"Desperate Wives"-Married Women In Kate Chopin’s Fictions

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) is one of the most important women writers in19thcenturyAmerican literature. In her lifetime, she created two novels and three short storycollections, in which she portrayed women and reflected on the issue of women. Her novelThe Awakening is viewed as the “best feminist work of the19thcentury”. Her short storiescomplement her novels by offering a strikingly feminist perspective on the lives ofAmerican women of that time. This thesis analyzes the wife figures in Chopin’s fictions,and in so doing reveals Chopin’s thinking on women’s living conditions as experienced inmarriage and family in19thcentury America.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces Chopin and herliterary career, and demonstrates the purpose and the layout of the thesis. Chapter Twotakes a look at two wife figures, namely Adéle Ratignole in The Awakening and MadameDelisle in “A Lady in St. Bayou”. These epitomize the patriarchal angels who abide bypatriarchal standards, and live for the people around them without complaints. ChapterThree discusses Chopin’s second type of wives: the temporary rebels. The heroine of thestory “Athénaise”, the mother of three children in the story “A Pair of Silk Stockings” Mrs.Sommers and the newly wedded wife in “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard fall into thistype of female images. These wives are more rebellious; they are dissatisfied with theirstatus-quo, and tried to fight against the presumed roles set up for them by the society. Butthe hindrance is too strong for them to break through. And they finally fall back to their oldroles. Chapter Four examines the suicidal wives in Chopin’s works. The new motherDésirée in “Désirée’s Baby” and Edna in The Awakening belong to this category. Theypursue freedom and selfhood, but the society would never allow women to do so. So theyfinally decide to fight back through self-annihilation. Chapter Five is the conclusion inwhich I discus some of the reasons for Chopin’s interest of the depiction of various typesof desperate wives. It is argued that these wives live with limited freedom. Chopin’sdifferent treatment of these wives points to her dissatisfaction with the old wifedom, andmarks a change in Chopin’s attitude toward these wives. The tragic lives of many of thesewomen warn people of the women’s bleak living conditions and clearly stand as an embodiment of Chopin’s helplessness in finding a solution to woman’s question.