Story Of An Hour And Desiree's Baby Analysis

Improved Essays
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” has many elements that can be compared and contrasted. These stories share similar characteristics such as time period and the theme of marriage. With these characteristics there are many things that need to be considered in each story such as why the time period is a big deal and what it has to do with the theme of marriage. However, there are some contrasts in the two stories like location and antagonistic motives. These contrasts should be taken into account because they are what make the stories two different stories and not a rewrite of one or the other. Chopin shows us these similar characteristics as well as the contrasts to conclude how society has evolved over time.
Time period
…show more content…
Both of the stories have controlling husbands in the marriage. This aspect is what connects these two stories. In each story, Chopin talks about how controlling their husbands are. For example, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin talks how loving and gentle her husband is, but how restricted of freedom Mrs. Mallard feels because of her husband. This example is important in this story because it shows us that Mrs. Mallard because of her husband and societal views feels that she has no freedom until the death of her husband is revealed. The death of her husband tells the reader that Mrs. Mallard was not happy in her marriage and is free to be an independent woman without the negative judgment from her peers. In “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin talks about how controlling her husband is by being a slave owner and how he responds to thinking she is not white. In this story, Desiree’s husband is portrayed as a self-centered jerk. These examples in each story are vital because even though both women are in unhappy marriages with controlling husbands; their husbands have different antagonistic …show more content…
The setting for “Desiree’s Baby” is in Louisiana while “The Story of an Hour” is set in St. Louis. The setting is critical in these stories because it illustrates to the reader what the societal views are. Louisiana in “Desiree’s Baby” is more of a rural setting whereas St. Louis in “The Story of an Hour” is more suburban. Therefore, “The Story of an Hour” is more modern in their societal views rather than in “Desiree’s Baby”. For example in “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin specifically states, that Armand had slaves. This is critical because it shows that the society is still very narrow-minded in their views, which would suggest they also have constricted views about interracial marriages. However, in “The Story of an Hour” the location is more modern, therefore showing the reader the change over time. This shows us that society has changed over time to. In this short story, there is a more open mind than in “Desiree’s Baby”. For example, it is acceptable to be an independent woman and own land and control finances if the husband is deceased. In each of these stories location is key to knowing what the societal views

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    It can be inferred that marriage was not a woman’s choice in the time that Chopin lived and that many women felt pressured by society to be married. (“Gender Roles…”) It is evident that in “Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard was not content in her marriage, and felt that it held her back from many opportunities. Also, in “Desiree’s Baby,” the relationship between Desiree and her husband is clearly unhealthy and toxic, which supports why she would be better off without him. In Chopin’s life, the death of her husband inspired her career in writing because her doctor and a family friend suggested that she “pour her depressed and suffocated feelings in writing which could also become a source of income for her.”…

    • 2107 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Desiree's Baby Analysis

