Kate Chopin Research Paper

Kate Chopin was a Victorian era author and although not renown then, she has become relevant and popular today. Unlike Chopin's peers, she wrote on taboo subjects and was seen as an outcast and rebel, rather than a pristine, Victorian author. She was oppressed by many publishers because of this and the rediscovery of her works have brought forth a message that resonates with readers today. Chopin wrote about the expectations and values of a woman in her current society in contrast to a society where a woman could find one’s freedom and independence. The era in which she wrote was full of a masculine dominance that included a wife as that of a casted shadow from her husband than as a separate being standing alongside him or yet in all separate

As her book, "The Story of an Hour," written by the American woman writer, Kate Chopin (1851-1904) fully shows us the tremendous conflict between life and death among those women who had the more self-awareness, the less social living space according to the established social norms 100 years ago in a dramatic way. (Wan). Chopin's work has captivated readers everywhere with pieces, “indeed, Chopin speaks loudly and clearly to modern readers in ‘The Story of an Hour,’ ‘Desiree's Baby,’ ‘Beyond the Bayou,’ ‘Ma'ame Pélagie,’ and ‘A Matter of Prejudice.’. Both ‘The Story of an Hour’ and ‘Desiree's Baby’ illustrate the dangers a ‘Matter of Behavior: A Semantic Analysis Of Five Kate Chopin Stories 95 of the Railroad Disaster’ was Received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of 'killed'" (352).(Mayer). Chopin also contained a message of criticizing society in many ways along with a feminist backdrop to her stories. For example in one of her now famous pieces ‘Desiree's Baby,’ Chopin depicts Armand Aubigny as a cruel, arrogant man who, likely, would never admit he was wrong. He is merciless with his slaves and his wife, and in marrying Desiree, "he could give her one of the oldest and proudest [names] in Louisiana" (241). In essence, Armand demonstrates a semantic error called allness, which occurs whenever a person "assumes that what he says or

”When The Awakening was first published in 1899, it was condemned for delving into taboo social issues such as adultery and suicide.”(Lifson) .Chopin's work in ‘The Awakening’ had the theme of revelation in oneself with this being a matter unwanted by society. With her direct messages from her overall style of writting and influence of her state of society, the foreseen end of the book being drowning and in terms sucide, just goes to show the lasting hold of society on women no matter what. Kate Chopin, just “like Edna Pontellier,as she potrayed herself in The Awakening, she is unable to reconcile her inner desires and the demands of the world around her.”(Timko). With this potrail for example, Chopin uses this to have the reader clearly understand just how tight the grasp of “man” were in her era and how there truly was no escaping it due to society’s negative view on female independence and personality. As the the plot of ‘The Awakening’ focuses on the heroine gradually coming to the realization that she will never break through the conventional standards that control her life because of the frame of time which they live in. (Timko). With examples from the documentary, Kate Chopin: A Re-awakening, whic explains her life and the reasons beind why