impressions: “ Oh! The sweet rapture of rest! There is music in the Temple. And here
is fruit to taste. … The moon shines and the breeze is soft ” (572). She awakens from
her trance feeling that she has “ tasted the depths of human despair ” (572), and though
she briefl y wonders whether the other cigarettes might hold pleasant visions, she
destroys the remainder, telling her friend that she is “ ‘ a little the worse for a dream ’ ”
(573). For all her wish to escape the mundanity of the club meeting, the protagonist ’ s
desire to experience a different world has not brought pleasure. Indeed, the story
conservatively treats her “ unwomanly ” experimentation, implying that the cigarettes
contain more than just tobacco. 21 Her decadent adventure with the cigarette has
allowed the woman to glimpse only misery, not euphoria.
In contrast, in “ The Storm ” (1898), the consequences of another woman ’ s defi ance
of societal convention are paradoxically less serious. This story follows such works as
“ A Shameless Affair, ” “ A Harbinger, ” and “ A Respectable Woman ” in its treatment
of erotic initiation and the controversial ideal of sexual freedom often associated with
New Women. However, “ The Storm ” is bolder in its depiction of such matters than
the earlier tales. Chopin also treated the topic of sexual awakening in a story written
between those works and “ The Storm, ” “ A Vocation and a Voice ” (1896), although
that narrative describes a young man who is initiated by a gypsy girl, Suzima, and
who, after becoming a priest, fl ees the monastery to rejoin her. A sensual young
woman who neither feels shame over nor suffers for her sexual acts, Suzima is an
antecedent for Calixta in “ The Storm. ”
Calixta, in contrast to her incarnation as a young coquette in the story ’ s prequel,
“ At the ‘ Cadian Ball ” (1892), is now a wife and mother, but her seductive ways have
not disappeared, as her former suitor Alc é e Laballi è re fi nds when he takes refuge in
her home during a storm while her family is away. She staggers into his arms during
the thunder, and “ as she glanced up at him the fear in her liquid blue eyes had given
place to a drowsy gleam that unconsciously betrayed a sensuous desire ” (594). After
the explicitly described scene of their adultery, the two part, Calixta laughing as she
watches him ride away. When her husband and son return, she is pleased to see them.
Alc é e writes to his wife encouraging her to remain on vacation, and she is also pleased,
for “ devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something
which she was more than willing to forego for a while ” (596). Thus, everyone is happy
166
Charlotte Rich
at the end of the story, unlike the tragedies wrought by fi ctional adulteresses such as
Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary, and, as with several stories by Chopin, the tale
unapologetically acknowledges female sexuality, in contrast to dominant gender ide-
ologies of her day. Moreover, this tale excludes narratorial comment on Calixta ’ s act,
again demonstrating Chopin ’ s tendency toward objectivity about moral issues in her
fi ction.
Chopin
’
s late story
“
Charlie
”
(1900) contains one of the most independent of
Chopin ’ s protagonists, a young woman who violates several conventions of nineteenth -
century Southern womanhood. Charlotte Laborde, or Charlie, fi rst appears in the story
after having been out riding her horse, sporting cropped hair and “ a costume of her
own devising … which she called her ‘ trouserlets ’ ” (639). Like the female protagonist
in an earlier story entitled “ The Unexpected ” (1895), Charlie also rides a bicycle, an
emblem of the New Woman ’ s liberation. Furthermore, she enjoys the unladylike
hobby of shooting at targets, but after accidentally grazing the arm of a visitor to the
Laborde plantation, she agrees to enter a convent school and learn more feminine ways.
Working to “ transform herself from a hoyden to a fascinating young lady ” (658), she
is near her goal when she receives news that her father has been injured. She rushes
home and, fi nding that his arm must be amputated, stays on to manage the plantation
admirably. When a young friend, Gus Bradley, declares his love for her, she confesses
her mutual feelings, but also asserts her desire to keep working. As with Paula Von
Stolz in “ Wiser Than a God, ” it appears that Charlie will only enter into a “ new ” or
companionate marriage that allows her to have non - domestic pursuits.
Despite her many fi ctional portraits of women like Charlie Laborde who defy con-
vention, Chopin ’ s stories also contain characters who adhere to nineteenth - century
codes of feminine behavior, as well as to Creole and Catholic mores, suggesting that
the New Woman ’ s progressive or radical ideas do not suit all women. For example,
in “ A Lady of Bayou St. John ” (1893), the protagonist considers entering into an
adulterous relationship while her husband is away in the Civil War. However, she
receives news of her husband ’ s death, and when her suitor comes after an appropriate
interval to ask for her hand, she refuses him. Madame Delisle has dedicated her life
to her dead husband, explaining that he “ ‘ has never been so living to me as he is
now ’ ” (301), and she spends the rest of her life worshiping his memory as a proper
Catholic widow. The conclusion of Chopin ’ s story “ Regret ” (1894) also adheres to
dominant Victorian notions of female identity in valorizing the maternal impulse.
