Kate Chopin Biography Essay

Author’s Biography

Catherine O’Flaherty, better known as Kate Chopin, pictured at the left (O’Neil), was born on February 8, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri to parents Eliza and Thomas. She was the third of five children, but the only one to live past the age of twenty-five. Her mother, who had a strong French background, raised Chopin in a bilingual and bicultural home (“Biography”). The French language and culture would have a strong influence on Chopin’s literary works later in life. At the age of five, Chopin began attending The Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic boarding school. While attending, nuns mentored Chopin, who rose to the top of her class and received many awards (Wyatt). Along with the nuns, other female figures in her life had a strong impact on young Chopin. These women included her mother, grandmother, and especially her beloved great-grandmother who taught her French, music, and gossip of past St. Louis women. These women’s intelligence and independence show a great influence on Chopin’s work (“Biography”).

A great deal of

trauma plagued Chopin’s youth. At the age of five, her father died in a railroad accident on All Saints Day, and at thirteen her cherished great-grandmother passed away the day before Christmas. The timing of these deaths led to Chopin’s high skepticism of religion (Wyatt). The vast effects of the Civil War also tragically influenced her childhood. Supporters of the Confederacy and supporters of the Union divided her hometown of St. Louis. The O’Flaherty’s were slave owners, thus supporting the Confederacy . This led to the temporary loss of Chopin’s good friend Kitty Garesche, whose family moved North due to their support of the Union (“Biography”). The two friends would reacquaint themselves when Garesche returned to St. Louis to become a nun at the Sacred Heart Academy. Another loss due to the Civil War was that of her half brother, George, who fought in the Confederate Army and died of typhoid fever after being captured by the Union.
At the age of nineteen, Chopin met twenty-five-year-old Oscar Chopin, son of a wealthy, French Catholic, Louisiana family. They married the next year and travelled throughout Europe, including France, for their honeymoon (“Biography”). On their return to the United States, the couple moved to New Orleans. In their new home, Oscar built a cotton factory business, and Kate mothered five sons and one daughter. Like many New Orleans elites, the family vacationed at Grand Isle. The marriage between the Chopin’s was peculiar due to the unheard of freedom that Oscar allowed his wife to have (Wyatt). Living in New Orleans immersed Chopin in the French culture and music.
Chopin was fond of the arts and kept journals as well as a few poems and essays since her time at the Sacred Heart Academy. After her husband's death in 1882, Chopin moved back to St. Louis to live with her mother and children (Wyatt). Chopin began writing short stories and novels to be published in an attempt to support her family. With six young children, Chopin’s writing was often hurried with little revisions and followed a common theme of women’s individuality. During her time in St. Louis, Chopin wrote over one hundred short stories, poems, and essays as well as two published novels: At Fault and The Awakening (“Biography”).
Chopin began writing her most famous novel The Awakening, originally titled A Solitary Soul, in 1897 and would finish the following year (“Biography”).

Chopin often based the characters in her literary works on people she had met throughout her life, which is especially evident in The Awakening. For instance, the main character Edna Pontellier is modeled after an infamous New Orleans woman in the French Quarter. Another character modeled off Chopin’s friends is Dr. Mandelet. He is based on Dr. Kolbenheyer, a family doctor who was with Chopin’s mother at her death and encouraged Chopin’s writing. Lastly, Mrs. Highcamp’s daughter resembles various women in the Wednesday Club that Chopin belonged to for two years (“Biography”). This club, co-founded by T.S. Elliot’s mother, consisted of women who “wished to continue their intellectual growth, stay abreast of the times, and contribute to the community” (“About Wednesday

Club”).
Although critics view The Awakening with high regard today, it caused a mass uproar after it was published in 1899 due to its modern themes and revolts against tradition and authority. This negative feedback greatly affected Chopin, who wrote very little until her death on August 22, 1904. It would take fifty years before critics began to realize the importance of Chopin’s ground-breaking modern material (“Biography”).

Author’s Setting
Living as an artist objectively means one’s creative processes will be subject to criticism from the masses. For individuals of suspect classes, creation defies society’s expectation, and unpopular opinions are ousted. Kate Chopin lived in a society that was still driven by prejudice and built upon exclusion. Chopin faced obstacles in the form of religion, misogyny, ethnocentrism, and ostracism.
As an individual, Chopin tended to write in an area where she was surrounded by her children and where she was capable of finishing large volumes of work in relatively small amounts of time (Wyatt). She and her family lived in St. Louis, which was ending a “golden age,” of post-Civil War expansion and Industrialism, with new urbanization, subdivisions, parks, public transportation, and downtown business districts (“A History of St. Louis: The Golden Age 1865-1900”). The growing city was on the brink of change, but change would not come soon enough for Chopin.
Religiously speaking, St. Louis was predominantly Catholic, and this drastically influenced Chopin’s life and writing. The local public harbored a strict moral code and the best education was often found at Catholic schools, where teachers were usually exclusively nuns. Different aspects of Catholicism overlap with general criticisms of Chopin’s literature, but as a Catholic herself, any immoral or unrighteous activity exposed her to potentially harsh inquisition from her congregation.
Similarly, unique roles for women developed both in the home and society at large. In their home, women were considered to be the legal property of their husbands, responsible for maintaining the household as well as the moral fabric of the family. Media outlets pondered what was called the “woman question”: Were women deserving (or even capable) of extended rights? Even magazines and pamphlets directed towards women followed the “cult of domesticity,” ushering women to be submissive, pious, and pure. For a woman of status to work like Chopin was contentious, though art held greater approval than manual labor. These beliefs fed into a culture that made it extremely difficult for women to succeed—which is why Chopin is often considered the first (or at least the first influential) professional female author from the area.
Beyond gender, ethnic themes also played a significant role in the perception of literature. Located on a system of rivers, St. Louis saw much traffic, but did not necessarily welcome “outsiders.” The French had been essential to local trade and growth, but had never really blended into the frontier inclusively. Rather than American, Creole works and writing about Creole culture was considered to be more French and European (“Kate Chopin - Creoles”). Xenophobia was still an issue, though Creole culture was very prevalent and Chopin herself spoke French. Because The Awakening carried heavy notes of a “distasteful” Creole culture, this proved to be a further barrier to communication.
When art became too taboo, the public quickly became hostile. Expression that did not fit contemporary social norms was condemned harshly; critics were avaricious, an emerging middle class chose books wisely, and censorship controlled the travel of ideas. Anything considered immoral (and especially sexually improper) would be attacked in newspapers and kept out of the public’s hands. At the time, all local respected artists were also members of St. Louis Fine Art Club, which quickly denied entry to Chopin following her more contemptuous works. Women were encouraged to visit—and gossip notoriously amongst themselves. Publishers refused to print collections of Chopin’s stories, and she was largely outcast from society.
In short, Chopin’s own people were turned against her. People who had previously upheld her as a great artist and a strong individual began to condemn her those same qualities. Chopin’s concepts culminate everything her society was inclined to degrade: women, minorities, and their subsequent empowerment.