Thesis - Female Spiritual Emancipation in Some of Kate Chopin's Narratives

TABLE OF CONTENT:
THANKS AND DEDICATION....................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................4
1.1 The scope of study.....................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER I-KATE CHOPIN - BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS

I.1. BIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................5
I.2. WORKS.....................................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER II - A FEMINIST POINT OF VIEW IN THE ROLE OF WOMAN

II.1. Patriarchal society....................................................................................................................9
II.2. Women and their Roles in the Ninetieth Century Society.....................................................10
II.3. WOMEN, MARRIAGE AND EMANCIPATION................................................................12
CHAPTER III - THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN KATE CHOPINS SELECTED WORKS
III.1. A Story of An Hour...........................................................................................................15

III.2. A Respectable Woman......................................................................................................18
III.3. The awakening..................................................................................................................20
III.3.1. Ednas Feminine Desires and Expression..............................................................22
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................26
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................27
INTRODUCTION
This thesis presents an analysis of the images of women in Kate Chopins short stories. Chopin is
one of the well-known and controversial American women writers. Through her stories and
female characters, she deconstructs the traditional idea of an ideal wife and mother. By doing a
feminist reading, I try to scrutinize the purpose of Chopin in presenting and deconstructing the
images of women in her works.
Chopin is an American woman writer, who once was considered notorious by her era and
forgotten for some time because of her scandalous, unaccepted and unhealthy idea, which she
implies in her novel and short stories. She is an example of a writer whose ideas are considered
ahead of her time. Her works were condemned to be unsuitable for the society norms and moral,
and forgotten for some time until they were resurrected in 1969.
Most of Chopins major characters in her stories are married women. Through a womans point
of view, Chopin tries to capture the womens struggles and presents reality to her reader. From
her writings, one can learn a lot about marriage as well as womens position and condition in her
time. In her story, Chopin is believed to attempt to deconstruct the ideas of a wife and a mother,
which are previously constructed and assigned by the patriarchal world. Her notions and belief
can be seen from and represented by her female major characters.
1.1. The scope of study
This article is going to analyze the images of women in Chopins works and analyzing these
images, would reveal Chopins purposes in presenting these images as well as unearthing the
differences between Chopins representation of women with the stereotype or the traditional
images mostly found in literature. The analysis will be based on her short stories entitled A
Story of An Hour, A Respectable Woman, and The awakening. In analyzing the images,
this article is going to employ Simone De Beauvoirs perspectives and ideas about women in
family from her book The Second Sex, and also Mari Fergusons notions from her book
Images of Women in Literature.
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CHAPTER I
KATE CHOPIN - BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS
I.1. BIOGRAPHY
Kate Chopin was born Kate OFlaherty in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850 to Eliza and Thomas
OFlaherty. She was the third of five children, but her sisters died in infancy and her brothers
(from her father's first marriage) in their early twenties. She was the only child to live past the
age of twenty-five.
In 1855, at five and a half, she was sent to The Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic boarding
school in St. Louis. Her father was killed two months later when a train on which he was riding
crossed a bridge that collapsed. For the next two years she lived at home with her mother,
grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of them widows. Her great-grandmother, Victoria
Verdon Charleville oversaw her education and taught her French, music, and the gossip on St.
Louis women of the past. Kate OFlaherty grew up surrounded by smart, independent, single
women. They were also savvy and came from a long line of ground breaking women Victorias
own mother had been the first woman in St. Louis to obtain legal separation from her husband,
after which she raised her five children and ran a shipping business on the Mississippi. Until
Kate was sixteen, no married couples lived in her home, although it was full of brothers, uncles,
cousins, and borders.
She returned to the Sacred Heart Academy, where the nuns were known for their intelligence,
and was top of her class. She won medals, was elected into the elite Children of Mary Society,
and delivered the commencement address. After graduation she was a popular, if cynical,
debutante. She wrote in her diary advice on flirting, just keep asking What do you think?1
1 Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin, Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the U.S. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson, Linda
Wagner-Martin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 62.
3
She grew up during the Civil War and this caused her to be separated from the one friend she had
made at the Sacred Heart Academy, Kitty Garesche. Her family were slave holders and supported
the South. St. Louis was a pro-North city, and the Gareshes were forced to move. After the war,
Kitty returned and she and Chopin were friends until Kitty entered Sacred Heart as a nun. There
is no other evidence that Chopin had any other close female friendships.
