Comparing Desiree's Baby And The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin, a famous American author who lived in the late 19th century, is known for two of her more famous pieces, Desiree’s Baby (1892) and The Story of an Hour (1894). In Desiree's Baby, a once abandoned young Southern woman named Desiree, falls in love with a man named Armand. They wed and have a child together. When the child grows older, it becomes apparent that their child contains African-American features. Due to her lack of family, Armand accuses Desiree of having biracial heritage and declares their marriage invalid. Desiree life lacks meaning and she kills herself. In The Story of an Hour, a married woman receives news that her husband has died in a tragic work accident. The sadden woman quickly realizes that his death frees her from her wifely duties. She begins to see a new life of freedom. However, when she walks downstairs, she sees …show more content…
Desiree begins her life abandoned and her lack of family lowers her social status. In a Southern society based around the prejudices of race, her unknown heritage can be used as leverage as it can leave questions about her ethnic makeup. Desiree’s husband, Armand, chooses love over her lack of family and marries her, regardless of the insecurities it would bring. When questions arise about the race of their child, Armand uses Desiree's lack of family against her and blames her for being biracial. His racial prejudices are too strong and he cannot remain in love with Desiree. The biggest example and quote from the story would have to be “He thought Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him; and felt, somehow, that he was paying Him back in kind when he stabbed thus into his wife's soul. Moreover he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name.” Desiree’s social status is destroyed due to the prejudices she would inherit from peers, thus she feels that all is lost and commits