Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin is a brilliant writer. Her writing career is during the late 1800's. She lives in a time where women are sexually suppressed and their opinions are not valued. Her writing holds more in common with our time than the time just after the Civil War. Although her life was full of death, she still lived as happy a life as she could by writing in such a bold and daring way. Kate Chopin was born as Catherine O'Flaherty. She was born July 12, 1850. She is the daughter of Thomas and Eliza O'Flaherty. Kate's father, Thomas O'Flaherty, was born in Ireland in 1805. He came to the United States in 1823. In 1825 he became a merchant in St. Louis. In 1855 he died suddenly in a train wreck when she was only four. His sudden death pushed all his family into new relationships with each other and the world. Thomas' first wife, Catherine de Reilhe, married Thomas in 1839. She was a French-Creole girl, who died after giving birth to their son, George. In 1844, Thomas married Eliza Fari!s. They had three children together: Jane, who died at childbirth; Thomas Jr.; and Catherine, who we know as Kate Chopin. After the father's death, Eliza had to cope with being a widow. Kate's childhood consisted of a widowed mother, and a widowed great-gr
the city along the banks of the Mississippi. Some of these stories were false, but Kate didn't know the difference. They were just, "being no more than the scandals of another day" (Magill 205). In the end, Kate received an altogether unconventional education from her great-grandmother. Kate began a more conventional education at the Madames of the Sacred Heart Convent in 1860. There, the nuns taught her discipline and a respectable academic curriculum. Kate also along with English, learned French literature as well. Kate began to play the piano at an early age. "Kitty Garesche recalls Kate being an accomplished pianist with an exceptional musical memory" (Baechler 68). Kate began her music with her great-grandmother supervising her piano playing. The great-grandmother would sit patiently with Kate as she practiced her scales. She done this to teach her the importance of discipline and technique. During her schooling with the Madames of the Sacred Heart, the nuns encouraged Ka! August 20th, 1904, her work was forgotten and all but impossible to obtain. She lived a life of death, love, success and failure. In the end she lived an all-in-all achieving life. went to live with her mother in St. Louis. She only stayed with her mother a brief moment when Kate was faced with another death. In June 1885, her mother had died. Chopin was "literally prostrate with grief" (Unger 207). "In later years, Chopin's daughter would sum up the effect upon her mother's character: When I speak of my mother's keen sense of humor and of her habit of looking on the amusing side of everything. I don't want to give the impression of her being joyous, for she was on the contrary rather a sad nature... I think the tragic death of her father early in her life, of her much beloved brothers, the loss of her young husband and her mother, left a stamp of sadness on her which was never lost(Unger 207). Chopin began writing fiction very seriously in 1889. No one knows exactly why she took up her pen, but several influences probably contributed. First, she had always been a voracious reader; second, she needed to provide for her large family; third, her many friends! lment. Her awakening even continues to her death. Kate Chopin's The Awakening has become one of the classics of feminist literature because of it's theme of sexual awakening and a woman's right to freedom of choice in matters of love (Magill 159). Chopin was ahead of her time. Her novel, The Awakening met with critical abuse and public denunciation. A reviewer writing for the magazine "Public Opinion" in 1899 stated that he was "Well satisfied" with Edna's suicide because she deserved to die for her immoral behavior. Chopin never wrote another novel and gradually gave up writing altogether (Magill 159). After her devastating critical reputation from The Awakening, Chopin's writing career was virtually over. The Awakening went out of print until 1969 when Per Seyersted issued in two volumes, The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. It was only five years after her publication of The Awakening that Kate Chopin died. She died of a stroke cause by a brain hemorrhage. After her death on ! hen Oscar was just a child. Oscar ran away from the cruelty to relatives when he was old enough. Oscar treated Kate with dignity, equality and as a valued intelligent friend as well as a loving wife. Oscar's relatives would criticise him for allowing Kate to forget her "duty" (Unger 206). "But Oscar and Kate merely laughed together over this display of consternation" (Unger 206). Oscar and Kate would ofte
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Approximate Word count = 2387
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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