Comparing Story Of An Hour And Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin and Saki are both dramatic authors in these two short stories. “The Interlopers” by Saki, and “The Story of an Hour” by Chopin, are two different stories with only the dramatic ending as a similarity. In this compare and contrast essay, you will be able to clearly see their differences in character, and climax with their ending tying them together.

Male characters easily speak their minds, they outnumber the women characters, and they have a lot more action going on for the audience to see. Therefore, they have a more dramatic impact than women.

There were several years between my reading of that first short story and any subsequent stories by her. Recently, I have begun to study Chopin again by reading such stories as “At the ‘Cadian Ball,” “The Storm,” and The Awakening. Being a conventionalist, I am intrigued by Chopin’s female protagonists, who seem to totally completely disregard their roles in society

‘The Story of an Hour’ and ‘Desiree’s Baby’ by Kate Chopin have many differences and similarities. Both stories are written by the same author, but both are very different from each other. Chopin shows even though that she writes many stories they all can be different and have a some similarity. The women in the story are the main characters who have the most differences and similarities. They each had marriage issues and each issue was solved in a very extreme way.

Kate Chopin is a renowned author of the twentieth century. She is famous for her short stories that were written in the late 1800’s. Most of her works were published in magazines at the time but were a posthumous success because of societal dissent. The beliefs and values exhibited in her works of literature are far ahead of their time by representing women’s desire for independence from being a homemaker. One of her most popular short stories, “Desiree’s Baby,” shows how women had no choice over their own fate and were bound by the will of their husbands during Chopin’s lifetime. It was not well received by the public until years after Chopin’s death because the story draws sympathetic feelings towards the situation in which the main character Desiree finds herself in. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Chopin uses symbolism and irony to present the message of how the innocent suffer unjustly as a result of judgmental attitudes; she does this through the main characters of Armand and Desiree.

¬¬Brianna Davis ENG 266 01 Dr. Suzanne Del Gizzo November 17, 2014 Research Paper Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was a writer in America, during the late 1800s. Chopin has written two novellas that have a female character that has a strong disbelief in the traditional roles that a patriarchal society would have presented them with during that period. The traditional role of a woman in the late nineteenth century was like a “stay-at-home-mother” in today’s society. The only difference is that a woman has more freedom in today’s society as opposed to in the nineteenth century women who, due to the extreme patriarchal society, had very little freedom. Most women were confined to the home and tending to their children as well as the home.

Who is Kate Chopin exactly? Notably, people acknowledge Chopin for her novel “The Awakening”, in which she is vocal about women gaining independence, but society did not particularly like her vocalizing her opinion. Hence, Chopin was a feminist, who wrote short stories and some novels. “The Story of an Hour” written by Chopin is an exhibition of a woman coming into her own independence. Chopin wrote this poem around a time when women were inferior to men, although Chopin’s message is clearly heard throughout the poem. In particular, Mrs. Mallard is the main character in “The Story of an Hour”, and she is waiting for the moment that she will have the privilege as a woman. Knowingly, when Mrs. Mallard got married, she lost her identity, represented by the open window, her name, and heart trouble, which are symbols of her newfound freedom.

A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin’s novel’s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin’s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard’s view is correct to a point, but Chopin’s female characters can be viewed as more radically feminist than Howard realizes. Rather than simply being torn between independent and dependant versions of her personality, “The Story of an Hour’s” Mrs. Mallard actually rejoices in her newfound freedom, and, in the culmination of the story, the position of the woman

    Kate Chopin was an extraordinary writer of the nineteenth century. Despite failure to receive positive critical response, she became one of the most powerful and controversial writers of her time. She dared to write her thoughts on topics considered radical: the institution of marriage and women's desire for social, economic, and political equality. With a focus on the reality of relationships between men and women, she draws stunning and intelligent characters in a rich and bold writing style that was not accepted because it was so far ahead of its time. She risked her reputation by creating female heroines as independent women who wish to receive sexual and emotional fulfillment,

All in all, the insight that can be drawn from reading “Desiree’s Baby” is that Kate Chopin personified some aspects of herself in the character of Desiree and she uses this to express her feministic views. Although Kate Chopin’s feminist views are very well documented, in the case of “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin uses a character that shares characteristics

Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour" is largely about the forms of repression that women were forced to endure during the epoch in which the story was written (1894) and during much of the time that preceded it. During this time period, women quite frequently had to subjugate themselves to the will of their husbands, or to some other man who had a significant amount of control over their lives. Chopin chooses to address this phenomenon in an indirect manner with this particular short story, although she does so in a thematic manner which, of course, is the ""¦idea that lies behind the story. Every story narrows a broad underlying idea, shapes it in a unique way, and makes the underlying idea concrete" (Clugston 2010, 7.1) The theme that "The Story of an Hour" is based upon is the notion of the liberation of women from the overbearing influence of men. Chopin chooses to illustrate this theme quite dramatically through literary devices of symbolism and metaphor.

Many female writers write about women's struggle for equality and how they are looked upon as inferior. Kate Chopin exhibits her views about women in her stories. The relationship between men and women in Kate Chopin's stories imply the attitudes that men and women portray. In many of Chopin's works, the idea that women's actions are driven by the men in the story reveals that men are oppressive and dominant and women are vulnerable, gullable and sensitive. Chopin also shows that females, like Desiree and Eleanor, undergo a transformation from dependent and weak to stronger women free from their husbands by the end of the story. In the short story 'Desiree's Baby,' Kate

Kate Chopin is known as one of the greatest feminist authors of her time. She grew up around independent, widowed women: her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. With her father’s death due to a train wreck, and her husband’s death from“swamp fever,” Chopin was left alone to support her six children. According to Nina Baym, the author of Chopin’s biography, influences from strong women in Chopin’s life led to why she wrote about desires, limited aspects of women’s lives, and how women began to challenge the male-dominated culture (550). A lack of men as chief figures in Chopin’s life prevented her from experiencing a tradition of submission by women to men. Additionally, many of Chopin’s works were influenced by realism and feminism.

At the end of 19th century, American society presented an ideology of patriarchy. Feminists struggle for the equality and discrimination against female. As feminist movement started, lots of female writers were explored. One of the most famous writers is Kate Chopin. Her works mostly present a theme of women pursue freedom and equality. “The Story Of An Hour” and “The Awakening” are her representative works. In these two works, Kate Chopin reveals how women lived under the oppression of male-dominated society, especially for women who got married. They were not financially independent and their freedom and rights were deprived. Therefore female were forced to be an “angle in the home”. Both challenge the preconception that women can only be a housekeeper and marriage is the only way out.

The unique style of Kate Chopin’s writing has influenced and paved the way for many female authors. Although not verbally, Kate Chopin aired political and social issues affecting women and challenging the validity of such restrictions through fiction. Kate Chopin, a feminist in her time, prevailed against the notion that a woman’s purpose was to only be a housewife and nothing more. Kate Chopin fortified the importance of women empowerment, self-expression, self-assertion, and female sexuality through creativity in her literary work.