273 – 8 .
Stephen Crane in Transition: Centenary Essays . Ed.
Holton , Milne . Cylinder of Vision: The Fiction and
Joseph Katz . Dekalb : Northern Illinois Univer-
Journalistic Writings of Stephen Crane . Baton
sity Press , 1972 . 127 – 52 .
Rouge : Louisiana State University Press , 1972 .
Conrad , Joseph . Introduction to Thomas Beer ,
Johnson , George . “ Stephen Crane ’ s Metaphor of
Stephen Crane: A Study in American Letters . New
Decorum . ” Publications of the Modern Language
York : Knopf , 1923 . 1 – 35 .
Association 78 ( 1963 ): 250 – 6 .
Crane , Stephen . Stephen Crane: Prose and Poetry .
Lowell , Amy . Introduction to The Black Riders and
New York : Library of America , 1984 .
Other Lines . Vol. 6 of The Works of Stephen Crane .
— — — . Tales of War . Vol. 6 of The Works of Stephen
Ed. Wilson Follett . New York : Knopf , 1926 .
Crane . Ed. Fredson Bowers . Charlottesville :
ix – xxix .
University Press of Virginia , 1970 .
Miller , J. Hillis . Poets of Reality . Cambridge, MA :
— — — . Tales, Sketches, and Reports . Vol. 8 of The
Harvard University Press , 1965 .
Works of Stephen Crane . Ed. Fredson Bowers .
Nagel , James . Stephen Crane and Literary Impression-
Charlottesville
:
University Press of Virginia
,
ism . University Park : Pennsylvania State Uni-
1973 .
versity Press , 1980 .
Stephen
Crane
151
Paine , Ralph D . Roads of Adventure . Boston :
— — — . “ Stephen Crane ’ s Struggle with Romance
Houghton Miffl in , 1922 .
in The Third Violet . ” American Literature 70 (June
Robertson , Michael . Stephen Crane, Journalism, and
1998 ): 265 – 91 .
the Making of Modern American Literature . New
Wertheim , Stanley , and Paul Sorrentino , eds. The
York : Columbia University Press , 1997 .
Correspondence of Stephen Crane . 2 vols. New York :
Schaefer , Michael . A Reader
’
s Guide to the Short
Columbia University Press , 1988 .
Fiction of Stephen Crane . New York : G. K. Hall ,
— — — . “ Thomas Beer: The Clay Feet of Stephen
1996 .
Crane Biography . ” American Literary Realism
Sorrentino , Paul . “ The Legacy of Thomas Beer
1870 – 1910 22.3 ( 1990 ): 2 – 16 .
in the Study of Stephen Crane and American
Wolford , Chester L . Stephen Crane: A Study of the
Literary History . ” American Literary Realism 35
Short Fiction . Boston : Twayne , 1989 .
( 2003 ): 187 – 211 .
11
Kate Chopin
Charlotte Rich
After attending a convention of the Western Association of Writers in Indiana in
1894, Kate Chopin wrote an essay in which she described the works of Midwestern
authors such as James Whitcomb Riley as limited by their provincialism, their ear-
nestness, and “ a clinging to past and conventional standards. ” . 1 Fiction, Chopin wrote,
should instead represent
“
human existence in its subtle, complex, true meaning,
stripped of the veil with which ethical and conventional standards have draped it. ”
This refl ection provides a key to much of Chopin ’ s short fi ction, published in several
periodicals and newspapers of her day as well as in two collections, Bayou Folk (1894)
and A Night in Acadie (1897), particularly her recurrent depictions of women who
deviate, in varying ways, from dominant ideologies of gender in their era. Chopin ’ s
short stories, often set in the rich, multicultural contexts of the Creole and Acadian
communities in Louisiana, invite analysis on many levels, including their location
within the regionalist tradition and their engagement with racial and class issues.
However, her canon is particularly notable for its exploration of how women who
transgress conventions of female behavior, or at least recognize their restrictions,
contend with the society that prescribes such mores. In so doing, Chopin ’ s fi ction
engages repeatedly with the concept of the New Woman – a newly emancipated,
progressive female ideal arising in the 1890s that challenged Victorian notions of the
domestic, submissive True Woman. 2 What makes her short fi ction distinctive in its
treatment of this fi gure is how her female characters ’ confl icts with society often arise
from acknowledgment of their emotional and erotic needs, which Chopin portrayed
in a light that was too candid for many readers. However, in keeping with her own
dislike of didacticism, Chopin ’ s fi ction does not provide a prescriptive answer to the
Woman Question. Instead, reserving judgment of her characters, Chopin depicts
various modes of fulfi llment for women, both conventional and unconventional,
throughout her stories.
