What Is The Theme Of The Kiss By Kate Chopin

In the past many decades the definition of what a marriage means changed dramatically in some areas. For the author of both stories, Kate Chopin, she wanted the reader to get something out of the story. She likes to explore all types of themes in her stories such as, racism, the roles of women, and adultery. With these themes and messages she struggled to have most of her stories published. In many of her stories she passed along these messages through the manner of a marriage. In her short stories “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree 's Baby” she showed just how different marriages could be as well as how similar they can be. Chopin portrays the lives of the main characters, Louise Mallard from “The Story of An Hour” and Desiree Aubigny

     Relationships seem to be the favorite subject of Kate Chopin’s stories. As Margaret Bauer suggests that Chopin is concerned with exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (Bauer 146). In “The Story of an Hour” Chopin deals with the subject of marriage. She illustrates the influence of family alliance on individual freedom. According to Wohlpart,“The Story of an Hour” describes the journey of Mrs. Mallard against the Cult of True Womanhood as she slowly becomes aware of her own desires and thus of a feminine self that has long been suppressed”(Wohlpart 2). The Cult of True Womanhood in the XIX century included “purity” and “domesticity”. The former suggested that women must maintain their virtue. The latter – denied them their intellectual and professional capabilities (Papke 12). Being the victim of this Cult, Louise Mallard was a good example of a wife without “her own desires and feminine self”.

It had been four-weeks since Madame Valmonde has seen Desiree and the baby. As she arrives at L’Abri, the home of Armand and Desiree, she “shudders at the first sight of it.” The house is covered by “big, solemn oaks” (Chopin 422) who’s “branches far-reaching shadowed it like a pall” (Chopin 422). Offering another foreshadowing, it is suggested that the shadowing trees and the branches that cover the house compare to a cloth used to cover a coffin; allowing the reader to envision L’Abri as a gloomy or serious place that is absent of pleasure and happiness--a place that had not had a woman’s touch since Armand and his father returned from Paris after the death of his mother when Armand was just eight-years old.

In ‘The Story of an Hour’ the struggles and hardships of women in day to day life are conveyed. In ‘The Story of an Hour’, Chopin implies that marriage, even when

Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the straitened confines of her domestic situation”. Kate Chopin. Aside from it, it is unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Source Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin used in this book.

He waited until the night’s 11th hour. By now the Princess rested in the highest tower of the castle, locked away from the dangerous world, yet so oblivious to the dangers that which fated the rest of her life. Silently the peasant journeyed outside, where he stopped at the wall of the tower where she lay. He watched her in the darkness from below, lifting his face to her, letting the light rest on his every surface of darkness. The night was cloudless. The winds wailed between the motionless oak trees as its thin branches clawed out, ever so slightly disturbing the leaves with its hostile screeches. Not the thick moss of the trees nor the damp leaves squirming in his toes could distract the peasant from so enticing a scent. All that encircled him was the sweetness of lavender and rosewood, filling his entire being as he sunk into the grass, like sand washed over by the water, with every breeze passing

Things and People are not always as they appear to be on the first sight that is why we have to examine them in different ways otherwise they may mislead us. That is more then true in the short story "The Kiss" by Kate Chopin in which she uses imagery, irony and simile to show us how deceitful a person can be. She tells us by the actions of her characters that a person should not be judged solely by his or her appearance or words because those things can be dangerously misleading. All of the characters in Chopin story play their own games and in more or less visible way try to manipulate others to achieve their own sometimes not very righteous goals, but who will eventually succeed in realizing his desires in this world of deception and

Passionate sex and an affair in 1899 were not to even be thought of, or to be written about. Kate Chopin writes “The Strom” about a young woman, along with her ex-lover from a previous romance, who under the right circumstances, gives in to her natural and sexual urge to be completely satisfied. Kate Chopin does an amazing job of combining plot, language, and setting to create a very passionate and vivid story.

Kate Chopin’s short stories testify to display to the readers her viewpoints about love, sex and marriage that one is not usually aware of. These three topics all tied together. Typically, it’s easy to think that when you love someone you get married to them. You only commit yourself to them and no one else. Of course not all marriages work out but that’s life. In two particular short stories though, it establishes the struggle for woman around the 1800’s. Kate Chopin’s “The story of an Hour” and “The Storm” demonstrates the dark side of love, sex, and marriage.

