Romanticism And Realism In Kate Chopin And Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the late 19th century, many American writers, like Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, for example, wrote in accordance with the literary Realist movement that became ever-popular during that time period. The Realist literary technique was based upon the accurate representation of daily life, encouraging writers to write about the problems and conditions surrounding them, using the language and dialect of ordinary people. This shift into Realist literature is often thought to be a revolt against the previously popular movement of Romanticism, in which authors wrote about idealized life, often with implausible conventions or supernatural events. According to William Harmon and Hugh Holman, "Where romanticists transcend the immediate …show more content…
However, perhaps the most significant aspect of Kate Chopin’s work in relation to the Realist movement is her use of common subjects to present larger themes or to bring sensitive and somewhat, in Chopin’s time, taboo subjects to her readers. In Désirée’s Baby, for example, Chopin explores the concept of miscegenation. After Désirée and her husband have a child together, it is discovered that the child has the same skin color as what Désirée’s character refers to as a “quadroon”, a person with one-fourth African ancestry. This discovery causes many problems not only for Désirée’s family (her husband, in particular) but for Désirée herself as well. Her husband accuses her of not being fully white, and because of her unknown ancestry, Désirée, to her own dismay, knows that her husband could very well be right. The fact that she could be possibly be not-white causes Désirée much trepidation. She, in a letter to her mother, writes, “…They tell me I am not white. […] You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live.” Ultimately, Désirée decides that it is better to be dead than to live and be black, or even part black; as is shown by the suggestion that she kills both her infant and herself after they both disappear into a bayou, never to be seen …show more content…
However, when Chopin wrote this story, she most likely wrote with the goal of persuading everyday people to think about social norms, and the restrictions and conditions of ordinary human beings, set in place by their society. This effort to bring attention to outdated or problematic social ideologies (like racism, in the example of Désirée’s Baby) was a common characteristic of Realist