A Respectable Woman By Kate Chopin Analysis

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Applying the Gender/Feminist Theory to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and “A Respectable Woman”
Part 1
Kate Chopin, also called Catherine O’Flaherty, was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850. At the age of five years, Thomas O’Flaherty, Chopin’s father died in a railroad accident. Thomas was a successful Irish businessperson. For this reason, Kate grew in a family dominated by females, including her mother, Eliza Faris, grandmother, women slaves owned by her mother, and Victoire Charleville, her great-grandmother. The young girl learned many things from her great-grandmother, who spent time teaching her French and playing the piano. She was also told stories pertaining to how her great-great-grandmother divorced her husband and operated businesses on her own. As such, Chopin learned that a strong woman is the one who can live independently without getting married and operate businesses or pursue her passion in life. Chopin’s childhood and her experiences as a mother and wife shaped her career in fictional writing. That is the reason why “Her characters survived unhappy marriages and spoke to each other uncivilly when angry, but they also cherished their children and loved with abandon” (Larrabee 57). After the death of Chopin’s father, Faris was left to manage a large estate, and she never remarried since widows were highly respected, had freedom, and Kate’s mother was financially stable. After graduating from St. Louis Academy of Sacred Heart, Chopin was married to Oscar Chopin in 1870 in Louisiana. The couple migrated to New Orleans, and Oscar worked as a commission agent and a cotton seller and buyer. Unlike many married women, Kate enjoyed her marriage. From 1871-1879, Oscar and Kate were blessed with six children. However, Oscar died in 1882 after developing malaria.
Chopin started writing fictional stories and poems in 1888 after she was encouraged by her friends, one of them being Dr. Frederick Kol-benheyer, who assisted her in delivering two children (Larrabee 61). Both “The Story of an Hour” and “A Respectable Woman” by Chopin were set in the 1890s. Specifically, they were first published in 1894 when male chauvinism in marriages was a common thing. The author came up with these short stories by reflecting on what was happening in society. Moreover, having been married for over a decade, Chopin understood very well the challenges that women went through in marriages. “A Respectable Woman” and “The Story of an Hour” portray married females who are yearning to be free. Indeed, it appears that women did everything to please their husbands, and society expected them to fulfill men’s needs. In the 18th century, the duties of males were to provide necessities for their families. For instance, before Oscar died in 1882, the individual had been working hard to feed his family. In other words, his wife and children depended on him solely. After he died, Chopin had to operate the store left by her husband alone to provide for her family. However, things were tough for her, and she decided to return home, where her mother welcomed h...