His Smile Flashcards
by Susan Glaspell — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: His Smile
Who is Laura, and what is the central situation of the story?
Laura is a widow who lost her husband Howie in a munitions plant explosion. She has discovered that a brief moment of Howie was accidentally captured in a silent film called "The Cross of Diamonds," and she travels from town to town following the film to see him.
Who was Howie, and how did he die?
Howie was Laura's husband of ten years — a kind, inventive man who worked in his father's factory thinking up ways to improve workers' comfort. He was visiting a munitions plant to test one of his eye-shade inventions when an explosion killed him, leaving nothing to carry out.
What film is Laura following, and why is it significant?
Laura is following a film called "The Cross of Diamonds," a tawdry crime picture about men who steal a diamond cross. Howie appears in it by chance, caught on a city street while the camera was rolling, and the filmmakers kept the moment because it was genuinely moving.
What does Howie do in his brief moment on screen?
Howie notices a small dog whose muzzle is strapped too tight, stops to loosen it, speaks kindly to the dog, and pats it. When a little girl calls to him as he walks away, he looks back over his shoulder and smiles — that smile is the moment Laura travels to see.
What does Laura hear at the theater that terrifies her most?
Laura overhears two words that devastate her. First, someone behind her says "munitions," which forces the horrifying image of Howie being blown to pieces into her mind. Second, she hears people call the aging film a "scrap-heap" — meaning even this last trace of Howie will soon cease to exist.
Why does Laura dress in her dark-blue suit rather than black mourning clothes when she goes to see the film?
Laura wears the suit Howie always liked, choosing clothes that connect her to living memories of him rather than to death. The choice signals that her trips to the theater are not about grief rituals but about reaching back into the warmth of what their life together was.
What is the central theme of 'His Smile'?
The story explores grief, connection, and how we find our way back to the living world after devastating loss. Glaspell shows that Laura cannot hold onto Howie by retreating from others, but only by doing the kinds of kind things Howie would have done.
What is the epiphany Laura experiences near the end of the story?
Laura realizes that she cannot reach Howie by pushing people away and retreating into the shadows of the film. She understands that it is in being kind to others — as Howie was always kind — that she can feel him near. Howie had drawn her into the warmth of the world; she can keep him by continuing that warmth herself.
What small act triggers Laura's epiphany?
As Howie's smile appears on screen, Laura notices that the little girl sitting beside her has fallen asleep and her head has slipped from its support. Without quite deciding to, Laura gently supports the child's head on her own arm — and it is this small act of care that breaks open her understanding.
What goes wrong with the film during the final viewing?
The worn-out film starts breaking down at exactly the moment Howie should appear, causing a flash, blur, and jumble of movements while the audience laughs. But miraculously, the picture steadies on Howie's smile, which is then held longer than usual — as if, Glaspell writes, Howie lingered to let his smile reach Laura.
Who is Tom, and what is his role in the story?
Tom is Laura's brother, who has been worried about her and opposed to her following the film around. He traces her to the final theater and meets her at the exit, gently reproaching her for continuing a habit he feared was unhealthy or even irrational.
What does the story suggest is the difference between genuine connection and mere proximity?
Glaspell shows that even in a crowded theater people can be entirely alone. Laura is surrounded by hundreds of people but completely cut off from them until her act of kindness to the child. True connection requires active care, not just physical closeness.
How does Glaspell use the motif of sunshine and cold throughout the story?
Howie is described as having drawn Laura into "the sunshine" of human warmth and connection when they married. After his death she lives in "days of cold mist." The story ends with Laura understanding she can step back into the sunshine not by holding onto the film, but by carrying Howie's warmth into her own actions.
What does the phrase 'a disclosing moment captured unawares' mean in the story?
It refers to Howie's appearance on film: the camera accidentally caught a genuine, unguarded moment of his character — his instinctive kindness to a dog — rather than a posed or performed moment. Glaspell uses it to suggest that Howie's real self was preserved precisely because it was unscripted.
How does the film 'The Cross of Diamonds' function symbolically?
The tawdry crime film — about stolen diamonds and dishonest men — serves as an ironic vessel for something genuinely precious: one moment of Howie's authentic goodness. The contrast between the meaningless plot and the real human moment within it mirrors how genuine love can exist inside an indifferent world.
What does the story say about how Laura lived before she met Howie?
Before Howie, Laura was reserved and largely closed off from others, her life "more as a thing unto itself than a part of the life of the world." Howie's natural warmth and ability to connect with everyone drew her out of that isolation and into fuller human contact.
What is the significance of the story's title, 'His Smile'?
The smile is both the literal focal point of the film moment Laura travels to see and a symbol of Howie's entire character — his warmth, his care for others, his way of leaving friends wherever he went. The smile is also what the film steadies on at the climactic moment, giving it the quality of a benediction.
What does Glaspell mean when she writes that connecting with others was like establishing 'a tenuous connection' over a long distance?
She compares Laura's struggle to re-engage with life to a bad long-distance telephone call — the connection is fragile, keeps breaking into confusion, and feels impossibly far away. The metaphor captures how grief can make ordinary human contact feel like reaching across an unbridgeable distance.
What does the story imply about the nature of grief and obsession?
Glaspell presents Laura's film-chasing with compassion, not judgment, but shows it as a form of flight from the world rather than a path through grief. The obsession gives her a reason to keep moving but ultimately cannot give her what she needs: a way to feel Howie still present in her daily life.
What is the narrative point of view in 'His Smile,' and how does it shape the story?
The story is told in close third-person limited perspective, staying tightly inside Laura's consciousness. This allows Glaspell to convey the tunnel-vision of acute grief — the reader experiences the world as Laura does, filtered through her loss, making everyone else seem part of a passing picture.
What does the word 'tenuous' mean as Glaspell uses it near the end of the story?
Tenuous means thin, fragile, and easily broken. Glaspell uses it to describe the slender, unreliable connection Laura feels to the living world — like a telephone wire that might go silent at any moment, capturing how grief can make normal existence feel barely reachable.
How does the story end, and what change has occurred in Laura?
Laura leaves the theater on her brother Tom's arm, drained but transformed. She has supported the sleeping child, experienced the miracle of Howie's smile steadying on screen, and understood that living as Howie lived — with care for others — is how she can keep him. For the first time since his death, she feels she truly has him.