In 1870, at the age of twenty, she married Oscar Chopin, twenty-five, and the son of a wealthy
cotton-growing family in Louisiana. He was French catholic in background, as was Kate. By all
accounts he adored his wife, admired her independence and intelligence, and allowed her
unheard of freedom. After their marriage they lived in New Orleans where she had five boys and
two girls, all before she was twenty-eight. Oscar was not an able business man, and they were
forced to move to his old home in a small Louisiana parish. Oscar died of swamp fever there in
1882 and Kate took over the running of his general store and plantation for over a year.
In 1884 she sold up and moved back to St. Louis to live with her mother. Sadly, Eliza died the
next year, leaving Kate alone with her children again. To support herself and her young family,
she began to write. She was immediately successful and wrote short stories about people she had
known in Louisiana.
I.2. WORKS
Chopins first short story, A Point at Issue! was published when Kate was thirty-nine. Over
the next fifteen years, until her death in 1904, she published two novels and wrote almost a
hundred stories and sketches, two-thirds of them set in Louisiana and peopled with characters
drawn from the rich cultural mixture of the region 2. Chopins stories were published in
periodicals such as Vogue, Harpers, Century, Saturday Evening Post, Atlantic, and various
newspapers of St. Louis and New Orleans. Chopin achieved a greater sense of public success
when Houghton Mifflin Company published Bayou Folk, which included sketches and tales, in
March of 1894. She was welcomed in more than a hundred press notices as a distinguished
2 Inge, Tonette Bond. "Kate Chopin," American Women Writers: Bibliographical Essays. Ed.Maurice Duke,
Jackson R. Bryer, and M. Thomas Inge. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983, pp. 47-69.
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local colorist3. Her second collection, A Night in Acadie, was published in Chicago in
November, 1897, but received less notice than her first collection. However, Chopin's art was
still praised by critics. Her prose style was always lucid and unadorned; her stories were ironic,
lush, and sensual in a manner more French than American.4
Chopins second novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899 and was immediately condemned
nationally by male critics who found it unwholesome5. Although critically praised as a brilliant
piece of writing, it was attacked on moral grounds because its heroine, a Louisiana wife and
mother, has two lovers--an idea considered by the publishing industry to be a poisonous and
positively unseemly theme6. Disheartened by the negative response to The Awakening,
Chopin wrote very little before her death on August 22, 1904 of a cerebral hemmorage. After her
death, she passed from the literary scene almost entirely unappreciated for her pioneering
contributions to American fiction7. It was not until Per Seyersted rediscovered her and
published his Critical Biography and The Complete Works that she received credit for her years
of work. Then in the late 1950s, some scholars began to revisit and assess the artistic value of
The Awakening. In the 1970s, after the publication of Seyersted's work, critics devoted more
attention to the the individual stories and gave greater place to Chopin's short story in their
assessments of her literary achievement.8
3 Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: American Naturalism: Kate Chopin (1851 - 1904)" PAL: Perspective on American
Literature.
4 Toth, Emily. "Kate Chopin," Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the U.S. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson, Linda
Wagner-Martin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 187-188.
5 Toth, Emily. "Kate Chopin," Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the U.S. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson, Linda
Wagner-Martin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 187-188.
Jackson R. Bryer, and M. Thomas Inge. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983, pp. 91.
Jackson R. Bryer, and M. Thomas Inge. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983, pp. 91-92.
Jackson R. Bryer, and M. Thomas Inge. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983, pp. 109.
5
CHAPTER II
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CHOPINS WORKS
II.1. Patriarchal society
Patriarchal society can be defined as any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional
gender roles. The word patriarchy literally means rule of the father and in patriarchal society
men control women. Lois Tyson explains that patriarchy continually exerts forces that
undermine womens self-confidence and assertiveness, then points to the absence of these
qualities as proof that women are naturally, and therefore correctly, self-effacing and
submissive. The main purpose of patriarchal society is to place the woman in a submissive role,
which allows for the man to control her more easily. Women as well as men have roles they have
to play in patriarchal society. The male role is to be strong, and to provide for his family as the
head of the household. He is expected to always succeed because men are not permitted to fail
at anything they try because failure in any domain implies failure in ones manhood. Anything
that can be regarded as feminine a man should avoid because whenever patriarchy wants to
undermine a behavior, it portrays that behavior as feminine. In this manner patriarchal society
places the woman in an inferior position to the man and gives her a submissive role, which
means she is the one who takes care of the man, the children and the household. A womans
greatest wish should be to marry and have children, and she should not want to partake in any
business involving finances, meaning she should not be able to take care of herself financially.
Finally, in order to be a good woman [she] is expected to find sex frightening and
disgusting. To reach these patriarchal goals the male power [must insinuate] itself into the
psyche of women, teaching them to collaborate in defining themselves as subordinate to, and
