Kate Chopin: Writer Before Her Time
Sex and despair are the subjects most read in today's more modern society. This was not the case during Kate Chopin's career as a writer. Chopin was a color writer about life in Louisiana. The critics of her time condemned her novel, The Awakening, saying that it was immoral and poisonous. But more modern critics believe that "She exerts individuality and originality and, ultimately, speaks in a truly feminist voice" ( Le Marquand). Chopin's works, containing sexual themes and suicide, are shocking during the era in which they are written, but they have the opposite effect on today's more modern society. In 1969, Per Seyersted wrote "Kate Chopin was the first woman writer in America to accept sex with its profound repercussions as a legitimate subject for serious fiction" (Seyersted 63). Chopin's novel, The Awakening, deals with a sexual theme and brought about her fall from society. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is a married woman with two small children. Being awakened to her sexual desires, Edna turns to Robert Lebrun to fulfill her needs. Robert and Edna fall in love. Robert, seeing that the affair can only lead to disaster, leaves her. Although Edna is in love with Ro
Detroit: Gale Research, 1981. 5:157-58. 2 6 If Kate Chopin could read some of the novels of the twentieth-century, she would be wondering what all of the fuss was about in the nineteenth-century. As long she wrote local-color stories, her colleagues accepted and praised her work. It was when "she dared to expose the conflicts raging inside of wives and mothers, her contemporaries insulted her personally, and even worse banned her novel" (Skaggs 113). Many of the twentieth-century critics wrote that Kate Chopin was a writer ahead of her time and was unjustly ostracized. Often my thoughts go back to the choices given to woman during Chopin's era and I think, "I am fortunate to live in the era in which I live." While reading this story there is no evidence that the marriage between Calixta and Bobinot is unhappy. Critics wrote, "Calixta's adulterous encounter had been accidental and innocent" (Bender 158). But, it is the ending of the story, "So the storm passed and every one was happy," that is probably the most shocking part of the story to the 19th century readers. With sex being a taboo subject during this era, I am sure "happy sex" was unheard of. Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne, 1985.
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Approximate Word count = 1877
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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