Calixta As the Ideal Woman of the 1800's in At The Cadian Ball by Kate Chopin
“Calixta would be there… That little Spanish vixen.” No matter what the age, there are certain types of women who seem to capture the attention of every man in the room. In the story At the ‘Cadian Ball by Kate Chopin, the protagonist Calixta is precisely that kind of a girl. She is an atypical female of her time. The ideal woman of the late 1800’s was demure, prim and restrained. She was the paragon of prudery, modesty personified. Then there was Calixta. Calixta was everything that the idealized ‘Madonna’ of her time was not. She was boldly flirtatious, impulsive, sensuous and altogether outrageous. For all these anomalous characteristics, she is admired in a fashion. Especially since society of the time is rather homogenous and has strict guidelines for behavior.
The heavy racial preconceptions of the times are also evident in this story. The only reason Calixta’s scandalous behavior is tolerated by the community is in her ethnicity. Even so, the men do not seem to mind her behavior much. The women on the other hand did not always approve. “Bon chien tient de race” She was dismissed often leniently since her mother was Spanish. It did not matter that Calixta had never been to Cuba. The fact that Spanish blood flowed through her veins was enough for the people to automatically assume she was indecent. Perhaps Calixta was influenced by these preconceived expectations.
Yet despite her shocking behavior, her indecency was innocent, and deliberate at the same time. Her taunts towards Bobinot, “Mais, w’at’s the matta? Standin’ plante la like ole ma’ame Tina’s cow in the bog you!” was deliberately provocative, however it came naturally to her. Since ...
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...ixta is no exception. Alcee is intriguing for her; therefore, she pursues him, with harmless trifling and suggestions.
She does not feel quite right unless there is someone admiring her, since Alcee is obviously not going to do that, she decides Bobinot is better than nothing is.
Calixta’s conduct directly reflects her purposes. Despite the fact that she is distinctive in personality and manner she ends up marrying Bobinot. In essence, she does what all the women do, albeit in a different manner. She does take initiative in proposing marriage. However, the point is that she gets married. In the end, regardless of her outrageously coquettish behavior, she is like all other women and want what they have; the stability and love. Thus, she marries Bobinot whom she knows loves her. Unconventional conduct notwithstanding she conforms in a fashion and obeys the rules.
The world has always known that women were not given all of their rights. During the 19th century and even before then, most of the time women were just forced to do what they were told and what the society expected from them. Women didn’t get to make their own choices. They couldn’t fall in love, work, or be part of the society in any possible way. They were born to get old, marry, and take care of their husbands, house, and kids. Kate Chopin was one of the authors who wrote multiple stories about women and feminism. In Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” Calixta was married, but when she saw Alcee she ignored the fact that she was married and she committed adultery with him. Kate Chopin describes how Calixta is unhappy with her married life, and how she finds happiness in adultery.
Kate Chopin writes a short story about a woman named Calixta who is at home by herself
For a first example of stereotypes, In “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” Judith Ortiz Cofer writes about the many stereotypes that she, as a Puerto Rican woman, has endured. She opens with a tale of how she had been publicly serenaded—on a London bus, of all places—by, as Cofer puts it, “a young man, obviously fresh from a pub” (187). Later on, she mentions a second random serenade of sorts, this time from a older man in a classy metropolitan hotel. The young man sang “Maria” from West Side Story, the older man first chose a song from Evita, then encored with a crudely-worded song to the tune of “La Bamba.” In both situations, whether it was their intention or not, their actions resulted in alienation of the author, singling her out and thrusting the stereotypes of her lineage in her face. The men may have meant well; they may have felt that what they were doing was good-hearted fun. They may have even been trying to...
Soon after this, Calixta who is then feeling the situation gets up to look outside the window, as not to keep looking at Alcee for she knows what may come of it. Alcee then also gets up to look out the window so that he may stand close to Calixta, which shows how Alcee wants to be with her. While Calixta is looking out the window she sees that it is raining hard and there is strong winds and lightning, which clearly signifies how mixed up Calixta’s feelings for Alcee are at that moment. After this Alcee grabs Calixta close to him as she staggers back, she then retreats and immediately asks where her son may be. This also shows that Calixta is having mixed feelings with the situation. Which is the reason she gets loose but does not tell Alcee to control himself but yet like nothing had happened wonders where her son may be, “ Bonte! She cried, releasing herself from his arms encircling arms and retreating to the window… If I only knew were Bibi was!”
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
In the context of a tumultuous time for the United States that was undergoing drastic changes socially, politically and ideologically, Kate Chopin published her first novel At Fault in 1890. Probably not aware of her role as one of the forerunners of the feminist movement in the late nineteenth century, Chopin embarked on expressing what women do feel, experience and suffer in their everyday lives. The first seeds of feminism, effectively, started essentially with the emergence of a group of women writers in England as well as in the United States who dared to speak about women from the standpoint of women and targeting a female audience. In spite of the fact that women had been taught to keep quiet, repress their voices and “internalize the codes of genteel womanhood” (Showalter 177), women writers during the nineteenth century attempted to reconstruct themselves as free individuals and refashion the image of the ideal woman. This was possible through writing that enabled them to “break new ground[s] and create new possibilities” (Showalter 19). G.H Lewes defines “female literature” as the articulation of women’s experience which “guides itself by its own impulses to autonomous self-expression” (qtd. in Showalter 13). Following women’s awareness of the unequal treatment they receive from men, their
Clemencia's father originates from Mexico, so her own father views US Mexicans to be not on par with the Mexicans who originate from Mexico. In her father’s opinion Mexican girls “who didn't know enough to set a separate plate for each course at a dinner, nor how ...