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby” cogitates around sexism, social class and racism. Race in terms of difference between white skin color and black skin color as it has a necessary significance in the characters’ lives over the story. At the time, bit Armand and Desiree considered themselves happy white people however, when the plot divulges their black ancestry they were face with skepticism and their lives became meaningless. Chopin uses symbolism to show white objects being positive and black objects being negative. Social class was influenced by race as black people were poor and were treated as slaves whereas white people were the slave owners and lived a luxurious lifestyle.…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the nineteenth century, the time in which Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” takes place, women are considered inferior to men. Mrs. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, lives in a generation where women are expected to live in the shadows of their husbands. And while Mr. Brentley Mallard is alive, Mrs. Mallard fulfills her designated role in society. However, the supposed death of her husband changes her and makes Mrs. Mallard reflect on her true role in the world. Louise Mallard, in wake of her husband’s death, begins to imagine a life where she is no longer constrained by her husband- a life where she is free from the social restrictions society places on nineteenth century women.…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kate Chopin was a Realism author during the mid to late 19th century. Born to a household mixed with French and Irish, Chopin grew up speaking both French and English and experienced a fusion of two cultures. Later on, she marries Oscar Chopin and moves to Louisiana, which is where the large majority of Chopin’s stories take place (“Kate Chopin” paragraph 3). Her stories usually have slavery or women’s rights as its background. These characteristics are true for “Desiree’s Baby”.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Future of Désirée’s Baby “Désirée’s Baby” was a tragedy that did not need to be a tragedy. Désirée became victim to the forces of patriarchy and racism that were especially rampant during the late 1800’s. During this particular period, differentiating between black and white was not only a cultural must but also a legal one. One drop of Black was enough to consider someone a slave and relations of any kind between blacks and whites were illegal.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Despite of being a woman living in the 19th century, Kate Chopin’s works often depict the images of young, beautiful, sensitive, and intelligent women who seek freedom and professional independence. The Story of an Hour, The Storm and Desiree’s Baby are three of her many short stories that portray women who live miserably in their marriage. This journal will be focusing in discussing the themes found in these three stories. The main theme in The Story of an Hour is the forbidden joy of freedom. For Mrs. Mallard, freedom is a pleasure that can only be imagined privately in which it seems that it would take her whole life for it to become real.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Mixed Emotions The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin that illustrates the unusual, negative, and secretive side of a marriage that is unknown to the rest of the characters in the narrative. Chopin uses many different kinds of literary devices in this short story in order to portray the confinement, freedom, and hope that death brings about for Mrs. Louise Mallard, the main character. The story focuses on the way Mrs. Mallard handles and copes with the breaking news of her husband, Brently Mallard’s, recent death. It explains the way she feels and the thoughts going through her head and ends with an ironic, surprising twist.…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analyze how the protagonist of the two assigned Chopin stories are similar. What are important differences between them. How do these differences affect the behavior of the protagonist. In the stories "The Story of an Hour" and "Desiree 's Baby" the two protagonist are trapped in a world where there is inequality between men and women.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard By analyzing The Story of an Hour, Chopin employs several techniques in her writing to effectively characterize the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard. One can perceive Mrs. Mallard in a variety of perspectives due to the deliberate planning of characterization that allow the reader to identify with her, employing different writing techniques in the plot to create symbolic meanings that indirectly give the reader a sense of who she is becoming, and by incorporating the notion of liminality. These elements help to “shape” Mrs. Mallard’s personality and allow the reader to comprehend Chopin’s reasoning for portraying Mrs. Mallard in that specific manner. Chopin’s thoughtful formation of Mrs. Mallard help the reader…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Armand is obviously of a racist disposition, considering the time period and his ownership of several slaves at L’Abri. His harsh treatment of his slaves further proves that he holds genuine disdain for those of a darker complexion than his own, as “his negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been” when Armand’s father was their master (Chopin 539). However, when Désirée gives birth to a son, Armand’s treatment of his so-called property becomes marginally less cruel. His happiness at having sired a healthy child with the woman he loves clearly affects his moods, and he puts an end to…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The women had to stand by their husband, respect what is said nor go against the rules or wishes. Society had different opinions upon views of the way women should be treated, that why Mrs. Mallard has been exalted with such excitement of living for herself not for other(Chopin, par 12). Emphasizing on the factor love within the era, many time marriages weren't not about this feeling, only that it was economical good for everyone that both man and woman be wed and that was right in the eyes of society. To Mrs. Mallard, the marriage had come with more unhappy days from the telling of how she was drinking from the elixir of life, and being able to see past the death of the husband towards a "long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely"(Chopin, par 16,11). Era of time, make one think of what did women have to look for to, is it what Mrs. Mallard vision of happiness from the freedom of becoming widow or something else more greater, the view we have is the marriage of the couple has been affected because of rules of…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin is a short story that focused on the tragic consequences of miscegenation during the nineteenth- century. This short story took place during the period known as the antebellum period on a Louisiana plantation. During the antebellum period, racism is strongly connected with sexism during this period and the cruelty of racism resulted in the intolerance of gender and race. The setting played a significant role to support the racial and gender bias between the main protagonists’, Desiree and Armand, relationship. Desiree is the wife of Armand and the mother to her miscegenation child.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”, Kate Chopin uses characters, themes, and symbols to explore female independence in order to produce a change. The characters in “Desiree’s Baby” play a large role in displaying different scenarios depicting universal stereotypes.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A “normal” woman of the time would have been devastated. In Mrs. Mallard’s case, she is relieved, which is the emotion that drives the story to it’s shocking ending, hence the setting being springtime and blissful. If a Romantic writer had written a piece with a similar storyline, as “The Story of an Hour”, it would be driven by the husband’s death which would have affected the wife’s feelings; sorrowful and in mourning, “[Magazine editors] wanted Chopin to soften her female character, to make her less independent and less unhappy in her marriage” (Brozo et al. 628). With the idea of Realism, and having realistic perspectives on love and marriage, Chopin and many other realists drove…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kate Chopin

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This was something, although frowned upon, that did happen during this period. The format that Chopin used was irony. Armand assumed Desiree was of African descent; she was adopted and did not know her ancestry. Armand, a well-known slave owner, had to protect his family name and sent his wife and child away to avoid being thought of as a joke and ruining his family name. Rosenblum also made it clear about the gender roles during this time in his work analysis when he said “but because Armand is more powerful, Desiree is disgraced and banished”…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics