KATE CHOPIN:
Wife, Mother, Widow, Author
Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on 8 February 1850, came to the bayou lands of Louisiana after her marriage to Oscar Chopin in 1870. The family lived in New Orleans until 1879, then moved to Natchitoches Parish to assist in the operation of the family plantation and related businesses. During this time, Kate O'Flaherty Chopin absorbed much of the flavor of life along the bayous and byways of the cotton plantations. After the sudden death of her husband in 1882, Kate Chopin managed the family businesses for a time, then decided to return to her girlhood home of St. Louis. A widow with six children by the age of 32, she turned to writing, possibly to occupy her time, assuage her grief, and to add to the family income.
While some of Chopin's earliest works sold well, her later works were considered too inflammatory and avant-garde for the general reading public. The social climate of the times dictated that women should have all their needs met within the confines of a marriage, a family, and household duties. Kate Chopin's novel, "The Awakening," published in 1899, was greeted with comments ranging from "outrage . . . a trite and sordid theme . . ." to the statement of a sister novelist, Willa Cather ( who eventually was to produce her own tales of lost ladies) " . . . the purport of the story can hardly be described in language fit for publication."(2:8)
'The Storm: A Sequel to 'The 'Cadian Ball', was among Chopin's stories rejected by the publishers in the 1890's. It reflects the central theme of the majority of Kate Chopin's works: the idea that women have needs and desires not always met within the traditional roles assigned to them by the social conventions prevalent in the late 19th century. Chopin's recognition of these constrictions as applied to women may have been a rebellion against her very conventional upbringing. As the daughter of a prosperous Irish immigrant father in St. Louis, she was reared in a strict Catholic atmosphere, attended a Catholic school, and conformed to the expectations of young ladies of her time, marrying and becoming a "conscientious mother . . . leading a happy and industrious life" in the old world society of a cotton plantation near Natchitoches, Louisiana. (2:10)
Some indication of her later dissatisfaction with the conventional life might be noted, however, in her reported 'voracious' reading of French and British classics, and her 'passionate' support of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Lurking underneath this "exemplary facade . . . there seems always to have been another Kate Chopin, a young woman of independence and irony who was haunted . . . by vague dreams of spiritual liberation." (2:11) Chopin's diary contains an entry referring to a meeting with Mrs. Victoria Woodhull ( who was later to become notorious as an advocate of feminine liberation) and notes Mrs. Woodhull's advice that Chopin not "fall into the useless degrading life of most married ladies . . . . " (2:11)
According to Per Seyersted, her biographer, Chopin's works were always more than just stories: they were "studies of emancipation . . . female emancipation." Ms. Toth states that Chopin's treatment of the various cultural qualities of the characters populating the stories emphasizes the "easy going . . . high spirited, superstitious, passionate, and volatile" personalities of the plantation folk about whom she wrote. (3:xiv)
This theme of escape from "tradition and authority" was to continue in the works of Kate Chopin, a woman who lived before her time, whose stories might be seen as a vindication of the rights of women, and an author whose literary works were controversial and unappreciated until many years later. (2:12)
The restoration of Kate Chopin's Cloutierville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana home, the Bayou Folk--Kate Chopin Museum, now a National Historic Landmark, was undertaken by Mrs. Mildred McCoy in the 1960's. This was Kate Chopin's home from 1880 to 1884. Formerly the home of Alexis Cloutier, who had received an early Spanish land grant to grow indigo and tobacco, the museum includes many artifacts, relics, and antiques belonging to Kate Chopin and to the times in which she lived. It is a fitting tribute to a woman author who went her own way, and who, in the process, left a legacy of literature now receiving the approbation which was denied during her lifetime. (6),(7)
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References/Sources:
1. Chopin, Kate. The Storm. Louisiana State University Press: The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, edited by Per Seyersted, 1969.
2. Gilbert, Sandra M. Introduction to 'The Awakening' and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin. Penquin Books, Harmondsworth, England, 1984.
3. Toth, Emily. A Vocation and a Voice: Stories by Kate Chopin. Editing and Introduction by Emily Toth. Penquin Books, New York, NY, 1991.
4. Seyersted, Per and Emily Toth. A Kate Chopin Miscellany. Northwestern State University Press, Natchitoches, LA, 1979.
5. Taylor, Helen. Kate Chopin: Portraits. The Women's Press Limited, London. 1991.
6. Mignon, Francois. Article. Alexandria Daily Town Talk: May 24, 1970.
7. Stingley, Alisa. Article. Alexandria Daily Town Talk: October 8, 1995.
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Researched, composed, and submitted by
N. Liles, 1997.
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