Women Portrayed In Kate Chopin Vs Henry James

Submitted By Moe07
Words: 1730
Pages: 7
Open Document
ENG 233 IN1
Professor Brown
5/9/14
Women Portrayed in Kate Chopin Vs Henry James Henry James and Kate Chopin, are two of the many influential writers of the 19th -20th century, both with their own instinctual writing style. Writers of this caliber are not just borne, but rather they have been formed. The upbringing of Chopin and James played an affluent part in their writing styles. These uniquely separate upbringings caused their minds to perceive things differently, in this case Chopin’s writing style is quite different form James’s especially when it comes to women. This essentially made these two writers who they are today from their unique perspectives. Though coming from the same time period of the 19th century, Chopin and James have very different perceptions of the modern woman of that time period of which are portrayed in their novels. Chopin portrays the women in her novels as controllable, under-spoken and frail, while the women in James’s novels are bold and free. Kate Chopin from an early age was immersed into a world of despair. During the year 1855, at the young age of 5 and 1/2 years old, Chopin was sent to The Sacred Heart Academy, which was a catholic boarding school in St Louis. Shortly after Chopin’s start at Sacred Heart Academy her father was tragically killed in a train accident, so started the beginning of the tragedies for Chopin (Wyatt). After the death of her father, Chopin moved in with the women of her family, her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother. These women oversaw her education, but only educated her in reading and writing but went far beyond the call of duty and taught her fine arts such as music and French. These 3 women in Chopin’s life were cutting edge and inspiring as her mother was the first women in St Louis to legally separate her husband. Kate continued her education at Sacred Heart and managed to become one of the best and brightest students, but tragedy struck Chopin once again has her grandmother died in 1863, soon followed by the death of her half-brother who had a lost the battle with typhoid fever. With all the death and despair in her life she met her husband in 1870, got married and started a family She thought she had outrun tragedy this time, but after having 5 boys and 2 girls her husband died of “Swamp fever” in 1883 (Baym and Levine 1604). After the death of her husband, she moved her family back to St Louis where she lived with her mother to get back on her feet. But tragedy caught up with Chopin once more as her mother died just that next year. Chopin started her writing career soon after her mothers death just as a means for extra income, little did she know her work would take off. Due to growing up with 3 generations of women, it isn't hard to see where Chopin could have pulled inspiration for her writings from. Chopin portrays the women in her writings with similar attributes as the women she grew up with. In her story, Desiree’s Baby, the main female role Desiree is a woman who was abandoned at a young age then adopted into a wealthy family in the southern state of Louisiana. Desiree later married a wealthy plantation owner by the name of Armand. Armand was a stern and hard man, one of which Desiree bulked to constantly under the pressure of making him unhappy, “This is what made the gentle Desiree so happy, for she loved him desperately. When he frowned she trembled, but loved him. When he smiled, she asked no greater blessing of God" (Chopin 1607). Desiree has ensnared herself in a cycle of being controlled by Armand for the sake of his happiness. This same exact notion is reciprocated when Chopin writes, “‘Shall I go, Armand?’ she asked in tones sharp with agonized suspense. ‘Yes, go.’ ‘Do you want me to go?’ ‘Yes, I want you to go’ (Chopin 1608).
Desiree is so desperately clinging to the hope of making her husband want her to stay he is making herself malleable to the will of her husband. Since Armand wanted Desiree to leave,
Show More

Related Documents: Women Portrayed In Kate Chopin Vs Henry James

Final Paper

GVPT100 5/8/13 Final Paper Assignment Religious Attendance and its Affect on Feelings toward Homosexuals For a long time, it has been known that the more religious an individual is, the less likely he/she would be to have positive feelings toward gay men and lesbians. This is because many religious ideologies characterize homosexuality as a sin. Religion is usually introduced to one at a young age so those attitudes and beliefs would stick with a person despite a changing society, like the…

