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Victorian Storm Kate Chopin Is Often Referred Term Paper

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¶ … Victorian Storm Kate Chopin is often referred to as a writer who was well ahead of her time both in her observations of human nature, and in her daringness to write about intimate issues when such a topic was not commonly acknowledged or discussed. Her short story, "The Storm," helped reveal the universality of human passion, extending it to the female as well as the male, and it also helped disclose a truer, more human nature to the emotions and sensuality of the female.

When Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis in 1850, the scope of a woman's life was primarily limited to domestic duties. By the time Chopin began to write, in the 1880s, she was a young widow and mother of six children. Widely read, and also influenced by very strong and freethinking females in her own family, Chopin began her writing career at a time when many of the oppressive social roles...

The legal rights of women, even rights to their own property, were non-existent. Divorce laws clearly favored the male spouse - and, the prevailing notions regarding emotion and intimacy denied women any right to pleasure. Because marriage, for many women at that time, was the only method in which she could insure her economic future, the state of holy matrimony was often a loveless situation with unmentionable duties.
In her short story, "The Storm," Chopin challenged all that had been previously denied. "The Storm," reveals both desire and passion in a member of society who was presumed to be devoid of both: a married woman. It is, in fact, the marital status itself that Chopin uses to help open the door for Calixta's afternoon of passion. No longer the inviolate maiden that she was five years earlier when she last saw her old flame, Alcee, Calixta as…

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References

Chopin, Kate. "The Storm." 1898. 2/4/02

http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/hudson/fiction/works/TheStorm.html

Ewell, Dr. Barbara. "Chopin: The Woman Question." Loyola University. Fall, 2001.

2/4/02
http://www.loyno.edu/~bewell/487LIT/TURnotewk6.html
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