Reading “Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin

Désirée’s Baby is a short story by American writer Kate Chopin. First published in Vogue magazine in 1893, it was later included in Chopin’s short story collection Bayou Folk a year later, in 1894. 

Kate Chopin is regarded as one of the first writers in what would later develop into the feminist movement. Having moved to Louisiana after her marriage, her characters too hailed from the Southern state and were subject to the particularities of Creole and Cajun cultures, religions, and traditions. Most of her protagonists were women who had to submit to the positions society prescribed to them. Chopin’s most well-known work is the novel The Awakening, although she is also hailed as a prolific writer of nuanced short stories such as The Story of an Hour and Désirée’s Baby.

Désirée’s Baby explores racism in antebellum Louisiana through miscegenation.

A Summary of Désirée’s Baby

Madame Valmonde sets out to visit her daughter Désirée, who has recently given birth. On her way, she reminisces about the time when Désirée herself was a baby and about the girl’s wedding. 

Monsieur Valmonde had found Désirée as a baby while out riding, near the stone pillar of the family estate’s gateway. A few different theories were circulated among the people about how the child came to be there, but Madame Valmonde soon lost interest in them. Instead, she believed the baby’s arrival in her house was a gift from God: the couple was childless, though Madame Valmonde had wanted one. She named the baby Désirée, and she loved and brought her up as her own daughter. And Désirée grew up kind and beautiful, “the idol of Valmonde.”

Though she does not know where Désirée came from, Madame Valmonde accepts her wholeheartedly and sees her as a gift from God.

When Désirée had turned eighteen, Armand Aubigny, a boy from an established and wealthy family that the Valmondes knew, had spotted her standing against the same stone pillar she’d been found under. He fell in love with her, as quickly and intensely as if he’d been “struck by a pistol shot.” Madame Valmonde wonders why he hadn’t felt any affection towards Désirée before as this was not the first time he had seen her; he’d known the girl since he’d been eight years old, when he had first come to America. Armand had arrived with his father from France, where his mother had recently died. Though the Valmondes had known Monsieur Aubigny for a long time, they had never met his wife, who had lived in France all her life.

Armand fell in love with Désirée, as quickly and intensely as if he’d been “struck by a pistol shot.”

Having fallen deeply in love with Désirée, Armand was determined to marry her. He’d been warned by Monsieur Valmonde that they had no idea what her ancestry and origins were. This, however, did not deter him, and as soon as the corbeille arrived from Paris, their wedding took place. (A corbeille is a gift basket that, in 19th century French tradition, was given by a groom to his bride). 

As she approaches the Aubigny estate, L’Abri, Madame Valmonde is struck by its dark and gloomy appearance. Prior to Désirée’s arrival, the estate had not been under the hands of a mistress for a very long time. And the young Armand ruled over it with a strict hand; the slaves had previously been given a freer rein by the old Monsieur Aubigny, but the young man’s severeness with them had chased away all signs of joy among them, adding to the place’s bleakness.

The bleakness of L’Abri is exacerbated by Armand’s severity and his harsh treatment of the estate’s slaves.

Not having seen Désirée and the baby for four weeks, Madame Valmonde is excited to meet them. But seeing the child, she is very surprised. Désirée assumes that this is because the baby has grown much since Madame Valmonde last saw him, but it is not so. Madame Valmonde doesn’t elaborate on her surprise, instead asking Désirée what Armand thinks of the baby. Désirée replies that he is very happy with him and that it has even brought about a pleasant change in his temperament: he is less severe, smiles more, and has stopped punishing the slaves. 

Around three months after the baby’s birth, however, Désirée begins to feel uneasy. There is a sudden increase in buzz among the slaves and, most disturbingly, a change in Armand’s manner. His happiness has gone away, he avoids his wife and child, and cannot even look at her. He has reverted to his harsh method of dealing with the slaves and is, in fact, worse than he had been while punishing them. Désirée does not understand why, and it makes her very sad.

One afternoon, Désirée is sitting in her room while the baby lies asleep on the bed, fanned by a quadroon servant boy (quadroon is a dated term used for people that are one-quarter black). Absentmindedly watching the two, Désirée is struck by a similarity between them. Shocked and frightened, she sends the servant boy out and sits frozen in her chair until Armand’s arrival.

Désirée is struck by the similarities in appearance between her son and the quadroon boy.

She asks him what it means that their son looks like the quadroon boy. Armand coolly replies that it means that their son is not white, which means that Désirée is not white. She tries to convince him that she is, but he mocks her and leaves.

Later, having calmed down a little, Désirée writes a letter to Madame Valmonde expressing her dismay over the new revelations and over Armand’s behavior. Madame Valmonde writes back, urging Désirée to return to Valmonde with her son. Seeing the reply, Armand tells Désirée that she should go and that he wants her to leave. 

Stunned, Désirée bids him good-bye, grabs her child from his nurse, and walks out of L’Abri, leaving behind all of her belongings. She does not stop to change her clothes or to put on her shoes. Instead of taking the road to the Valmonde estate, she walks, barefoot, to a deserted field and, from there, into the thicket around the bayou. She never comes back.

