Their love is almost described as in a fairytale, as he fell in love with her “as if struck by a pistol shot”. He's blinded by love and even looks beyond her “obscure origin”, even though he's warned. Later, he grew even softer, as ““marriage, and later the birth of his son had softened Armand Aubigny's imperious and exacting nature greatly” - but all that changed, when it occurred to him that the baby was not white. He's a product of his time and surroundings - a “typical” south state man, who leads a cotton farm and perceives black people as second-class …show more content…
Valmonde is the name of the family who owns the plantation, while L'abri is the French word for shelter. The reason that many French words and French sounding names appear in this story, is that Louisiana once was a French colony. The story takes place before slavery was abolished, so it's going on around the mid-nineteenth century. The community surrounding the characters of the story are very wealthy, as many slaves harvest the cotton at L'abri. Besides that, it is also a sign of status and money that Armand orders a “corbeille from Paris” to his wedding with Desiree, as the journey from Louisiana to Paris was incredibly long and difficult at that time. The story unfolds in the period July to August, as we hear that three months are going from the day Miss Valmonde visit Desiree to the “break up” of Desiree and Armand - and Desiree leaves Armand “an October