dependent on, men. These patriarchal norms are often internalized from childhood, which
makes it very difficult for a woman to take on any other role. To internalize means to make
internal, personal, or subjective, or to take in and make an integral part of ones attitudes or
beliefs (Internalization). Internalization affects how a person interprets the norms and rules
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existing in society. This internalization can be either forced on a person from childhood or learnt
as an adult. As a result, internalization can be both part of a general cultural behavior or a self-
taught behavior.
II.2. Women and their Roles in the Ninetieth Century Society
European and American women in the nineteenth century lived in an age characterized by gender
inequality. At the beginning of the century, women enjoyed few of the legal, social, or political
rights that are now taken for granted in western countries: they could not vote, could not sue or
be sued, could not testify in court, had extremely limited control over personal property after
marriage, were rarely granted legal custody of their children in cases of divorce, and were barred
from institutions of higher education. Women were expected to remain subservient to their
fathers and husbands. Their occupational choices were also extremely limited. Middle- and
upper-class women generally remained home, caring for their children and running the
household. Lower-class women often did work outside the home, but usually as poorly-paid
domestic servants or laborers in factories and mills.
The onset of industrialization, urbanization, as well as the growth of the market economy, the
middle class, and life expectancies transformed European and American societies and family life.
For most of the eighteenth century through the first few decades of the nineteenth century,
families worked together, dividing farming duties or work in small-scale family-owned
businesses to support themselves. With the rapid mercantile growth, big business, and migration
to larger cities after 1830, however, the family home as the center of economic production was
gradually replaced with workers who earned their living outside the home. In most instances,
men were the primary breadwinners and women were expected to stay at home to raise
children, to clean, to cook, and to provide a haven for returning husbands. Most scholars agree
that the Victorian Age was a time of escalating gender polarization as women were expected to
adhere to a rigidly defined sphere of domestic and moral duties, restrictions that women
increasingly resisted in the last two-thirds of the century.
Scholarly analysis of nineteenth-century women has included examination of gender roles and
resistance on either side of the Atlantic, most often focusing on differences and similarities
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between the lives of women in the United States, England, and France. While the majority of
these studies have concentrated on how white, middle-class women reacted to their assigned
domestic or private sphere in the nineteenth century, there has also been interest in the dynamics
of gender roles and societal expectations in minority and lower-class communities. Although
these studies can be complementary, they also highlight the difficulty of making generalizations
about the lives of women from different cultural, racial, economic, and religious backgrounds in
a century of steady change.
Where generalizations can be made, however, the woman question, as it was called in debates
of the time, has been seen as a tendency to define the role of women in terms of private
domesticity. Most often, depictions of the lives of nineteenth-century women, whether European
or American, rich or poor, are portrayed in negative terms, concentrating on their limited sphere
of influence compared to that of men from similar backgrounds. In some cases, however, the
private sphere of nineteenth-century women had arguably more positive images, defining woman
as the more morally refined of the two sexes and therefore the guardian of morality and social
cohesion. Women were able to use this more positive image as a means for demanding access to
public arenas long denied them, by publicly emphasizing and asserting the need for and benefits
of a more civilized and genteel influence in politics, art, and education.
II.3. Women, marriage and emancipation
Before the analysis of the stories, a discussion is presented on Chopins perspectives about man
and womans binary opposition, which could be read in one of her short stories, Emancipation:
A Life Fable. Here Chopin presents a fable about a bird in a cage. In the cage, the bird is being
taken care of by invisible protecting hands. One day, the cage is opened by accident and the bird
finally escapes after a long consideration. The bird flies madly to embrace and enjoy its freedom
and it is even careless enough to drink from a noxious pool. Chopin ends her story with one
reality that the cage remains empty. Through the fable, Chopin presents an analogy of a womans
life, which is represented as the bird in a cage, which longs for the horizon of freedom, while the
cage represents the patriarchal world which the bird learns to be dependent on.
8
Through her short story, Chopin intends to tell how the patriarchal world deliberately creates an
idea of emancipation that seems real and achievable. In reality, Chopin argues that it
(emancipation) remains empty as the cage; there is little chance for emancipation to exist in the
world of patriarchy. The freedom offered by the patriarchal world seems real, like the freedom
experienced by the bird; in fact, it is only a fake freedom, which covers the truth. In the
patriarchal world, emancipation remains only a life fable.
In her book entitled The Second Sex, Simone De Beauvoir argues and presents an idea about
marriage in a chapter called The Married Woman. Beauvoir believes that marriage has always
been a different thing for man and for woman: A man is socially an independent and complete
individual; he is regarded first of all as a producer whose existence is justified by work he does
for the group, whereas a woman although she confines herself to the reproductive and domestic
role, has not guaranteed her an equal dignity9.