Armand’s willingness to let his wife and son leave saddens Désirée, forcing her to walk out with their child.

A few weeks later, Armand orders that all of Désirée’s belongings be burnt in a large bonfire. Among them is a collection of letters she wrote to him over the years. Armand retains only one of the old letters, but it hadn’t been written by Désirée. This is a letter his mother had written to his father, thanking God for her husband and also for Armand’s ignorance that his mother “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.”

Themes in Désirée’s Baby

Racism and Social Status: Set in antebellum (pre-Civil War) Louisiana, slavery is commonly practiced and accepted by the characters in the short story. Such a society is shaped and controlled by racist ideas and beliefs of the inferiority and superiority of the so-called different “races,” which are primarily determined by the color of their skin. 

In Désirée’s Baby, Kate Chopin deals with the way ingrained racism interacts with interracial relationships or situations of miscegenation. In racist societies, the intermixing of different groups was strongly disapproved as it undermined the logic of their founding beliefs. “Race” determined the position individuals could occupy on the social ladder, and those who were considered “mixed” could not be neatly slotted away. At the same time, matters of blood and biological origin are given a great deal of importance.

Interracial relationships and the existence of individuals of mixed race defied the racist logic of slavery and a race-conscious society.

Armand Aubigny is the typical white, race-obsessed slave owner. He is harsh and dismissive of  his slaves, running his estate with an iron hand. While he surprises everyone with his sudden and strong desire to marry a girl of indeterminate origins, he soon falls back into the characteristic mold. When his son begins to show signs of being a “quadroon,” Armand’s “love” for his wife and child evaporates without leaving a trace behind. He has no qualms about letting go of his family, and he even tries to purge all signs of them from his house by burning all their belongings after their death. 

While Armand has easily laid the blame for the son being of mixed race on Désirée, the letter at the end of the story reveals that it is not so. It is Armand himself who is half-black, but it is unlikely that anyone else will ever know. If the contents of his mother’s letter were to be revealed to anyone else, the race-conscious society in which he occupies such a prominent position would shun and cast him out. 

The tone of the letter itself is revealing of how deeply embedded racism and its consequences are in this society: Armand’s mother thanks God that he is unaware that she is black. He was brought to a completely different country early on in his childhood to conceal this fact from him. The prejudice of society was of such a magnitude that she, as a mother, was willing to let her child leave and believe, for potentially his whole life, that she was dead when she wasn’t. Her death would have been more acceptable than the fact of her being black.

The prejudice of a society that regarded race as a factor in determining social status forced Monsieur and Madame Aubigny apart.

And as it destroyed Armand’s marriage, racism became the obstacle that forced his parents’ separation. Their love for each other may have been stronger than that of their son for his wife, but they had to live on two different continents as they could not live together. 

Love: Désirée’s Baby explores at least two different kinds of love—that which a mother has and that which is based on infatuation. 

When Armand first falls in love with Désirée, everyone sees it as sudden but strong and intense, almost violent. It seems as if nothing can stop him from marrying her; the lack of information about her biological origins does not deter him in the slightest. But when this same point becomes one that later threatens his position in society through a son of mixed blood, his “love” proves to have been just an infatuation. He turns his back on Désirée and distances himself from her as much as possible.

Armand’s “love” for Désirée is more infatuation than real love.

While the letter from Armand’s mother to his father is revealed to the reader only at the end of the story, it is not clear when Armand himself knew of it. It is possible that he may have known of its contents a long time ago, maybe even before his marriage to Désirée. If that is the case, it is likely that Armand was never really in love or even infatuated with Désirée. Instead, love was the guise he used to exploit her unknown origins and to cover up his own mixed blood. Thus, the profession of love became a means of manipulation.

On the other hand, Chopin also examines the various facets of a mother’s love in the story. Unlike the love claimed by Armand, this is a much more enduring sort of love. It is primarily demonstrated through Madame Valmonde. Désirée is not her biological child, but her love for her adopted daughter is as strong as that arising from a biological bond. She accepts Désirée’s appearance in her life as a miracle and treats her as her own. Désirée’s origins cause her no concern. Her love for her daughter persists years later, even when the possibility arises that Désirée may not be completely white. Instead, as Armand grows cold and distant towards her, Madame Valmonde unhesitantly tells Désirée to return home. She does not worry about society’s gossip.

Both Madame Valmonde and Madame Aubigny demonstrate unconditional love for their children.

Similarly, Madame Aubigny’s love for Armand is strong and even sacrificial. She would rather be separated from her husband and son than have Armand experience the unpleasantness of going through life among a racist society as a known person of mixed blood. She sacrifices a life of comfort and love and even erases her existence so that her son is accepted by society.

This can be contrasted with the bond between Désirée and her child. Like Armand, she appears to have imbibed the prevalent values around her. The possible revelations in the color of her child’s skin about her own ancestry is much too shocking for Désirée. Coupled with the loss of her husband’s love and affection, it drives her to kill herself as well as her son.

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