2130_american lit module 1_kate chopin

Kate Chopin

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company

Kate Chopin


• Born Katherine O’Flaherty in 1850 to an Irish immigrant father and a Catholic mother of French descent

• Her well-to-do family provided her with an excellent education in St. Louis, Missouri

• She read and admired the works of French and British writers

• Married Oscar Chopin at age 19 and moved to New Orleans

Chopin’s Early Life


Chopin in New Orleans


• Oscar Chopin died of malaria in 1882, and Kate Chopin returned to St. Louis in 1884

• In 1885, Chopin’s mother died, leaving her alone to raise her six young children

• Chopin turned to fiction writing to support her family

• In her ten-year writing career she wrote 150+ stories, three novels, poetry, and criticism

Chopin’s Later Life


The Awakening


“As the devoted wife of a man who worshiped her, she felt she would take her place with a certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams.”

The Awakening


“A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,—the light which, showing the way, forbids it. At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears.”

The Awakening


The Awakening


“She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.”

The Awakening


“[T]he first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days.”

–Calixta in “The Storm”

“Free! Body and soul free!”–Louise in “The Story of

an Hour”

“The Storm” and“The Story of an Hour”


“Désirée’s Baby”

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Kate Chopin

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