A Respectable Woman by Kate
Chopin
One of the short stories by Kate Chopin
explores the themes of perception, appearance, identity, desire, and
freedom. “Besides being a respectable woman she was a very sensible
one, and she knew there are some battles in life which a human being must fight
alone.”-Kate Chopin-A Respectable Woman
About the author
Ø KATE CHOPIN (Katherine O'Flaherty)
Ø A feminist author of American
in the 20th century
Ø Birth – February 8, 1850, St
Louis, Missouri
Ø Thomas O'Flaherty: Father -Irish
immigrant -Died in a train accident when Kate was 5 years old
Ø Eliza Farris: Mother -French
Canadian descent--All widow family
Ø Oscar Chopin: Husband -married at age of
20(1870) -7 children(6 son &1 Daughter)-Unfortunate death due to malaria(1882)
Ø Death- August 22,
1904 -Brain hemorrhage
Ø Birth – February 8, 1850, St Louis, Missouri
Ø Thomas O'Flaherty: Father -Irish immigrant
-Died in a train accident when Kate was 5 years old
Ø Eliza Farris: Mother -French
Canadian descent -All widow family
Ø Oscar Chopin:
Husband -married at age of 20(1870) -7 children(6 son
&1 Daughter)
-Unfortunate death due to malaria(1882)
Ø Death- August 22,
1904-Brain hemorrhage.
Literary Works
Ø Over one hundred plus short stories
& sketches In literary magazines.
Ø Best known for her novels,
'At Fault'(1990) & 'The Awakening'(1899)
Ø Feminist content ( portrayal of women
as strong, capable, and equal to men)
Ø Intricate details of her life
in Louisiana
Ø Due to her message in ' The Awakening'
that caused a great uproar she only wrote short stories in her
remaining years
Ø Forerunner of American 20th-century
feminist authors of Southern or Catholic background
Ø Often got a lot of
criticism certainly due to the counter culture with
the messages in her works.
Language in a Story:
Ø Sexual frankness
Ø Pattern of classical fiction
Ø Depicts modern sensibility
Ø Moves from exposition to
the rising action and then to climax and resolution
Ø Women characters are someone who has
their individual needs and demands
Ø confines of an oppressed society
Ø Strong influence of
her observations and interests in her surrounding.
Facts: Despite being
recognized as a feminist author, Kate never identified as a feminist or
suffragist. She took women very seriously and saw herself as a contemporary
writer. "Some of Chopin's work is equivalent to the greatest that has been
produced in France or even in America," Fred Lewis Pattie wrote in 1915.
believed that one could tell her autobiography if one read all of her short
stories.
The setting of the story: Setting refers to the period and place in a narrative,
whether fictional or factual, that an author selects for a literary work. The
setting for the story A Respectable Woman was Gaston's Sugar Plantation in the
years 1888–1890.
Characters:
a. Mrs. Baroda: Mrs. Baroda, the wife of Gaston Baroda, is the story's major character. She falls for her husband's friend Gouvernail and appears to be a dynamic or changing character throughout the narrative.
b. Gaston Baroda: Mrs. Baroda's husband, Gaston Baroda, has a personality that could be described as flat or stagnant.
c. Gouvernail: Journalist Gaston Baroda's buddy, who pays a visit to the family, exhibits an introverted temperament and doesn't speak much while he is there. Throughout the story, he is a static figure, but by the end, he appears to be rather active.
Conflict: The plot of A Respectable Woman revolves around
Mrs. Baroda's persona and her internal struggle with her attraction to her
husband's friend. She meets Gouvernail, a thin man who is neither tall nor
cynical, and she quickly realizes that she likes him. This is where the battle
begins. Since Gouvernail doesn't make any special efforts to impress Mrs.
Baroda in any other way, she sometimes wonders why she loves him. Similar to
how he doesn't seem like a good or bad guy, she is unsure of why she likes
Gouvernail. He doesn't seem to have any talent, but in response to her joy at
having him and her husband's hospitality, he seems quiet. His hobbies consisted
of simply listening to Gaston's sugar plantation practices while seated by
himself in a field. He doesn't seem to be particularly intelligent, but he does
seem cool and courteous. Mrs. Baroda sees him as a decent man with a nice
heart, despite his confusion.
Point of view: In A Respectable Woman, Kate Chopin explores into the
psychology of Mrs. Baroda, a wealthy woman with a devoted husband who
encounters temptation in the form of Gouvernail, a kind, an
unassuming visitor to the Baroda plantation. Mrs. Baroda struggles with the
self-imposed constraints of her identity as a respectable woman and initially
anticipates his physical features, likes him soulfully, and then ignores him
with a senile smile. Finally, she assures Gaston that she will be kind to
him the next time they meet. She has internal turmoil but eventually realizes
that she values her gender identity over her social status as a respectable
woman. She first struggles to comprehend her conflicted feelings for
Gouvernail, which suggests that she has never experienced the same spark with
her husband. She does her best to carry herself as "A Respectable Woman"
within the circle.
Rising action: Gouvernail surprised Mrs. Baroda because she had expected
him to be cynical. She tried to interact with him right away and made him an
extrovert for a while. She felt a deeper intimacy with Gouvernail than with her
husband, and this led to more debate about whether she should stay close to
Gouvernail or cut ties with him.