According to Beauvoir, a marriage is created for a woman, so she will have two important
reasons for her existence in the society; the first is to bear children for the society and the second
is to give a sexual satisfaction to her husband as well as to take care of his household. These
duties are considered a service for her husband, whereas in return he is supposed to give her
presents, or a marriage settlement and to support her 10. By marriage, a woman obtains some
part in the world as her own, but at once she turns to be her husbands vassal.
Beauvoir states that man as a husband gets a privilege to work beyond the wall of family. He is
able to incarnate transcendence while his wife is restricted in an area called a family interest. She
is doomed to produce children and take care of her husbands household; in other words, a wife
is only able to immanence in the sphere of family matters. Marriage shuts her up within the circle
of herself. She becomes a lady of the house where it becomes her duty to assure the happiness
of the family.
As a wife, a woman finds that reality is inside her house and outer space seems to collapse. Her
home becomes her lot, the expression of her social value and her truest self. Because she does
9 Beauvoir, Simone De. 1952. The Second Sex. ed. and trans. H.M. Parshley. New York: Knopf. Pp. 427.
10 Ibid, 427.
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nothing, she eagerly seeks self realization in what she has 11, although it proves not to help her
to escape from her immanence and only gives her a little affirmation of being an individual.
A wife is expected to have superhuman qualities: the virtuous woman of Proverbs, the
perfect mother, the honest woman, and so on . This is why many wives let themselves go,
they are being themselves, only in the absence of their husbands 12. Being a married woman, a
woman has unique relations of being a mother and a wife. Both of them are basically universal
not individual.
On the contrary, marriage incites man to a capricious imperialism: the temptation to dominate
is the most truly universal to surrender the child to its mother, the wife to her husband, is to
promote tyranny in the world13. These two basic ideas have created an inequality in a marriage
life. Husband finds real self-realization in his work and action whereas wife dooms in the
repetition and routine household that cannot promise happiness for her.
In term of sexuality in marriage, husband as the reproductive agent is sure of obtaining sexual
pleasure, but wife is focused on the reproductive function, which is not associated with erotic
pleasure. Beauvoir believes that while being supposed to lend ethical standing to womans
erotic life, marriage is actually intended to suppress it14.
Similar to Beauvoir, in the introduction of her book entitled Images of Women in Literature,
Mary Anne Ferguson believes that in the world of patriarchy, women are considered passive
when it comes to a comparison with men. The power of patriarchy also exists in the literature; it
can be seen through the images of women in literature, which are largely created bt men:
Female characters have been most often presented as stereotypes, serving as foils, motivators,
barriers, rewards, and comforters to males who actively pursue adventure and their own
identities. From a male perspective, the central and most desirable characteristic of female
12 Ibid, 427.
13 Ibid, 427.
14 Ibid, 427.
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characters has been for their passivity15. These images have become a stereotype, which
defines and establishes womens character in literature and real life. According to Ferguson, a
writer who deliberately departs from socially approved stereotype by adopting a new
roledeveloping a new life style- may pay a heavy cost in guilt, alienation16.
Ferguson finds that the role of a wife or a mother is often overlapping. Both of them are expected
to be happy in putting others first, to stay at home and take care of children. A wife or mother
cannot have selfish goals. A mother has a double role as the giver of life and death, of pleasure
and pain. It is expected that a mother should have qualities such as firmness, decisiveness, ability
to organize time, whereas a wife is expected to be submissive, supportive and to stay in her own
sphere.
15 Ferguson, Mary Anne. 1986. Images of Women in Literature. 4th ed. Boston: Houghston Mifflin Company. Pp.
6.
4.
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CHAPTER III
THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN KATE CHOPINS SELECTED WORKS
The first we can see clearly in Chopins short stories is the image of woman, reflected in the role
of wife and mother, and it is very importand to expand these concepts in her three short stories I
have chose for this diploma thesis.
III.1. A Story of An Hour
In this short story, the central character is Mrs. Mallard. She is portrayed as a young wife whose
husband was reported to be a victim of a train accident. This sad news was brought by one of the
familys friends, Richards, who was truly aware of her heart problem. The news was broken very
carefully and gently to her, in order not to shock her. As the reader has probably expected, Mrs.
Mallard, who was a good, loyal and loving wife, got very sad in hearing the heartbreaking news:
She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sisters arms 17. Here Mrs. Mallard is
portrayed as an ordinary and loving stereotyped-kind of wife.
Later on in the story, she locked herself in her room, and allowed no one to meet her. It is said
that in her solitude and exhaustion, Mrs. Mallard was just only able to sit and aimlessly watch a
scenery of an open square in front of her house. Here, clearly Chopin tries to direct her readers
emotion to understand her characters feeling and condition. Her sadness and confusion of losing
someone she loved and depended on seems a normal reaction of someone in a state of grieving.
Shortly, the reader soon learns that something unexpected happened in the story:
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it fearfully. What was it?... Creeping
out the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, scents, the color that filled the airwas
approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will When she
