Common Themes and Styles in Kate Chopin's Stories - Essay Example

Common Themes and Styles in Kate Chopin’s Stories Kate Chopin, an American writer, was an independent spirit woman who wrote about life, her main attention was on sex, love, marriage, women and independence. She used her literary work to try to express her personal opinion on these issues in unsusceptible ways. In her quest for independence, she addresses sexual freedom among women without boundaries and in addition, she is believed to have gone ahead of the current movement in support of feminism. The three stories: “The Story of an Hour,” “The Storm,” and “Desiree’s Baby,” are some of her major works in which she explicitly addresses some of the issues she considers crucial in the lives of women. For example, The Storm, whose focus is keeping extramarital affairs a secret, is sexually explicit story that majors on a woman’s freedom of sexuality outside the marriage bond. In the Story of an Hour, she paints a picture of the oppressive and retrogressive role of marriage in a woman’s entire life and that a woman only feels a free being at the death of her husband whose death she receives with mixed reactions. According to this story, she feels that only after a woman’s husband is dead is when she is able to live her own life in freedom and is able to start living a fresh. This paper aims to discuss overtly some of the themes and stylistic devices cutting across these three literary works as highlighted below. The innate oppression of marriage Chopin presents an idea that all marriages irrespective of how good they are repressive especially on women. This she pictures in the Story of an Hour where Louise, a married woman whose husband loves so much, is kind and nice to her, (a fact that she too admits), feels joy when she receives the news of her husband’s death (1996, p. 275). Though she feels some pain as any other woman who loses her husband would feel, she has joy and a feeling of freedom, an idea that portrays marriage as a form of imprisonment for her as a woman. Deep within her, she receives the news of her husband’s death with a sigh of relief, as though she had attained independence and had a chance to live her own life once again. After weeping, she runs to her room and locks herself up and in the midst of her thoughts and with joy, she suddenly manages to utter a word, “free, free, free!” (2007, p. 276). However, she knew she would weep again upon seeing her husband’s body but she saw beyond this short period of sadness a long procession of happiness that was coming her way and of course, she was ready to embrace it. Nevertheless, despite the love that they both have for each other, she views her husband’s death as a deliverance from oppression. At no instance does Louise mention a particular way her husband oppressed her, but instead she states that marriage oppresses both men and women equally. Therefore, this means she too oppressed her husband in one way or another. The flow of these thoughts in her mind reveals the inherent and inevitable depression that people undergo in marriages, robbing people of their freedom and happiness. The news of her husband’s death suddenly awakens in her the new desire to start all over again though it is short-lived but at least she enjoys freedom for that one hour. Therefore, this joy that makes her succumb to heart failure. In the storm, there are couples in unsatisfying marriages. Alcée, now married to Clarisse, and Calixta, Bobinot”s wife, were formerly lovers and are still attracted to each other but are unable to be together because of the societal norms, end up having sex during the storm. They find the in each other, emotional satisfaction that they miss in their marriages though for a short while after which they both have to part ways in happy moods though. (Chopin, 1996, p.92-93). However, the two are oppressed in their marriages since they know where their true happiness lies but they have to hang on to their marriages. For this reason, they have to resume their normal lives after such a blissful experience. This is a tough thing that the two just cannot deal with and therefore have to hide the moment of sexual pleasure that they had. On the other hand, Bobinot too is being oppressed in their marriage, an example is the case where he is coming back with Bibi after the storm but is afraid of what his wife might say, “…he scraped the mud off Bibi’s bare legs and feet with a stick and carefully removed all the traces from his heavy brogan. Then prepared for the worst, the meeting with an over crapulous housewife...” (2007, p.93-94) In the story, “Desiree’s Baby,” Desiree finds herself a victim of racism and rejected by her own husband, the man she thought truly loved her and they even have a son together. Aubigny turns his back on her just when the baby is three months old and just because he realized she is not white. She says that Desiree has caused shame and tarnished their family name. He no longer loves her and greatly ignores her. Due to this kind of oppression, she writes a letter to her mother Madam Valmonde and tells her that she will die since she cannot live such an unhappy life. (1998, p.221). Her oppression is because of racial differences with her husband, because she is of a slavery origin as compared to the rich family of Armand. Freedom and the impermissible joy of independence In these three stories, freedom and independence are impermissible that one can only think of and passionately long for privately but cannot be expressed publicly. When Louis gets the news about her husband’s death, she reacts