Literary Analysis Essay on Connection Between Gender and Class in Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin

Introduction

Many of the female writers talk about the struggle of Women inequality as well as the way they are looked as inferior by their male counterpart. However, Kate Chopin mainly exhibits her views on women in all her stories. Nevertheless, the kind of relationship that is among women as well as men in the stories of Kate Chopin particularly implies the kind of altitude which is portrayed by men and women. In the Chopin stories, the idea and action of women being driven by their counterpart mainly reveals how oppressive as well as dominant men are. On the other side, women are mainly revealed as vulnerable, sensitive and finally gullible. Therefore, the short story of Kate Chopin "A Respectable Woman" is regarded as one of her story which has various themes which are particularly expected from the author with a strong female who is the protagonist of the story. The story took place in a sugar plantation of Gaston Baroda which is in Louisiana in the 18th century. Nevertheless, the short story "A Respectable woman" mainly demonstrate pride as a universal truth. Thus, the paper mainly focuses on the connection that is between gender and class in the Kate Chopin story of Respectable Woman.

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In the story, Mrs. Baroda is a strong woman and the antagonist of the story. Apart from having a strong marriage, Mrs. Baroda is also believed to live a life which is comfortable. However, she is not pleased when Gaston who is her husband invite his old friend Gouvernail to live with them for several weeks since she was hoping to spend some time with her husband (Chopin). However, Mrs. Baroda is believed to have a preconceived idea of what her husband friend is in that, even before Gouvernail arrives she has already credited him with a studious as well as cynical appearance while in the real sense, Gouvernail is anything but that. Above all that, he did not bother neither did he demand their time but he enjoyed the opportunity of living in the moment.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Baroda bothered so much in that, she could not seem to figure him out as well as she wishes for Gouvernail to leave. Ultimately, Mrs. Baroda decided in taking care of the concern of dress making out of the town and allowed both her husband and his friend being alone (Chopin). But in the night before Mrs. Baroda husband friend strolled out and decided to sit beside Mrs. Baroda on the bench and at the same time he started talking about many things. Mrs. Baroda longed to touch the face of Gouvernail for a moment but before she whispered to herself that, the touch should not be for anything particularly but for making a connection. Thus, being a "respectable woman" Mrs. Baroda did not do that. Therefore, the next day, she left and she resisted the attempt of her husband to visit again. At last, she changed her mind and decided that when Gouvernail will visit again she will try being nice to him.

Based on pride as the universal theme, it is essential to remember the various type of guest who was Gaston wife has been adapted to in the past. Mrs. Baroda was used to being in a position of understanding various guest who paid a visit. She was believed to have a sense of what the visitor was thinking as well as, she knew how she could organize the affairs of the household by being a good hostess (Chopin). But, in the case of Gourvernail, none of the above things mattered to her and he was not demanding rather was he private. However, Gourbernail had no desire of special attention in that if Mrs. Baroda was absent he was satisfied and if Mrs. Baroda was present he was also satisfied.

Perhaps, the pride of Mrs. Baroda is regarded as the requirement of society women at the time, such that social gathering at home always revolve around women, their entertainment plan as well as their attention to the guest. However, Gouvernail did not look for any of the above. However, despite Mrs. Baroda liking Gourvenail well enough, she did not seem to be happy with him since she could not accomplish her social duties (Chopin). Thus, if Mrs. Baroda could have been trained very well, she could not have taken her Husband friend "distance so personally". Therefore, bothering too much irritated Mrs. Baroda to an extent that she could not be in a position of following the "polite" societal conversation. Thus, pride universality is seen in the need of every individual to believe that, the world always revolves around them. In addition, the way the society has placed that expectation to Mrs. Baroda still happens with people even in today's world in various ways. Nevertheless, we rarely feel insecure that other people will find us short in some ways and thus we demand to capture attention from other people. Thus, we are regarded to have unfair expectation regarding other people as well as the way they treat us.

Apart from female sexuality in "Respectable Woman" there is also female independence. Mrs. Baroda is compared with Louise in "The story of an Hour". Despite the marriage of Mrs. Baroda being pleasant, she was limited in her experience in such a way that, she seems to be unacceptable (Chopin). Indeed, respectable marriage in traditional society did not allow affairs. Thus, Mrs. Baroda made a slight but an equally important decision when she decided to ignore the emotional as well as the sexual bond of her marriage for the purpose of expanding her own horizons. Thus, many female heroines in Chopin's triumph mainly by transgressing, overcoming and challenging boundaries. Therefore, in the case of Mrs. Baroda, there was no exception since her boundaries were particularly implemented through the respectability of the social ideas.

Notably, Kate did not introduce the first name of Mrs. Baroda since she suggested that, Mrs. Baroda had identified herself previously a term of her attachment of Gaston who was her husband. But, it seemed that Mrs. Baroda future affair will enable her in reclaiming a frim individual sense of self as well as individual identity. Finally, the final decision of Mrs. Baroda as a rejection of her desire to pursue or fulfill her emotion is said to take one of the two radically path. Firstly, she is seen as a woman who has never been faced with a test of true emotion in her comfortable life as a mistress in her plantation. Thus, Mrs. Baroda is seen undergoing mental conflict and the climax of the story happened to be when she had to make a decision of leaving Gouvernail or took a train to the city while at the same time she reminded herself as a respectable woman.

Work Cited

Chopin, Kate. A respectable woman. Dreamscape Media, 2017.