17 Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Other Stories. 1894-1899. New York: Modern Library, 2000. Print. Pp. 213.
12
abandoned herself, a little word escaped She said it over and over under her breath: free, free,
free! They stayed keen and bright She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous
joy that held her18.
Here, Chopin presents a different image of a wife. She deconstructs her readers notion of a
perfect and loving wife. The way Mrs. Mallard reacted seems not a common reaction of a wife
who had just lost her beloved husband; on the contrary, she seemed relieved.
Although it is said in the passage that she tried to react otherwise, it seems that she succumbed to
the power of her desire and welcomed it. Here Chopin presents Mrs. Mallards awakening
moment at the time when she regains her freedom as a woman.
Later in the text, Chopin describes Mrs. Mallards notion in terms of her marriage and future life:
She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her
absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome. There would be no one
to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful
will bending her in that blind persistence 19. Here through Mrs. Mallards notion, Chopin
shocks the reader by giving them a reality that Mrs. Mallard is welcoming her husbands death
with uncommon feeling of relief and ecstasy Free! Body and soul free!, she kept whispering
. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was yesterday she had thought with a
shudder that life might be long20. Chopin deliberately puzzles the reader by giving an unusual
idea of how a husbands death brought freedom to the wife, and how the wife saw the marriage
as a prison for her.
A woman is said to be forced by marriage to think universal and kill her individuality because
she takes her husbands name; she belongs to his tradition, his class, his circle; she joins his
family, she becomes his half, she loses some of the rights legally belonging to the
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unmarried woman21, and for her it is not a question of this husband but of a husband in
general, of children in general. Her relations are not based on her individual feeling but on
universal; and thus for her, unlike man, individualized desire renders her ethic impure Woman
is not concerned to establish individual relations with a chosen mate but to carry on the feminine
functions in their generality22.
As a devoted wife, a woman is expected to think only about her husband and her children and
not to think about herself as an individual. Here, through Mrs. Mallards one-hour freedom,
Chopin presents a different image of a wife, whereas in an hour Mrs. Mallard had come to a
realization of her existence as an individual and forgot about her universality as a wife. After a
long time, she gained back her spirit and freedom, and became alive. It appears that her marriage
had oppressed her, and the death of her husband was only a gateway to regain her freedom as an
individual. This idea really deconstructs the patriarchal idea and stereotype of a wife.
Here, Chopin argues and emphasizes that a wife is a free individual whose focus is not only on
her family (her husband, children and her husbands household) but also on herself.
Chopins idea is in accordance with that of Ferguson, who is against the idea that a wife is
expected to be submissive, supportive and stay in her own sphere 23. Here Chopin deconstructs
the idea of a wifes submissiveness. In the story, Mrs. Mallard is not portrayed as a submissive
wife who succumbed to her husbands death but as a wife who sees the death as a great
opportunity to have a better life. Her husbands death was not the end of the world for her and
she was not losing herself. On the contrary, she regained her whole self because now she was not
only a half of her husband.
The greatness of Chopins ideas is presented at the end of the story: Mrs. Mallard died while her
husband turned out to be alive. Mrs. Mallards death is being misinterpreted as a joy that kills,
because she was overjoyed to see that her husband was still alive. Here Chopin gives us an
6.
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important message of how the society could wrongly interpret things; how the society wrongly
perceives womans position as an individual, a wife and a mother, and how the society has
wrongly constructed the idea of a marriage for a woman.
III.2. A Respectable Woman
The central character of the short story is Mrs. Baroda. The story tells about how Mrs. Baroda
struggled to overcome and understand her own desire. In the story, Mrs. Baroda is portrayed as a
good and loving wife and a respectable woman in her society. Her husband often invited relatives
and friends to spend time in their house. It had become her duty as a good wife and lady of the
house to entertain her husbands guests. A problem commenced when her husband told her that
his best friend, Gouvernail, whom she always heard about, was going to spend his two weeks
holiday in their house. What made her uneasy was that she just entertained some guests during
winter and she really needed a rest.
During Gouvernails stay, Mrs. Baroda learned that Gouvernail was a delightful and loveable
fellow, and moreover he was not too demanding as other guests, but it also puzzled her the most.
Throughout the story, the reader could see about how Mrs. Baroda developed a strange desire
towards Gouvernail. She tried to overcome her immoral desire because she was a good wife and
moreover she was a respectable woman. At the end of the story, Mrs. Baroda succeeded in
understanding her desire and overcoming her guilt.
In this story, Chopin is cleverly exposing a dilemmatic condition and position of Mrs. Baroda as
a wife and a woman. After years of marriage, she was attracted to another man who was her
husbands best friend. This is not merely a sudden reaction that happens without a trigger. It can
be seen that her feeling towards Gouvernail was a reaction to her own marriage. In the story, her
family seemed normal and happy; she had a good and wealthy husband. Expectedly, nothing
would go wrong with it.
In Beauvoirs opinion, the marriage is a typical definition of a happy marriage, which is