The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, an essay written by Judith Ortiz Cofer, discusses the racial stereotypes Cofer struggles with as a Latin woman who travels across America. Throughout her life, Cofer discusses her interactions with people who falsely misjudge her as a Latin woman. Additionally, Cofer mentions other Hispanic women she has met in her life, who also suffer with racial assumptions. Although several people would disagree with Cofer and claim that she is taking racial remarks too seriously, racial stereotyping is a significant issue that should not be overlooked in our society. People should not base someone’s worth by their outward appearance or their ethnic background.
During the time of Miguel De Cervantes’ writing of Don Quixote in the early 1600’s, gender roles were much different than they are today. In present time, it is much more common to see fluid gender roles and equality amongst males and females as opposed to the more traditional gender roles of males being dominant over females. The setting of Cervantes’ Don Quixote is after the time of chivalry where men performed honorable deeds to impress the lady of their desires. Being the only male who is practicing knight errantry, which was very popular during the historic period of chivalry, Don Quixote is the only male character who repeatedly demonstrates respect towards female characters as well as the eagerness to assist them in any way he can. Due
Throughout the years many variations of the ideas on race, class, and culture have been presented based upon different factors. In earlier times people’s views were not nearly the same as they are presented today. Ideas that women belong in the kitchen or that African-American’s were an inferior race were common. Those views were very popular during the time of Kate Chopin’s book “Desiree’s Baby.” Chopin’s book explores the controversial areas of race and class as well as touching on the subject of culture. “Desiree’s Baby” shows the life of Desiree from a young child through adulthood. The young Desiree was found by a rich family alone on the streets. Even in a time where race and social class was important the wealthy, a rich couple took in young Desiree without knowing her ancestral background. Desiree lived a good life with the family. The story then switches to when Desiree was a young adult and falls in love with Armand Aubigny. Armand also comes from a wealthy background and still falls for Desiree without knowing her racial background. Eventually, the young couple has a baby but to their surprise the baby comes out with African traits. Armand is not happy and rethinks whether she has African in her background or if maybe she had an affair with a slave. Desiree’s mother offers to have her and the baby come back and stay with them but when Desiree leaves she disappears and is never seen again. Later, Armand finds out that it may not have been Desiree that carries African roots but himself, from his mother’s side. Overall, Chopin’s work looks into the controversial issues of race, class, gender and culture using ironies and the story-line to infer the views of these topics.
In his literary work, Eça’s female characters are marked for life and are either weak or are prostitutes; in the case of Genoveva in “The Tragedy”, she is the latter (King and Sousa 200).
Many short story writers have written about the gender and role of woman in society. Some of these stories express what Barbara Walter calls, “The Cult of True Womanhood” meaning the separation of both man and woman in social, political and economic spheres. In order to be considered a “true woman” woman were to abide by the set of standards that were given to her. Women were expected to live by the four main principal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Storm,” Calixta the main female character breaks away from “The Cult of True Womanhood” when she has a sexual encounter with her past lover Alcée. The storm goes through many twists and turns that tie with their adulterous actions. Although she breaks away from the four main principal virtues, she in the end is considered to be pure innocent of heart because the action in which occurred happened instantly, and as white as she was, she was taken away from her innocence.
Miss Chopin wrote this story in the late 1800’s because the wife in this story is more set as a housewife where she cooks and cleans and take care of the children. “ She was a little fuller of figure than five years before when she married; but she had lost nothing of her vivacity” Miss Chopin goes into detail about Calixta even though she has gained some weight “ She was a little fuller” Calixta is the same person. “Alcḕe Laballiere ride in at the gate she had not seen him very often since her marriage” Calixta old man comes along as the storm is getting ready to approach and during these times and even now it’s not exceptional for married people to hang around Exes. Third person omniscient would be the the point of view because
In America, the 1890s were a decade of tension and social change. A central theme in Kate Chopin’s fiction was the independence of women. In Louisiana, most women were their husband’s property. The codes of Napoleon were still governing the matrimonial contract. Since Louisiana was a Catholic state, divorce was rare and scandalous. In any case, Edna Pontellier of Chopin had no legal rights for divorce, even though Léonce undoubtedly did. When Chopin gave life to a hero that tested freedom’s limits, she touched a nerve of the politic body. However, not Edna’s love, nor her artistic inner world, sex, or friendship can reconcile her personal growth, her creativity, her own sense of self and her expectations. It is a very particular academic fashion that has had Edna transformed into some sort of a feminist heroine. If she could have seen that her awakening in fact was a passion for Edna herself, then perhaps her suicide would have been avoided. Everyone was forced to observe, including the cynics that only because a young
She lambasted society for its perpetual close-mindedness in a time when righteousness was considered to be an attribute, and she helped to generate more enlightened attitudes among both the women and men of her time. In The Storm, the character of Calixta is unable to fulfill society's standards of virtue, despite her perceived purity by her lover Alcee. When Alcee professes, "If she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate" (p. 34), he is basically saying that just because a woman is not chaste, does not mean she is not pure of heart. After all, it was Calixta's marriage which had stripped her of her chastity status.