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The life of Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin led a fascinating life filled with times of triumph but also times of great loss. Living in the South during the post-Civil War era, the setting and experiences of her life would have a great impact on the subjects of her writing. Chopin began writing as a way to express her frustration with life. This is why her emotions about life are conveyed so strongly in her writing. One of her short stories, "Juanita," is an excellent example of how Chopin's life affected her writing.
The story of "Juanita" is that of a young woman who, though not incredibly beautiful, had many admirers. The people of her small town gossiped continually about which man she would marry. Would it be the man who had traveled all the way from the city for the sole purpose of seeing her? Or would it be the rich millionaire from Texas who owned a hundred horses? The townspeople all assumed she would choose the richest of her suitors, until one day Juanita announced that she had secretly married a poor one-legged man whom she loved very much.
To truly understand the characters of Chopin's stories, one must examine the history of her life. Kate Chopin was born as Katherine O'Flaherty to a wealthy Irish St. Louis family on February 8, 1851. While she was still a young child, her father died in a train accident. Only a few years later her brother died after being captured by Union forces during the Civil War. The loss of all the males in her life, according to Hoffman, led to the intense female relationships she shared with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. As a young woman, Kate treasured her independence. Late 1860's society was highly critical of her because she walked, unac...
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... about the world as she actually saw it. For a woman to do this in the late nineteenth century was unheard of, and Chopin was highly criticized for it at the time. But after going through as much as she did in her life, she could not stay silent. Ker suggests that "after 39 years of trials and tribulations and just plain living, she finally had something to say!"
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "Juanita." A Vocation and a Voice Stories. Ed. Emily Toth. New York: Penguin Books. 1991. 86-88
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Bantam Books. 1988
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. "Kate Chopin: A re-awakening." http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/interviews.html
Hoffman, Audrey. "Kate Chopin." http://www.kutstown.edu/faculty/reagan/chopin.html
Ker, Christina. "Kate Chopin- Ahead of her Time." http://empirezine.com/spotlight/chopin/chopin1.htm
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. A Norton Critical Edition: Kate Chopin: The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. 3-109.
Davis, Sara de Saussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 12 pp. 59-71. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX. 11 Feb. 2003
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 535-625. Print.
...e Awakening." 1899. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969. 881-1000.
Harris, Sharon M. "Kate Chopin." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (2006): 1-5. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Directing the Party Scene of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Throughout the scene there are social, historic and cultural
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1851, into a wealthy Catholic family in St. Louis Missouri. As a little girl, her father died a few years later in 1855 and was raised at home with her other sisters and mother, strong willed and prominent women who believed in self sufficiency. Soon, on June 9, 1870, Chopin married a man named Oscar. She graduated from St. Louis convent school. In the meanwhile, Kate was soon busy by the occupations of a being a mother and wife to the prestigious business man, Oscar whom she married. Throughout this escapade of life, Kate was forced to relocate often due to her husband’s change of business. Although, it was difficult to build upon these circumstances, Kate managed a small farm and plantation farm to keep things running. Even through these circumstances, Kate pulled through only to discover that all these locals would soon be her inspirations and se...
Wyatt, Neal "Biography of Kate Chopin" English 384: Women Writers. Ed. Ann M. Woodlief Copyright: 1998, Virginia Commonwealth University. (26 Jan. 1999) http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/katebio.htm
Kate Chopin was born February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. She was raised by a single woman; this impacted her views in the family at an early age. She began her own family at a young age; Kate had a different method compare too many women in her time. As time progressed, she developed a bad habit of dressing inappropriately. Soon she started to publish stories about the experiences and stories of her interests such as women’s individuality and miserable
Chopin, fatherless at four, was certainly a product of her Creole heritage, and was strongly influenced by her mother and her maternal grandmother. Perhaps it is because she grew up in a female dominated environment that she was not a stereotypical product of her times and so could not conform to socially acceptable themes in her writing. Chopin even went so far as to assume the managerial role of her husband's business after he died in 1883. This behavior, in addition to her fascination with scientific principles, her upbringing, and her penchant for feminist characters would seem to indicate that individuality, freedom, and joy were as important to Chopin as they are to the characters in her stories. Yet it appears to be as difficult for critics to agree on Chopin's view of her own life as it is for them to accept the heroines of her stories. Per Seyersted believes that Chopin enjoyed living alone as an independent writer, but other critics have argued that Chopin was happily married and bore little resemblance to the characters in her stories (150-164).
This author was born Katherine (Kate) O’Flaherty Chopin in February of 1850 to a father of Irish descent and a Creole (French settlers of the southern United States, esp. Louisiana) mother (Guilds 293). Chopin was a bicultural mixture of strength. Due to measures beyond her control, she grows up in a life surrounded by strong willed women. These ladies were passionate women Chopin loved and respected; her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. They each added their individual spice of life to a brew of pure womanhood. Thus, seasoning a woman that would become one of the most influential, controversial female authors in American history. Kate Chopin created genuine works exposing the innermost conflicts women of the late 1800’s were experiencing. The heroines of her fictional stories were strong, yet confused, women searching for a meaning behind the spirit that penetrated their very souls.
Kate Chopin was one of the most influential nineteenth century American fiction writers. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on either one of three dates: February 8, 1851, February 8, 1850, or July 12, 1850, depending on the source. She once said that she was born in 1851, but her baptismal certificate states February 8, 1850 as her birthday (Inge, 2). There is also an indiscretion regarding the spelling of her name. Her full name is Katherine O’Flaherty Chopin, but one source spells her first name with a ‘C’ (Katherine, 1). Her father, Thomas O’Flaherty, was an Irish immigrant who became a successful merchant in St. Louis. Her mother, Eliza Faris O’Flaherty, came from a wealthy aristocratic Creole family (Inge, 2). Kate Chopin was a student at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. Here she learned the Catholic teachings and great intellectual discipline. She graduated from this French school in 1868 (Inge, 2). On June 9th in 1870, she married Oscar Chopin. Together the couple had six children: Jean (1871), Oscar (1873), George (1874), Frederick (1876), Felix (1878), and Lelia (1879) (Inge, 3).
Kate Chopin was a woman and a writer far ahead of her time. She was a realistic fiction writer and one of the leaders and inspirational people in feminism. Her life was tragic and full of irregular events. In fact, this unusual life had an enormous effect on her writings and career. She depicted the lifestyle of her time in her works. In most of her stories, people would find an expansion of her life’s events. In her two stories “The Storm” and “The Story of One Hour” and some of her other works she denoted a lot of her life’s events. Kate Chopin is one of those writers who were influenced by their life and surrounded environment in their fiction writing, and this was very clear in most of her works.
In her stories "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin explores the theme of feminist women. The type of women in Kate Chopin’s stories would be considered protagonist women. Since the nineteenth century and today she has been explored more over time. Living in the south with family from French (Creole) with Irish background made it more interesting. Kate Chopin is a communal towards discrimination and sexual subtlety of the Cajun and Creole culture. Where she lived the majority of the time makes her one of the outstanding Southern fiction regionalist profound writer for feminist women.
Hamlet comes to realize that he has taken so long to take revenge upon his uncle. Also Hamlet asks himself why he is still alive. Which once again comes the attitude of Hamlet that wants to end his life because at this point has not kept the promise of killing the king. Here it comes, back with the suicide mentally. This has come back because he was not able to kill the king when he had the chance. At this point has only one option, to go back to Denmark and finish his promise he made to the ghost of his father. Equally important, that he crown that the people of Denmark is being worn by the old king’s murder. With this we cannot just get the revenge of his father, but also get justice for the people of Denmark for being lie