Aur é lie is a middle - aged woman who once refused marriage and “ had not yet lived
to regret it ” (375). However, when she cares for a neighbor ’ s children for two weeks,
her maternal instinct blossoms as she grows to love them. The conclusion contains
perhaps the most poignant scene in Chopin ’ s stories: when Aur é lie is alone after the
children leave, she weeps at the opportunity for motherhood she once declined.
Similarly, two of Chopin ’ s tales focus on women as objects of the male gaze and,
while their treatment of this conception is ironic, they suggest the women ’ s complic-
ity with this dominant ideal in one degree or another. In “ A Mental Suggestion ”
(1896), the intellectual Pauline Edmonds, who wears eyeglasses and is “ possessed of
Kate
Chopin
167
an investigating turn of mind, ” appears to a male character, Faverham, as “ the type
of woman that [he] detested. Her mental poise was a rebuke to him; there was constant
rebuff in her lack of the coquettish, the captivating, the feminine ” (548). However,
during an experiment with hypnosis, he becomes attracted to Pauline, and she becomes
a pretty woman, from another male character ’ s perspective, after she falls in love with
and marries Faverham: “ There was color in her face whose contour was softened and
embellished by a particularly happy arrangement of her brown hair. The pince - nez
which she had substituted for the rather formidable spectacles … lent it a piquancy
that was very attractive ” (554). Pauline is thus “ femin
ized ” when she replaces her
intellectual enthusiasm with a more conventional object of affection, though Chopin
qualifi es this view by fi ltering it through a male perspective. The resulting dramatic
irony calls attention to such assumptions and, as with stories such as “ The Story of
an Hour, ” Chopin utilizes point of view to illuminate the themes of the story. The
protagonist of Chopin ’ s story “ Suzette ” (1897) also reifi es the cultural idealization of
women in the nineteenth century as passive objects to be admired for their beauty,
perceiving herself merely as an object of the male gaze. Hearing that a suitor has
drowned, Suzette is barely disturbed by this news as she anticipates being seen by a
handsome cattle
-
driver who often passes her window. Unfortunately, he does not
notice her, and the narrator dryly notes Suzette ’ s distress: “ He had not looked at her!
He had not thought of her! He would be gone three weeks – three eternities! and
every hour freighted with the one bitter remembrance of his indifference! ” (559). The
tone of this story is clearly critical of Suzette, but perhaps also of the culture that
infl uences her attitude.
Moreover, besides these examples of more conventional female characters in Cho-
pin ’ s fi ction, and aside from her sympathetic portrayal of Charlie Laborde, Chopin
depicts few examples of women working outside the home, and these women often
do so out of fi nancial need or to provide for others rather than for their own satisfac-
tion. For example, in Chopin ’ s fi nal story, “ The Impossible Miss Meadows ” (1903), a
poor young woman is invited to visit a wealthy family, the Hyleighs. Miss Meadows ’ s
confession to Evadne Hyleigh that “ ‘ a nursery governess is about all I ’ m equal to,
ma ’ m. … Indeed me pride ’ s all gone ’ ” (688) reveals her unhappiness and shame at
being alone in the world, forced to make her own way. Similarly, the protagonist of
Chopin ’ s late story “ Polly ” (1902) works as a bookkeeper but willingly resigns her
position after her marriage. When she receives a bequest from a relative with the
injunction to use the money rather than save it, Polly buys household items for her
parents, adhering to the feminine code of selfl ess dedication to family. Likewise,
Elizabeth Stock is the town postmistress in “ Elizabeth Stock ’ s One Story ” (1898), but
she uses her earnings to provide schooling for her sister ’ s children. In fact, as she
reveals in the course of the “ one story ” she ever wrote, Elizabeth would have liked to
pursue a more personally satisfying career as a writer. These examples of characters
who adhere to Victorian ideas of femininity rather than to the progressive ideals of
the New Woman, particularly in their selfl essness, illustrate the tendency of Chopin ’ s
fi ction not to suggest a single model of fulfi llment for women.