with an obvious show of grief for every normal woman would in case of death of a husband. Although her reaction is rather exaggerated, it is unnecessary because she never was very sincere about it. While in her room however, she gets excited when it actually dawns on her that she is now free and will live her life alone and for herself. While, in there, she keeps whispering that she is free, her body and soul are free, and there shall be no power or force bending her, no one shall impose their will on her anymore. (1996, p.276). When the joy overrides her, she gives herself for it and feels like her quest and longing for freedom is finally over until her husband comes in alive cutting short her celebration. The forbidden happiness disappears so soon and takes her with it. In the storm, Calixta and Alcee, both long for the freedom to be happy together but both are held in their marriages with the societal norms that bind them to their partners irrespective of whether they are happy or not. Because of their quest for freedom, they end up having a moment of sexual pleasure yet each of them is married to a different person. This act that gives them joy and happiness. They awaken their old memories of passion and this rekindles their emotions. When Bobinot and Bibi comes back expecting to be scolded, instead they are welcomed with joy and happiness that Calixta has because of the freedom and independence she felt for that while (2007, p.94). In the story, “Desiree’s Baby,” desires longs for freedom from the oppression she is undergoing in the hands of her husband though she longs for him to change. It is because of her quest for this freedom that makes her write to her mother threatening to kill herself. She wants to liberate herself even if it means taking her own life. When Armand does not change, she leaves him and gives herself the freedom she always wanted (1998, p-221 & 222). Love and marriage In the story of an hour, Louis is married to Brently Mallard, who loves her so much, is kind and very nice to her. However, on the other side, she does not love him as much and is not sure of her feelings for him (1996, p.276). She sees him as a hindrance to her freedom, and this is why she gets relieved when she hears of his death. This marriage, therefore, has no happiness and mutual fulfillment for the couple because they lack reciprocated love. In the storm, Calixtra is married to Bobison but doesn’t find the emotional fulfillment that she needs in her marriage since her heart is with Alcee, her former lover with whom she meets during the storm and secretly has a moment of passion out of which they both get happiness (2007, p- 94) When Desiree and Armand first meet, they are so deeply in love; they quickly get married and have a son. According to this story, Desiree was standing against the stone pillar from which he was picked, and that is where their love started. However, their love story is cut short when Armand finds out that Desiree is of the origin of slavery and they part ways (1998, p-222). Stylistic devices In these stories, Chopin employs varied structural and stylistic devices to highlight clearly and spice up the flow of events in these stories. Te stories are well twisted to bring out a special connection between the ending and the beginning. Some of the stylistic devices used include imagery and simile. Imagery This is a device that has greatly applied by the narrator in trying to emphasize on certain issues and engage the attention and senses of the readers to be able to visualize what is being said. For example, in her work, Chopin, Desiree’s baby, there are a number of examples where vivid description is used e.g. when describing the house where Desiree stayed says, “…the roof came down; steep and black like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house”. Again, when the writer gives a description of how Desires sat in her house playing with strands of her hair with the baby lying beside her. In the Story of an Hour, the author depicts some elements of vivid description. For example, after receiving the news that her husband was dead, the narrator describes Louise in her room using imagery. The narrator says, “…she rose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities, there was a feverish triumph in her eyes and she carried herself unwittingly lile aa Goddes of victory, she clasped her sister’s waist and together they descended the stairs.” (1996, p.276). The Storm also illustrates some elements of imagery. For example, the narrator’s description of activities and movements of calister and Alcee display imagery. She describes how she went to stand at the window, then Alcee joins her, holds her, they begin kissing, the way the narrator describes all these paints images of the ongoing activities and ensures that the reader understands better(1996, p.92). In conclusion, the three stories: “The Story of an Hour,” “The Storm,” and “Desiree’Baby”Kate Chopin, are related in a number of ways, and this includes shared themes like love and marriage, freedom and impermissible joy of independence and also the innate oppression of marriage. The stylistic devices involved include imagery and similes that are used in this work. References Chopin, K. (1998). The oxford book of the American south. In Ayers, E., Bradley. M (Ed.). Testimony, Memory, and Fiction Oxford University Press. Chopin, K. (2007). The story of an hour. In Cheuse, A. (Ed). Seeing Ourselves: Great Stories of the America’s past. Chopin, K. (1996).The Storm. In Ward, C. (Ed). Great short stories by American women. Courier Dover Publications. Read More