constructed for woman. A woman wants to have a good husband and her primary job is to
15
maintain the happiness of her household. However, if the story is scrutinized, it will be apparent
that Mrs. Baroda was stressed out because of her possessive husband and her daily and typical
routine activities as a wife. The story demonstrates that Mr. Baroda was reacting as a typical
married man who perceived all things, including his wife, as his possession. It seems that
marriage allowed him to possess his wifes life, which can be seen in the way he treated her at
the beginning of the story.
Without asking for his wifes approval, Mr. Baroda invited his friend to stay at their house. This
shows how Mr. Baroda had acted as the powerful leader in his family, controlled the decision and
ignored his wifes feeling. This accords with Beauvoirs ideas that marriage incites man to a
capricious imperialism: the temptation to dominate is the most truly universal to surrender
the child to its mother, the wife to her husband, is to promote tyranny in the world 24. Here,
Chopin presents the existence of communication problem in a marriage relationship. The couple
lived different lives, and the wife had a life in which she was expected to be submissive,
supportive and stay in her own sphere25.
The story describes that Mr Baroda and his friend Gouvernail possessed different traits: His
manner was courteous toward her as the most exacting woman could require . It pleased him
also to get on familiar terms with the big dogs that came about him, rubbing themselves sociably
against his legs. He did not care to fish, and displayed no eagerness to go out and kill grosbecs
when Gaston proposed doing so26. These differences puzzled Mrs. Baroda but also opened her
minds. She grew to like him better than her husband. Her feeling had become the source of her
agony. On one side she knew that she was a married and respectable woman, who had to kill her
desire; on the other side, she began to realize her longing to be understood as an individual
especially as a woman which she did not get from her marriage and her position as a wife.
25 Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York, NY: Bantam Classic, 1981. Pp. 195.
26 Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York, NY: Bantam Classic, 1981. Pp.195.
16
This story shows that a woman obtains some part in the world as her own, but she turns to be
his vassal27.
At the end of the story, the reader gets surprised by Mrs. Barodas statement: I have overcome
everything! You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him 28. It can be concluded from her
statement that in the end, she followed her desire to love Gouvernail and ignored her duty as a
wife. Here, Chopin tries to deconstruct the idea of a supportive and loyal wife, which is a typical
image of a wife in the literature. From the story the reader could find that her husband expected
her to be a supportive and loyal wife, who obeyed his orders. The irony is that by obeying her
husbands orders, she was also being allowed to grow her wrong desire and commit adultery.
Through the image of Mrs. Baroda, Chopin has shown how women are often enslaved by their
marriage, especially by their duty as a wife and they are only considered a vassal and possession
to complete her husbands world of tyranny. Mrs. Baroda is an image which symbolizes the
women who are trapped in a cage called marriage.
III.3. The awakening
The Awakening has been celebrated as an early vision of womans emancipation in all senses
of this word. The novel recounts a womans abandonment of her family, her seduction, and her
awakening to purely feminine desires and passions.
The Awakening brings up a wide range of feminist topics like womens right, womens
independence, gender inequalities, womens freedoms and above all womens desire and
language; it is this last concept that I will attend in this article.
The novel is the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother, who falls in love with the son
of a friend while on vacation in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Edna Pontellier struggles between
societys obligations and her own desires.
17
The beginning and end of the novel portray two possible facets of femininity. At the start of the
novel, Edna seems to be the embodiment of conventional American ideals; she is twenty-eight,
married to a wealthy and attentive husband, the mother of two healthy children - from all
appearances Edna Pontellier has everything to make a woman happy29. The reader is first
introduced to Edna through the eyes of her husband30, as Mrs. Pontellier, and then gradually
the narrator calls her Edna Pontellier and finally Edna, while the character is becoming
herself and casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to
appear before the world31.
Initially, Edna spends most of her time with her close friend Adle Ratignolle. Adle reminds
Edna of her duties as a wife and mother. Adele serves somehow as Ednas double; although she
is like Edna a woman/mother, she maintains this role well up to the end of the novel.
Edna believes that Adele has wasted herself by giving her body over to her role as a mother-
woman through her biyearly pregnancies32. Skaggs notes that Adele functions as a patriarchal
ideal of the submissive female who writes her history only through her family 33. In order for
Edna to move away from Adeles maternal roles, she needs an alternative position to her
traditional role as a mother-woman. Edna acquires this space only through finding her own voice
and agency in her art. To find her own feminine expression in her art, Mademoiselle Reiszs
presence is of utmost significance.
29 S. J. Rosowski, The Awakening as a Prototype for the Novel of Awakening. Approaches to Teaching Chopins
The Awakening. Ed. Bernard Kolowski. New York: The Modern Language Association of America. 1988. Pp. 27.
30 E. Toth, The Awakening. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Pp. 218.
31 E. Toth, The Awakening. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Pp. 219.
32 D. Barker, Kate Chopins Awakening of Female Artistry. Aesthetics and Gender in American Literature:
Portraits of the Woman Artist. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, Inc., 2000. Pp. 132.
33 Goddard, Paula. Mrs. Chopin was at Least a Decade Ahead of Her Time: The Place of The Awakening in the
American Canon. 49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies. Pp. 90.
18
Edna is tremendously moved by Reiszs music. Her response to [Reiszs] music is certainly
sexual34; but what Edna awakens to through Mademoiselle Reiszs playing is not a specific
sexual desire, directed to or at something, but rather an understanding of how much her desire
has been repressed35. Edna needs a woman not in a traditional role but someone to function as
Ednas artistic mentor36. Riesz counsels Edna on more than one occasion that genuine art
demands courage, words that Edna internalizes37.
The narrator refers to the idea that her thoughts up until this moment of music have all been
leading to a realization of her own freedom and where her happiness lies. This musical
experience encourages her to finally swim for the first time which leads to her powerful first
awakening. Like when she hears the music on the piano, her mind becomes free of its usual
patterns and she is allowed to use her brain to maximum capacity and revel in her newfound
sense of freedom. Under Reiszs influence, Edna attempts to find her own genuine feminine
essence which is embodied in her paintings later.
III.3.1. Ednas Feminine Desires and Expression
Ednas experiment with her painting becomes a vehicle to express her feminine side for the first
time. It is striking to note that Ednas painting subject is Adele. She chooses a maternal subject
for her painting. Ednas awakening is in part prompted by the aesthetic, sexual, and social issues
she confronts in attempting to paint Adele.38
34 M. J. Cutter, Search for a Feminine Voice in Chopin. Unruly Tongue: Identity and Voice in American
Womens Writing. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Pages 87-109.94.
Womens Writing. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Pp. 94.
36 R. White, The Painterly Eye: Kate Chopins The Awakening. A Studio of Ones Own: Fictional Women
Painters and the Art of Fiction. Massachusetts: Rosemont Publishing, 2005. Pages 64-84.72.
Painters and the Art of Fiction. Massachusetts: Rosemont Publishing, 2005. Pages 64-84.72.
19
Edna ambivalently desires to connect with a maternal figure in her painting while at the same
time struggles to abandon her maternal roles. This desire, Barker argues, corresponds to [Julia]
Kristevas homosexual-maternal aspect - an identification with the mother in which the realm
of the semiotic prevails39. As Edna paints Adele: A subtle current of desire passed through her
body, weakening her hold upon the brushes and making her eyes burn 40. This idea of
homosexual desires being awakened is supported by the fact that, in the painting scene, Ednas
desire is directed toward Adele, not Robert41.
However, I argue that Edna undergoes a process throughout the novel which moves her from
Lacanian symbolic towards Kristevan semiotic. The persistent desire to return to and merge with
the maternal is displayed through her painting topic which is a maternal topic. Her final
resolution to symbolically merge and become one with the maternal ocean is her last indication
of return to the maternal and the semiotic.
Ednas paintings become her only subversive tool to inscribe her awakened desires. As Cutter
rightly notes Mrs. Pontellier seeks voice in her painting42. In the novel, Chopin implicitly
suggests that feminine expression which is embodied in Ednas paintings is a necessary tool to
free women from their conventional roles as mother or wife.
In a climactic scene Edna decides to leave her home and family. She is oppressed by culture
forces that she does not understand43. She longs to have her own desire and her own room; to
this end she begins to sell her paintings in order to be able to pursue her adventures.
Painters and the Art of Fiction. Massachusetts: Rosemont Publishing, 2005. Pp. 134.
Womens Writing. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Pp .95.
20
Ednas process of self-discovery in The Awakening is a multilayered process. She is initially torn
between her desires to explore herself and her desires more fully and the realities of her present
life. After realizing the discrepancy between the harsh patriarchal realities of her life and the life
she has been awakened to she begins to shed her identity as a typical mother-woman and
begins to develop her interests and desires more fully. To this end, she leaves her house and
husband in order to have a room of her own and this in turn leads to Ednas desires of her own
which engages her in an affair through which she can explore herself sexually as well as
artistically.
Here Ednas affair with Alcee is the most socially observable act of her resistance and freedom.
Now she is able to explore her repressed sexuality in a setting that allows her to be free and this
leads to her understanding of herself as a female and sexual being. More importantly than this,
however, is the house itself as a symbol of her freedom and new awakening to herself. Moving to
a room of her own completes the first stage of her journey. In such a room she is free to explore
her sexuality and creativity. In essence, it is a place where she can live out her forbidden
fantasies.
After Edna gains some independence, she begins to leave her maternal and social duties. She
starts to isolate herself from New Orleans society and withdraw from some of the duties
traditionally associated with motherhood.
Edna in a room of her own is able to fully make the transition from amateur to professional
artist, establishing her studio on her own, a transition that coincides with her awakening 44. For
Edna Pontellier independence and solitude are almost inseparable.
Before attempting to have her own voice in her paintings, Edna was not able to experience
individual expression or independence.
43 J. B. Gray, The Escape of the Sea: Ideology and The Awakening. Southern Literary Journal. Issue 1, 2004.
eLibrary. Proquest. Villanova Preparatory School. 01 Apr 2007. Pp.1.
