First Script

Nickolas Curtiss

"Story of an Hour"

Like the story, this comic doesn’t have a lot of dialogue. Instead it uses visual cues in the form of color, atmosphere, and the body language of the characters to tell the story.

Page 1

Panel A: Setting in a den room. Sister, Josephine speaks to her, in broken sentences. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. No dialogue, but speech is conveyed by expression/body language.

Panel B: Richards recalling himself in the newspaper office, holding the list of the dead in his hand, Brently Mallard's name on it. He’s looking at the list.

Panel C: Richards is contemplative. He seems to think of only a couple of numbers and dials them.

Panel D: Back to the room. Dialog looks to be taking place by body language, but there is none. There is a pause.

Panel E:  She begins sobbing in her sister’s arms.

Panel F: She’s walking down a hall into another room, motioning for her concerned relatives to leave her alone. Everyone is concerned or distraught.

 

Page 2

Panel A: She stands in front of a chair, looking out an open window. It is just light, we can’t see outside.

Panel B: She falls heavily into the chair, her head is slumped forward, her shoulders are low and burdened.

Panel C: She looks up towards the window. We see her face coming up, and her eyes training on the window. 

Panel D: the scene moves to the exterior. It’s a shot of a clear day and the street outside. There is a vendor peddling on the sidewalk. 

Panel E: We see a songbird sitting in a tree, singing.We see more songbirds, and now the clear sky and clouds.

 

Page 3

Panel A: The scene switches back to the interior. Her head is thrown back upon the cushion of the chair. 

Panel B: Close up of her throat and mouth. A sob begins.

Panel C: She begins to cry again, holding her face.

Panel D: We get a look at her eyes, though dull they are fixed on something outside, through the window. 

Panel E: She starts to look slightly frightened as she begins to think.

 

Page 4

Panel A: She clutches her chest. She’s starting to look like panic is taking her.

Panel B: She starts to look calmer as she realizes her feeling is liberating. Her hands drop from her face and three words escape her mouth. No speech bubble, only the words: "free, free, free!"

Panel C: We get another close up of her face. It is a completely different mood from before. It is joyous and liberated.

Panel D: We see a vision of her husband in a coffin at a funeral home, his hands folded.

Panel E: Scene goes back to the room. The woman looks conflicted, clutching her chest again.

Panel F: She is in frame, arms open. Behind her the room disappears to show imagery of the years to come – all the possibilities now that her husband is gone.

 

Page 5

Panel A: A scene behind her, a flashback, of the husband commanding her. She smiles a little more.

Panel B: The background images disappear as she looks back at the window.

Panel C: "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Panel D: Scene turns to outside the closed room. Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole. Josephine: “Open the door!”

Panel E: Josephine: “I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

Panel F: Back in the room, she turns unwillingly from the window. "Go away. I am not making myself ill."

 

Page 6

Panel A: She looks back at the window, almost seeming to be in a trance. 

Panel B: She looks to be praying. Small text drifts from her mouth – no speech bubble. “Let life be long.”

Panel C: Scene outside in the hall. The door to the room opens, she stands in the doorway, looking at Josephine somewhat triumphantly.

Panel D: They walk toward the stairs, her arm around Josephine’s waist. 

Panel E: The two women are at the top of the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Panel F: Close up of the door and the lock, looking like the door is opening.

 

 

Page 7

Panel A: The door swings open. It’s Brently Mallard, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella.

Panel B: He looks oblivious that any accident had happened. He casually begins to go about his routine, placing his coat on a hangar. 

Panel C: Josephine lets out a cry at the top of the stairs. Brently looks alarmed.

Panel D: Richards jumps in front of Brently, trying to shield him from view. Brently looks shocked and alarmed.

 

Page 8

Splash page

Panel A: The scene is the atrium of the house. Doctors are placing a sheet over the dead woman. A doctor speaking to Josephine and Brently: “Heart disease – the joy that kills.”