The Kiss By Kate Chopin

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Things and People are not always as they appear to be on the first sight that is why we have to examine them in different ways otherwise they may mislead us. That is more then true in the short story "The Kiss" by Kate Chopin in which she uses imagery, irony and simile to show us how deceitful a person can be. She tells us by the actions of her characters that a person should not be judged solely by his or her appearance or words because those things can be dangerously misleading. All of the characters in Chopin story play their own games and in more or less visible way try to manipulate others to achieve their own sometimes not very righteous goals, but who will eventually succeed in realizing his desires in this world of deception and manipulation.

First and most visibly seen player in the story is Miss Nathalie which is introduced to us by Chopin when she sits in her house on a chair in the firelight and strokes “the satin coat of the cat that lay curled in her lap”. This is a very effective simile as through it we start to see what kind of person she is. And Miss Nathalie is a intelligent, crafty and shrewd woman which very well knows how and when to act or pretend and even more when to use her charm so that she can get everything she wants and that is the love of handsome but not to wealthy Mr. Harvey with whom she secretly meets and the money of not to attractive but “enormously rich” Mr. Brantain whom she wants to marry. We see her acting skills and her charm in use when after an unfortunate accident of Mr. Harvey kissing her in Mr. Brantain presence she comes up with a story of the kiss being only innocent brother and sister-like intimacy which to her great delight Brantain seems to believe whiteout any questions....

... middle of paper ...

... sent me here to kiss you “. Through what we learn that he already spoke with Harvey about that brother and sister-like intimacy and the kiss he requested is not a tolerance of Harvey and Nathalie's relationship, but it is a sign of awareness and a silent subtle demand to end it.

Thus we see in the end that everyone in the story uses some form of manipulation, obvious and not always working one like Miss Nathalie who thought that she controls everyone but wasn’t able to see that she is the one that is being manipulated, emotional and

rapid one like Mr. Harvey who tries to force the woman he loves into making a decision and has to live with her choice or finally subtle and calculative one like Mr. Brantain who waits, observes and acts when the situation demands it and thus gets every thing he wanted to have whiteout people even noticing they were manipulated.

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