criticism/reader_response_criticism.html

Brayntt4. (2012, August 24). Retrieved from

https://bryantt4.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/the-lottery-reading-response/

Amandaactually. (2018, July 30). Reader response criticism-Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved
from https://amandaactually.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/reader-response-criticism-
romeo-and-juliet/

Archive. (n.d). “The story of an hour”: students response, 1996 students of Ann
Woodlief, Virginia commonwealth university. Retrieved from
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/hourdis.html