Was Desiree's Baby an Example of Realism in Literature
Analysis of Kate Chopin'southward Désirée's Baby
Kate Chopin's brief merely mesmerizing story opens in medias res, with Madame Valmonde preparing to visit her adopted daughter, Desiree, recently married to the wealthy Louisiana plantation owner Armand d'Aubigny and even more recently delivered of a baby daughter. Then, in a series of flashbacks, the narrator reveals Desiree'due south uncertain origins every bit a foundling, her dazzler as she grew to womanhood, and Armand's passionate proposal of marriage. The narrator so returns to the present and, using briefl y effective images, sketches the hierarchical plantation organization of whites, quadroons, and blacks. Using Mme. Valmonde's perspective, the narrator reveals that the baby does not look white—so the tragedy of this story moves speedily to its completion.
It is difficult to imagine a reader who would non be horrified and disgusted by the results of the racism and sexism that permeate this story. No one could believe that Armand Aubigny'southward inhuman cruelty to his wife, Desiree, and his kid is warranted. The only real dubiousness for the reader concerns Armand's foreknowledge of his own parentage: Did he know that his mother had Negro blood before he married Desiree, or did he discover her revealing letter of the alphabet afterwards on? If he did know beforehand (and information technology is hard to believe that he did not), his courtship of and marriage to Desiree were highly calculated actions, with Desiree called because she was the perfect woman to be used in an "experimental" reproduction. If their child(ren) "passed" equally white, Armand would be pleased and would go along the marriage intact. If non, Desiree, the foundling, would be the perfect victim to take the blame.
Kate Chopin/The New York Public Library
This may seem to be judging Armand likewise harshly, considering the narrator does draw his swell passion for Desiree, so suddenly and furiously ignited. Certainly Armand behaves as a man in beloved. Only Chopin inserts a few subtle remarks that allow the states to question this, at least in hindsight: "The wonder was that he had not loved her earlier; for he had known her since his begetter brought him dwelling from Paris, a boy of eight, subsequently his mother died in that location." It does seem unlikely that a human being of Armand'south temperament would conceive this sudden intense desire for "the daughter next door," a sugariness, naive young woman whom he has known for most of his life. Correct from the beginning, Chopin also reveals details about his character that are unsettling, fifty-fifty to the innocent and loving Desiree. The basic cruelty of Armand's nature is hinted at throughout the story, particularly regarding his astringent treatment of "his negroes," which is in notably precipitous dissimilarity to his father'southward example.
Armand'south reputation equally a harsh slave master supports the presumption that he has known almost his own role-Negro ancestry all forth. He did not learn this behavior from his father, who was "piece of cake-going and indulgent" in his dealings with the slaves. The cognition that some of his own ancestors leap from the aforementioned "race of slavery" would surely be unbearable to the proud, "imperious" Armand, and the rage and shame that this noesis brings would hands be turned against the blacks effectually him. In much the same way, when Armand realizes that his infant is visibly racially mixed, he vents his fury viciously on his slaves, the "very spirit of Satan [taking] concord of him."
Modern readers will discover many disturbing aspects to this story. The seemingly coincidental racism is horrifying. Feminists are likely to accept exception (equally they sometimes exercise to Chopin'due south The Awakening) to Desiree's passive acceptance of Armand's rejection of her and his child and her obviously deliberate walk into the bayou. Suicide is not the strong woman's reply to the situation, but Desiree is definitely non a strong adult female. What she does have is wealthy parents who dearest her and are willing to take care of her and the baby. Why does she feel that she has to end her life? Gender and course roles and structures were so rigid in this period that it was incommunicable for a woman to cross those lines very far; the racial barrier was the almost rigid of all. No mixing of black and white blood would ever be condoned in that society, so Desiree's babe would never observe credence anywhere. Desiree is not able to run across a viable way out of her terrifying situation, and her view is not entirely unrealistic, considering her fourth dimension and place. As she has done in her other stories, Kate Chopin realistically depicts the cruelty and horror of a social structure that totally denies power to women, children, the poor, and most of all, blacks.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chopin, Kate. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Country University Press, 1969.
Koloski, Bernard. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996.
Categories: American Literature, Literary Criticism, Literature, Brusque Story
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Source: https://literariness.org/2021/05/23/analysis-of-kate-chopins-desirees-baby/
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