168
Charlotte Rich
As the wide variety of stories discussed above indicates, Chopin ’ s short fi ction that
treats the theme of female defi ance of social codes ranges broadly in tone. But as the
long - debated, ambiguous conclusion of The Awakening also demonstrates, she did not
provide a clear solution to the widely debated Woman Question of her day. In fact,
Chopin did not see lasting value in “ social problem ” literature concerning specifi c
contemporary issues; in an 1894 review of Hamlin Garland
’
s literary manifesto
Crumbling Idols , which praised authors such as Henrik Ibsen, she wrote:
Human impulses do not change and can not so long as men and women continue to
stand in the relation to one another which they have occupied since our knowledge of
their existence began. It is why Aeschylus is true, and Shakespeare is true to - day, and
why Ibsen will not be true in some remote to - morrow, however forcible and representa-
tive he may be for the hour, because he takes for his themes social problems which by
their very nature are mutable. (693)
Chopin ’ s short fi ction does refl ect her cultural moment of the 1890s in that it fre-
quently embodies the historical and literary phenomenon of the New Woman, and,
indeed, her work is distinctive within that genre for its candid acknowledgment of
female sexuality. However, Chopin resists turning her tales of women in confl ict with
their society ’ s gender expectations into “ social problem ” literature with a specifi c
agenda. Treating her female characters with restrained objectivity, and avoiding judg-
ment of their choices in keeping with her dislike of didacticism or polemic, she insists
above all else upon the importance of seeking an authentic self, be that through con-
ventional or controversial means.
Notes
1
“ The Western Association of Writers, ” origi-
and domestic concerns. She was often an
nally published in
Critic
(July 7, 1894);
advocate of “ rational dress ” and fond of exer-
The Complete Works of Kate Chopin
, ed. Per
cise. If the New Woman chose to marry, she
Seyersted (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
was associated with the concept of compan-
University Press, 1969 , rpt. 1993), 691. Page
ionate marriage, in which husband and wife
references to Chopin
’
s works hereafter cite
regarded each other with equal respect and
this edition and appear in the text.
shared responsibilities, while after the turn of
2
Defi ned by her commitment to various types
the century she was associated with greater
of independence, the stereotypical New
sexual freedom. For further discussion of the
Woman was college educated and believed in
New Woman phenomenon in literature, see
a woman ’ s right to work in traditionally mas-
Ardis , New Women, New Novels ; Fernando ,
culine professions; in the United States, in
“ New Women ” in the Late Victorian Novel ; Cun-
particular, she often sought a public role in
ningham , The New Woman and the Victorian
occupations that would help to
“
improve
Novel ; Ledger , The New Woman ; Smith -
society.
”
The New Woman championed
Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct
; and Tichi,
women
’
s right to the vote, to economic
“ Women Writers and the New Woman. ”
autonomy, and to the right to prioritize intel-
3
Contrary to popular myth, Chopin continued
lectual or artistic aspirations over marriage
writing after the censure of The Awakening ;
Kate
Chopin
169
see Thomas, “ ‘ What Are the Prospects for the
10
Chopin deals with the effects of Catholicism
Book? ’ ” 36 – 57, on how Chopin ’ s fi nal years
on women not only in The Awakening and her
were mythologized by the literary market-
fi rst novel, At Fault , but also in stories
includ-
place of her day and how such misrepresenta-
ing “ Madame C é lestin ’ s Divorce ” (1893), “ A
tions were perpetuated in twentieth - century
Lady of Bayou St. John ” (1893), “ A Sentimen-
scholarship.
tal Soul ” (1894), and “ Two Portraits ” (1895).
4
Besides The Awakening
, other American 11
Chopin herself was known to oppose religious
novels that employ imagery of the New
and social prejudice against divorce; see Toth,
Woman as a bird include Elizabeth Stuart
Kate Chopin 266.
Phelps ’ s The Story of Avis
(1878), Ellen 12
Chopin ’ s naming the parish “ Sabine ” has his-
Glasgow ’ s The Wheel of Life (1906), and Willa
torical resonance for the brutality that ‘ Tite
Cather ’ s The Song of the Lark (1915).
Reine suffers. The Sabines inhabited a region
5
See “ Women ’ s Education: ‘ Maddest Folly
of Italy subjugated by the Romans around
Going, ’ ” in Marks , Bicycles, Bangs and Bloom-
290 bce ; an event often depicted in classical
ers
, 90
–
116, on satirical arguments against
art is the rape of the Sabine women, when
higher education for women, some of which
Romulus, who needed wives for his soldiers,
proceeded from assertions of female intellec-
lured the men away and allowed the soldiers
tual inferiority (102 – 3).
to have their way with the women.
6
See Woloch , Women and the American Experi-
13
See Schneider and Schneider , American Women
ence , on the infl uence of Edward Clarke ’ s book
in the Progressive Era , 137 – 8, for discussion of
Sex in Education (1873), which asserted that
this phenomenon.
“ mental activity drew blood from the nervous
14
Chopin ’ s story “ Mrs. Mobry ’ s Reason ” (1891)
system and reproductive organs. Higher edu-
describes how young love is destroyed by
cation, therefore, could cause mental collapse,
hereditary insanity apparently caused by
physical incapacity, infertility, and early
inherited syphilis, as Emily Toth notes in
A Companion to the American Short Story Page 37