Words 631 - Pages 3

Final Paper

ETH125 10/7/12 Final Paper I have learned that the United States is very diverse in everything. Not just people, but culture and religion too. There are so many different cultures that live in the United States today it makes my head spin. I ride public transportation to work everyday and to see all the different cultures of people that ride the same thing is wondrous. I just sit back and listen to all the different things going on around me and think “Wow, I am in the “Melting Pot”…

Words 1064 - Pages 5

Final Paper

interesting "hook" to reel your reader in. An introduction can begin with a rhetorical question, a quotation, an anecdote, a concession, an interesting fact, or a question that will be answered in your paper. The idea is to begin broadly and gradually bring the reader closer to the main idea of the paper. At the end of the introduction, you will present your thesis statement. The thesis statement model used in this example is a thesis with reasons. Even though Parents have the right to choose their own…

Words 1154 - Pages 5

Final paper

Week 5 - FINAL PAPER Karri Hackley PSY 303: Abnormal Psychology Instructor: Dr. Edward Fischer 8/4/15 PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT Client name: Ernest Hemingway DOB: July 21, 1899 Race: White Ethnical affiliation: Caucasian Residence: Ketchum, Idaho Sex: Male Gender: Male Orientation: straight Religious affiliation: Catholic Marital status: Married # of children: 3 Occupation: Author Education: High School PRESENTING PROBLEM (Clearly specify the situations…

Words 1528 - Pages 7

abortion final final paper

life and an unplanned pregnancy is one of those things that happens. Yes, we could have protected ourselves better and so could have the man we chose to be with because it’s as much his responsibility as it is ours but in the end we will make the final decision on whether to keep it or not. In the end it’s our choice and no one and nothing has the right to tell us what to do with our bodies, no matter who they are. “Only one voice needs to be heard on the question of whether a women will or will…

Words 1719 - Pages 7

final paper

record companies money. Morales The seemingly innocent act of downloading music for free isn’t just hurting the music industry, but it’s morally wrong for people to do it. When we are children, we are taught not to steal candy for the store, copy a paper from someone else, or to take a CD from a music store. I think we can agree throughout are society it is immoral to steal, but people still don’t see the ethical issues with downloading music illegally. Many people think illegal downloading is like…

Words 1322 - Pages 6

final paper

Capitalism I think of capitalism as an economics system that is controlled by individuals and private companies instead of the government. In capitalism individuals and companies own and direct most of the resources used to produce goods and services. People are free to decide how they will earn and spend their income. Companies can decide what goods and services to provide and how much to charge for them. I took this picture while making a quick stop at the bank. I thought Chase bank represented…

Words 589 - Pages 3

Final Paper

Dr.Chew explained that there are four factors that contribute to academic success which are minimizing distractions, maximizing focus, developing accurate metacognition, deep, appropriate processing of critical concepts and practicing retrieval and application. When I watched the videos "How to Get the Most out of Studying" I learned about a lot of ways I could get study better. In the video Dr. Chew explained that an ineffective skill to studying is to just memorize the facts which I find is true…

Words 908 - Pages 4

Final Paper

information about beauty products, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, E-mail, Blog. There many aspects of beauty products’ information may influence customers’ purchasing behavior. Traditional tool for the advertisements includes paper magazine, word of mouth(Friends and family recommendation ), in store experience, Radio, Television which are still have the influence on customers behavior. Part2 Literature review According to collect the various literatures, most of the literature…

Words 2040 - Pages 9

Final Paper

Mercedes Montanez Professor Elaine Minamide English 100 11 October 2012 Rhetorical Analysis of “Heather’s Life Ended Too Soon” One fear parents always have is the first day their child gets behind the wheel of a car. I remember when I first got my license my mom did not let me drive alone for about a month, and when she rode with me every thing I did was wrong. In the poster “Heather’s Life Ended Too Soon,’ Heather, a 19 year old girl’s life was taken from her. She was driving home from work…

Words 1050 - Pages 5