Kate Chopin (1851-1904): A Brief Biography
Catherine O'Flaherty was born in July 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri to an Irishman who was a prosperous merchant and a French-American mother who adored society and aristocracy. Kate was influenced heavily by both sides, but seemed to prefer her father's. She gained some of his positive traits, such as his calmness, his energy, his intelligence, and his self-reliance. He died suddenly in 1855, and Kate was then surrounded by a family of widows: her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. This heightened her awareness of female roles in society and allowed her to be spared of the general submission of women to men. She used these influences to shape her views on woman's role in society and infused those ideals in her writing.
She entered formal education at the St. LouisAcademy of the Sacred Heart in 1860. After which she joined fashionable society and became a well-known and well-liked belle of St. Louis. She also pursued her passions of music, literature, and writing.She met twenty-five year old Oscar Chopin of New Orleans, and in 1870 they were wed. They had a happy and loving relationship and one that was fairly unconventional. Oscar respected Kate as a unique and curious woman and allowed her enormous freedom in her endeavors. Yet, Kate had to fulfill a heavy social responsibility of being the wife of a Creole cotton broker and take care for their six children. Like Kate's father, Oscar also died a sudden death in 1883. The tremendous grief she felt for his loss seemed to stay with her through most of her life and was a great influence on her.
After her husband's death, Kate then turned to a writing career for several reasons: she was a insatiable reader, she needed to provide for her large family, and she was encouraged by her family doctor to pursue her passion of writing as a relief from her loss. She went on to have some poetry published and then her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890. This novel gave her a starting point. It also showed a lack of experience and charted her growth and future development as a writer. The success of this novel stimulated her to write more, and in 1894 Bayou Folk, a collection of short stories, was published. She expanded on her themes of female roles and love in her next collection of stories, A Night in Acadie, published in 1897.
Her writing resembled the local color movement's characteristics in that she focused on characters from her part of the country and portrayed them through the social and physical settings in which they lived. These works allowed Chopin to reach a new height in her writing about the roles of women. The incarnation of that height would be her final work; the harshly received, yet important novel, The Awakening. This rebellious novel was brutally received by critics, her contemporaries, and readers. It ended her career as a writer permanently.
In her article "The Book that ruined Kate Chopin’s Career," S. Stipe points out that the contemporary world is rediscovering this work and is much more able to digest a novel about a woman who seeks independence. She points out that although Chopin’s book was banned and harshly received in her time, readers are "re-reading or discovering for the first time with astonishment and wonder and downright pleasure, [what] ruined Kate Chopin's career "and quite possibly contributed to the end of her life." She is surprised that despite Kate’s upbringing and being a mother of six, she was able to have strong ideals about female independence and could create a protagonist that leaves her husband and children and ultimately kills herself. Stipe points out that it is understandable why Chopin’s readers had trouble with the book and she also points out that some modern readers might as well: "The Awakening is one of those books that starts heated debates in the classroom; the good news is that it’s now allowed in the classroom."
Although her works are inspired and derivative of such movements as the local-color, realism, and naturalism, she has created a voice that is unique and unmatched. That voice gave an important view of the female role in society and contributed to the beginning of the later feminist movements. This voice continues to push the boundaries of social barriers.
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: Late Nineteenth Century - Kate Chopin." PAL: Perspectives in American
Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. 13 May 2009. <
pal/chap6/chopin.html>
“The Story of an Hour”
Guided Reading
Directions: Read the story TWICE and answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1) How might heart trouble be more than a physical ailment? Note that this is the first thing we are told about her and how other people respond to her. Evidently this is--at least for those around her--an important part of who she is. Who took care? Why is this written in the passive voice, with a "hidden" subject? What does this construction suggest about Mrs. Mallard's customary environment?
2) Why is she tantalizing her with hints? Is this alerting us that there may be other "veiled hints" in the story? What does this suggest about how the family views Mrs. M.?
3) What does this paragraph suggest about Richards' feelings for Mrs. M? Why is he in such a hurry? Is the code of the "southern gentleman" at work here, or could there be more to his concern than that?
4) What does this passionate response tell us about her? This is our first real clue as to what sort of person she is--aside from her reported state of health.
5) How are the window and chair descriptions suggestive of longing or desire? What do they imply about her ordinary life? Look for other images associated with open and closed.
6) What does this very dramatic (even melodramatic) statement suggest about her psychological state? her life? Note the intimate connection between body and soul.
7) Delicious ordinarily refers to taste. Who is "tasting" here? Why is the word used?
8) How does this picture represent symbolically what she sees about her situation?
9) In your first reading, what do you guess that "something" might be? Does that interpretation change with a second reading? Why is this "message" arriving externally?
10) What does this description of her hands suggest?
11) What do "abandon" and "escape" suggest. Is there other imagery of imprisonment in the story?
12) What is happening to her? Why does she repeat "free?
13) There seems to be no question whether her husband loved her, is there? What clues are there of HOW he loved her?
14) What cherished domestic and 19th century myth does Chopin challenge here?
15) Here Chopin--or is it Mrs. Mallard?-- is making a very general statement about relationships, particularly between men and women. How does it apply to this case? What might make it a "crime"? Do you agree?
16) Again, body and soul are connected. How does this anticipate the end?
17) Just what is coming through an "open window"?
18) What has she conquered that would make her seem victorious? Note the physical position of each person as she "descends.
19) Whose interests does this diagnosis serve? How is it reflective of Chopin's implied view of marriage?
20) How is the final phrase both ironic and serious?