44M. J. Cutter, Search for a Feminine Voice in Chopin. Unruly Tongue: Identity and Voice in American Womens
Writing. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Pp. 76.
21
Expected to perform their domestic duties and responsibilities for the health and happiness of
their families, Victorian women were prevented from seeking the satisfaction of their own needs
and desires. During her gradual awakening, Edna discovers her own identity and acknowledges
her emotional and sexual desires.
When she swims for the first time, she discovers her own strength, and through her pursuit of her
painting she is reminded of the pleasure of individual expression and desire. However, Ednas
feminine voice and expression is juxtaposed with the male characters phallogocentric language.
Ednas desires and voice are powerful enough to overcome patriarchal culture and its
expectations regarding womens role. Edna now is not under the control of her husband. She
simply awakens her long repressed desires and then pursues them.
22
CONCLUSION
Chopin has deliberately shown new images of a woman in her witty writings. She has
deconstructed the stereotype images of wife and mother. These new images do not only live in an
imaginary world but also in the real world as a representation of women whose voices are
silenced by the rules, norms, and perspectives of the society. Her short stories have captured the
anxiety of married women toward their marriages. The three major characters in her three stories
are the representation of many women who have been oppressed by the world of marriage. In
reality, many women have lost their existence because of the role that they have to perform as a
wife and a mother. In Beauvoirs opinion, many of them have lost their individuality as a human
being.
Many people condemned Chopins works as unhealthy and immoral, and banned her works and
also her existence in the literary circle. The treatment which she received can be seen as a
representation of how powerful patriarchy is over the womens existence. Chopins works voice
the anxiety of married women and also give reasons for womens existence, actions and
reactions.
23
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Beauvoir, Simone De. 1952. The Second Sex. ed. and trans. H.M. Parshley. New York:
Knopf.
2. Chopin, Kate. 1984. The Awakening and Selected Stories. New York: Penguin Books.
3. Ferguson, Mary Anne. 1986. Images of Women in Literature. 4th ed. Boston: Houghston
Mifflin Company.
4. Kintanar, Thelma B. ed. 1992. Women Reading: Feminist Perspective on Philippines
Literary Texts. Quezon City: U Philippine P.
5. Lips, Hilary M. 1992. Sex & Gender: An Introduction. 2nd ed. California: Mayfield
Publishing Company.
6. D. Barker, Kate Chopins Awakening of Female Artistry. Aesthetics and Gender in
American Literature: Portraits of the Woman Artist. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated
University Presses, Inc., 2000. Pages 120-141.
7. E. Toth, The Awakening. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 1999. Pages 209-229.
8. J. B. Gray, The Escape of the Sea: Ideology and The Awakening. Southern Literary
Journal. Issue 1, 2004. eLibrary. Proquest. Villanova Preparatory School. 01 Apr 2007.
9. J. Le Marquand, Kate Chopin as Feminist: Subverting the French Androcentric
Influence. Deep South. Volume 2, Number 3. Spring 1996. 20 March 2007.
10. K. Chopin, The Awakening. New York: Norton, 1994.
11. M. J. Cutter, Search for a Feminine Voice in Chopin. Unruly Tongue: Identity and
Voice in American Womens Writing. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
Pages 87-109.
12. P. Skaggs, The Awakening. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. Pages 88-
95.
13. R. White, The Painterly Eye: Kate Chopins The Awakening. A Studio of Ones Own:
Fictional Women Painters and the Art of Fiction. Massachusetts: Rosemont Publishing,
2005. Pages 64-84.
14. S. J. Rosowski, The Awakening as a Prototype for the Novel of Awakening.
Approaches to Teaching Chopins The Awakening. Ed. Bernard Kolowski. New York:
The Modern Language Association of America. 1988. Pages 26-33.
15. Asbee, Sue. Kate Chopins The Awakening. The Nineteenth Century Novel: Identities.
Ed. Dennis Walder. Routledge: Open University, 2001. Print.
16. Beer, Janet, and Elizabeth Nolan. Kate Chopins the Awakening: A Sourcebook. London:
Routledge, 2004. Print. Bloom, Harold. Kate Chopin / Edited and with an Introduction by
Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Print.
24
17. Chesser, Elizabeth Macfarlane Sloan. Woman, Marriage and Motherhood. New York and
London: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1913. Print.
18. Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Other Stories. 1894-1899. New York: Modern Library,
2000. Print.
19. Goddard, Paula. Mrs. Chopin was at Least a Decade Ahead of Her Time: The Place of
The Awakening in the American Canon. 49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of
North American Studies 11 (2003). Print.
25

Thesis - Female Spiritual Emancipation in Some of Kate Chopin's Narratives

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TABLE OF CONTENT:

THANKS AND DEDICATION....................................................................................................2

CHAPTER I-KATE CHOPIN - BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS

CHAPTER II - A FEMINIST POINT OF VIEW IN THE ROLE OF WOMAN

CHAPTER III - THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN KATE CHOPINS SELECTED WORKS

III.1. A Story of An Hour...........................................................................................................15

1.1. The scope of study

KATE CHOPIN - BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CHOPINS WORKS

II.1. Patriarchal society

II.2. Women and their Roles in the Ninetieth Century Society

II.3. Women, marriage and emancipation

THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN KATE CHOPINS SELECTED WORKS

III.1. A Story of An Hour

III.2. A Respectable Woman

In Beauvoirs opinion, the marriage is a typical definition of a happy marriage, which is

III.3. The awakening

III.3.1. Ednas Feminine Desires and Expression

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