There was a blanket of darkness in the room; as if someone had woven the sky into a dark cloth and spread it over the room. It was cold. Colder than the frostbite slowly inching up Robert Peary’s leg. An icy blue flame was flickering above the wick of a well-used candle. The misty shade of purple from the curtains filled the room with a bleak atmosphere. On top of a wooden drinks cabinet sat a wireless whispering in the background of the room.

Her mind awakened before her eyes could opened and a thirst plagued her. Soft lips were licked and slender fingers laced through locks that rivaled the darkness of a black sky, as though her mind ached. Finally, a fan of thick lashes lifted and one thing remained: the fire in those eyes. Though Bella could not recall the last few details of her turning, she knew that she had been turned. Fingers and she felt a slight weakness and a burning hunger in the pit of her being, but the girl trudged on with her new found self. Isabella sat up. The girl propped up with her hands behind her, fine digits sunk into the luxurious surface of a very ornate bed as she scanned the room. Alistair, was indeed there, but she stared at a nearby lit candle. The fire was so mesmerizing. The light dancing in her eyes as hunger plagued her, but she paid it no mind, despite how indescribably weak she was feeling. With a sift sigh her support gave out once more and she laid upon her side and watched the dancing flame of the candle. "Alistair." The name a soft whisper upon her barely hued lips. Surprisingly enough a soft little laugh escaped her lips as

She stood there, a tall, thin steal gray fluffy haired figure on the top step for a second. And then looked down at the fair-haired children and smiled widely revealing a large gap between her two front teeth. She laughed cheerfully and declared, "Pay no mind to her. She's not so bad once you get to know her." Anna wondered about that. She seemed as if she were pretty good at being furious. "Come on, follow me." The lady said as she opened the door and allowed them to pass, "My name's Miss Margot. Now come along, there's no time to dawdle." She said in her sing-song voice and led them down a long, dark, narrow hallway that was lined with solid wood paneling. As we walked, she tugged at their arms to quicken their pace. Eventually she stopped and pressed on a spot in one of the boards and a door popped open. She and the children hurried into the cold, damp lopsided little basement storage area that was filled with spider webs and smelt dank. Once inside the room Anna noticed that a single light bulb on a long cord swayed from the ceiling and an old broken folding chair and a chamber pot leaned against one of the walls. And that in the back of the room there was a tiny, grimy window that permitted a sliver of evening moonlight to pass through. "That's yours." Miss Margot said and pointed her

Firstly, the theme of Money over Love is first introduced in The Kiss through the character Miss Nathalie. Miss Nathalie is a pretty and beautiful girl who manipulates people in order to get what she wants. Nathalie is in a relationship with Brantain who is not so good looking however, she is dating him because he is a wealthy man. As Nathalie and Brantain are sitting in the dark room speaking about going to a reception Mr. Harvy enters the room and kisses Miss Nathalie on the lips. The Dark room is a symbol that symbolises the relationship Nathalie has with Harvy. Kate Chopin first uses simile throughout the short story when Nathalie explains to Brantain about the kiss, "Mr. Harvy is an intimate friend of long standing. Why, we have always been

Chopin’s choice to leave out important information about the characters exploit the subjective nature of humans, leaving the reader with a deceptive illusion of a complete story. When establishing the setting of the first scene Chopin says, “Brantain sat in one of these shadows; it had overtaken him and he did not mind” (Chopin 21). The fact that Brantain is sitting in a shadow and that he doesn’t mind implies something about the character of Brantain. Generally, people who sit in the shadows and are contempt there are timid and vulnerable. Although Chopin does not explicitly say that Brantain is a timid and vulnerable person, it is automatically assumed since he is sitting in a shadow and does not mind. The significance of the shadow lets the reader to jump to a conclusion based on their past knowledge. Chopin also calls Brantain “a frank, blustering fellow without guile enough to conceal his feelings, and no desire to do so” (Chopin 21). Brantains failure to conceal his feelings also gives the perception that he is naive and foolish. Although Chopin has not directly mentioned Brantain’s motives or his past, the reader automatically assumes that he is simply a

Two hours escaped without notice, however it felt like centuries for the girl. She never fell into sleep again. The first weak rays of light penetrate the dark sky signaling the approach of dawn. The sun had just broken the horizon and then peeked over. The dark sky was now tainted with a mixture of yellow and orange. As the sun gradually ascended, the room was lit up, bring a sense of life. Although, the girl was not in the sunshine, the warm light of nature's own coloring lit up her eyes and gave a bright flush to her cheeks, and deep red to her lips. The sunshine was a make-up artist who helped the girl look much