Falling action: When Gaston tells Miss Baroda that Gouvernail doesn't
deserve her sense of embarrassment and that she should be kind to him the next
time she sees him, she agrees to be gracious. Miss Baroda considers telling her
husband about her foolishness but decides against it and leaves early in the
morning for the city, where she stays until Gouvernail has left the plantation.
Climax: The story's turning point shows Mrs. Baroda's
indifference in Gouvernail as she realizes her responsibility to her husband
and abandons all thoughts of having a sexual relationship with him. To avoid
having an intimate relationship with Gouvernail, she makes a firm decision and
heads to her aunt's house, demonstrating the worth of her existence as a
respectable Woman.
Theme: a. Identity: By having Mrs. Baroda struggle
with her identity at the beginning of the story due to her attraction to
Gouvernail, Kate Chopin ultimately has Mrs. Baroda come to terms with her
identity as a responsible person which makes her resilient to emotional upheaval.
b. Desire vs. Restraint: In the story, Mrs. Baroda often goes further to
satisfy her great yearning, but in the end, her ability to exercise restraint
or self-control overcomes it and forces her to accept responsibility for her
place in society.
Summary: Mrs. Baroda discovers Mr. Gouvernail living with them on
a sugar plantation. She is unhappy that they have been having so much fun and
that she wants to take a break, but she is also disturbed because Gouvernail, a
friend of her husband, intends to stay for a few days at their plantation.
Although she is aware that her husband and Gouvernail were friends in college
and that he is now a prominent journalist, she has never met Gouvernail. Mrs.
Baroda had a vision of him before the encounter that includes him as being
tall, slender, cynical, wearing eyeglasses, and having his hands in his
pockets, yet a paradoxical event occurs after that. She finds out she likes
Gouvernail when she sees him later; he is thin but neither tall nor cynical.
Given that Gouvernail makes no extra
attempt to impress Mrs. Baroda in any other way, she questions why she loves
him. She does not recognize all of Gouvernail's great traits, therefore she is
confused about why she likes him. He doesn't seem smart, but he seems
quiet and gracious in response to her wanting to welcome him and her
husband's hospitality. He enjoys listening to Gaston describe sugar farm
practices while sitting on the field. He doesn't seem to be particularly
intelligent, but he does seem cool and courteous. Gouvernail seems a little
bewildered to Mrs. Baroda, but she also thinks he's fascinating, beautiful, and
enticing. Despite his shy character, she finds her husband Gaston to be far
better than what she has heard. She initially leaves him with her husband, but
as she tries to calm his anxiety, she starts to accompany him on walks. Her
husband asks her why she does not want him to remain another week and says that
he will be staying for another week. She tells Gaston that she prefers him to
be more demanding, which makes him happy.
Gouvernail's presence causes Mrs.
Baroda to get uneasy because he is not the person she anticipated. She has
enquired about the time of his departure from her husband. He asked her why she
did not want him to stay after informing her that he would be staying for
another week. She informs him that he has always lived apart from people,
making him unique. She does not find him interesting, either. He is shocked
after hearing what she said. He advises her not to worry about Gouvernail and
to keep quiet about him. To take a break from his hectic, overworked schedule,
he has asked Gouvernail. She tells her husband after talking to him that she
would be going to the city in the morning and staying with her Aunt Octavia,
and she asks him to let her know when Gouvernail has left. Mrs. Baroda is
troubled by her intents and thoughts, so that evening she goes and sits by
herself on a seat beneath a live oak tree to think. After some while, she hears
footsteps and notices a cigar's lit red point approaching her. She was aware
that it was Gouvernail and tried to blend in, but her white gown made her
obvious. He approaches and joins her on the bench.
Gouvernail sits next to Mrs. Baroda
after noticing her and without considering her reaction or her displeasure with
his presence, gives her a thin white scarf on Gaston's behalf while muttering
about the evening. His first stillness is broken when he speaks to her for the
first time, telling her in a low, hesitant voice about his college days and his
desire for a calm life. She pays less attention to what he says. She is quite
drawn to the tones of his speech and longs to reach out into the shadows and
caress his face or lips with the tips of her delicate fingers.
She wants to kiss his cheek and murmur
to him, but she restrains herself since she considers herself to be a
respectable woman, and soon she goes, leaving Gouvernail alone. Mrs. Baroda is
more captivated by the sound of Gouvernail's voice than by his words, and
despite her reluctance to approach him since she is a respectable woman, she
eventually leaves, leaving Gouvernail alone in the dark. Mrs. Baroda wants to
tell Gaston about her weird mistake, but she wisely and maturely recognizes
that she must handle this emotion alone. The following morning, she departs for
the city and doesn't come back until Gouvernail has left the city. Despite
Gaston's best efforts, Gouvernail refuses to return due to Mrs. Baroda's
strenuous opposition; however, she eventually changes her mind, much to her
husband's delight, who informs that Gouvernail does not deserve her
unreasonable dislike in the first place, she tells her husband, adding that she
would now treat him with greater hospitality, and the story ends here.