Research Paper on Kate Chopin and the Feminism in Her Works

Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote novels as well as short stories. Her work was extraordinary and some of her greatest work was based on the feminist movement. Kate Chopin became known throughout the world as one of the most influential writers during the feminist movement. She has attracted great attention from scholars along with students, and her work has been translated into many different languages.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, feminism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism is a major part of the short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, which is a story that portrays women’s lack of freedom in the1800s. Women had no rights, and had to cater to all of their husband’s needs. The main character in “The Story of an Hour” is a woman who suffers from heart trouble, named Mrs. Mallard. When Mrs. Mallard was told about her husband’s death, she was initially emotional, but because of her husband’s death she reaped freedom and became swept away with joy. The story is ironic because Mrs. Mallard learns her husband was not dead, and instead of exulting

During the feminist movement many female authors began to write novels about female emancipation. In these novels, the protagonist experiences enlightenment where she discovers that she is living an incomplete life that society has oppressed her into. Before the movement, society forced women into roles that were inferior to men and they were thought of as men’s property. Harold bloom states, “The direction of The Awakening follows what is becoming a pattern in literature by and about women…toward greater self-knowledge that leads in turn to a revelation of the disparity between that self-knowledge and nature of the world” (Bloom, Kate Chopin 43). Moreover, Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal challenge more than a social struggle, which contradicts her literary works. According to Harold Bloom, “Chopin’s novel was not intended to make a broad social statement but rather that it indicates that Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal matter”(Bloom, Bloom’s Notes 58). In the past, the novel was banned because of its connection to the feminist movement.

Chopin wrote about the woman in conformity about her social role, self-discovery, and woman sexuality, becoming a pioneer for the others woman until today. Other topics that possessed great significance like married, racial prejudice, Lesbianism and social equality was present in her work during her career. One of her more controversial work at that time was Fedora and Lilacs for the lesbian elements present in the work. Others significant works for the social content “Desiree’s Baby,” “La Belle Zoraïde,” “Tante Cat’rinette,” or Nég Créol, where the themes are connected toward race. In The Awakening, Chopin most important novel, Edna Portlier goes under profound changes in her character, attitudes, behaviors. She was a heroin that lives her own rebellion against the customs of the society, as well as the others characters, do in Chopin

Kate Chopin’s strong female influences provided her with her love for storytelling along with her curiosity, and her feelings on women’s stereotypical roles inspired her to write. Compared to others in her generation she was very forward-thinking with a lot of her views. Kate Chopin was born into the generation of change by them accepting change and questioning typical roles (“Women’s Issues in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” 13). The changing views of that time period paired with the fact that she was raised by three strong women set the foundations for her views. As “Women’s Issues in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” says her most notable female influence her great-grandmother who introduced her to stories creating Chopin’s love for books. Kate’s great-grandmother shared her

Published when the world was a more conventional and conservative place, The Awakening spurred controversy by brazenly displaying scandalous ideas. Though it shook up society, the novel is full of meaning and emphasizes the importance of improving the woman’s’ identity. In The Awakening, Chopin conveyed parallels between what women in the 1890s were and what they had the potential to be. She portrayed that women had the right to be happy, and to pursue more in their lives. They deserved more than the time allowed them, even if they may not have known it.

Critics know Kate Chopin for her regionalist short stories and her often-radical depiction of sexuality in her work. She was able to write very radically and without any qualms because of the influence of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. All three were widows and independent women, which caused Katherine O’Flaherty, born in 1851, to grow up as a smart and strong woman. Most of the women she wrote about in her stories also shared these characteristics. After she graduated at seventeen, she spent the next two years as the “belle of St. Louis society”. Katherine O’Flaherty married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and “for the next decade, [Kate] Chopin pursued the demanding social and domestic schedule of a southern aristocrat, her

Kate Chopin's was very different than the rest of the of her pears; Kate was born February 8, 1850, once she reached age five she attended an academy until 1864 to get her away from the grieve of losing her father at the age of five.

Chopin sustains an easygoing stance by abstaining from preaching the sacredness of marriage or indecency of Calixta's activities (Bloom 79). The feminist tone that is seen throughout this and other short stories shows that Chopin is very feminist and wishes to show that her views call the very foundation of marriage into question. She does not denounce Calixta, but recognizes that women are allowed to feel sexual desires just like men. The meager existence of Calixta’s yearnings is noticeable by power which makes this story radical in its form of telling of female sexuality. The thunderstorm defines the growth, crowning, and receding of lust in the affair between Calixta and Alcée.

    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,

The research will try to interpret Freud's model of the id, ego, and superego on the characters written by Kate. It will also draw a link between characters and how they are may be similar or different in regard of their psyche. The female role in her work will be the main focus of the paper. There will be a brief history of Kate Chopin and how her life events may have affected her work.

This is an introduction of the mayor link between these two famous females, Kate Chopin and Frida Kahlo. They were two remarkable women in different branches as write and paint, having in common a feminist style and a strong motivation in their work. Also they had deal with numerous difficult situations in their life time; that didn’t stop them to be successful as they are. Kate Chopin was a feminist writer motivate for the painful situation that had happened in her life and her life time experience

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.

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.

Women’s search for selfhood, for self-discovery or identity are themes that are represented in Kate Chopin’s work. Chopin was on the same regular path as other women in her era. She got married at the age of twenty and had six children. When her husband passed away Chopin wanted to support herself so she decided to start writing which was also an outlet for her feelings. During the nineteenth century women were getting sick of the rules that were forced on them and Chopin expressed her feeling towards it through her writing. Her feelings led her to freely comment on society which successfully demonstrated the movement of feminism. Chopin was a big influence for women who wanted to be treated equal with men and have the same opportunities they had. Chopin 's stories contain much mental understanding of deep things that draws attention to her characters and plots. Important themes in her writing were female sexuality, inequality of men and women, male dominance. Chopin can use the physical setting in her stories to bring attention to important themes, affect the way of thinking of the characters, and add to the mood of her stories.