Such themes permeate Chopin
’
s entire body of short fi ction, from her earliest
writings to her fi nal stories. 3 In fact, her earliest creative piece, a fable from her
Kate
Chopin
153
commonplace book written sometime between 1867 and 1870, addresses the issue of
self - defi nition, a theme which reverberated through her career to the infamous novel
she published thirty years later, The Awakening . “ Emancipation. A Life Fable ” tells of
a beautiful beast born in a cage; though he enjoys a placid life under the “ care of an
invisible protecting hand ” ( Complete Works 37), one day he sees that the door of his
cage stands open. After going repeatedly to the door, he leaps out: “ On he rushes, in
his mad fl ight, heedless that he is wounding and tearing his sleek sides – seeing,
smelling, touching of all things; even stopping to put his lips to the noxious pool.
… So does he live, seeking, fi nding, joying, and suffering ” (37 – 8). While the creature
in this fable is male, his experiences presage those of many of Chopin ’ s female pro-
tagonists in later works; the “ awakening ” to wider opportunities, the departure from
the metaphoric cage, and the willingness to suffer in pursuit of knowledge are impor-
tant thematic elements in several of her stories. Moreover, Chopin ’ s use of cage sym-
bolism in this tale anticipates a pervasive metaphor in late nineteenth
-
century
literature of the New Woman: the bird that is either caged or allowed to soar free. 4
Chopin ’ s two earliest published stories, “ Wiser Than a God ” (1889) and “ A Point
at Issue! ” (1889), explore a recurrent topic of her short fi ction, marriage, in contrast-
ing ways that underscore her varying treatments of that institution, especially its
impact upon women. The fi rst story deals with the confl ict between marriage and a
career for a New Woman, while the second explores the possibility of a marital model
which provides a new “ space ” for its partners. In “ Wiser Than a God, ” Paula Von
Stolz is a would - be virtuoso pianist who subsists by performing for
society parties.
She falls in love with George Brainard, a wealthy young man, but when he proposes
to her, she explains that she is not interested a society marriage, asking him, “ ‘ Is
music anything more to you than the pleasing distraction of an idle moment? Can ’ t
you feel that with me, it courses with the blood through my veins? ’ ” (46). In reject-
ing the role of leisure - class wife in favor of a musical career, Paula anticipates another
New Woman artist, opera singer Thea Kronborg in Willa Cather ’ s novel The Song of
the Lark (1915). George convinces Paula to see him again, but he arrives at her home
to learn that she has left for Germany to pursue her studies. Years later, newspapers
report that the “ renowned pianist, Fr ä ulein Paula Von Stolz, is resting in Leipsic, after
an extended and remunerative concert tour ” (47). With her is her former music pro-
fessor, Max Kuntzler, who, also in love with Paula, followed her “ with the ever per-
sistent will … that so often wins in the end ” (47). Indicating the constraints of
leisure - class marriage for some women, Chopin ’ s story asserts that the only possible
partner for her heroine is a man who respects her need to pursue an artistic career.
In “ A Point at Issue! ” the kind of progressive union that Paula Von Stolz favors is
portrayed through the marriage of Charles and Eleanor Faraday, but with conse-
quences that instead suggest its limitations, at least for some. Eleanor has diverged
from the typical lives of young women in Plymdale through her intellectual pursuits,
and Charles, a professor of math at the local university, fi nds in her “ his ideal woman. ”
Chopin ’ s narrator notes his pleased surprise that she is “ possessed of a clear intellect.
… She was that rara avis , a logical woman – something which Faraday had not
154
Charlotte Rich
encountered in his life before ” (49), invoking popular beliefs about the female mind
that underlay criticism of the intellectual activities of the New Woman. 5 Indeed,
many arguments against higher education for women arose in the late nineteenth
century from assumptions of female intellectual inferiority and the fear that rigorous
study would damage women ’ s reproductive capabilities. 6 Despite such cultural deter-
rents, Charles and Eleanor vow to marry and to live according to a new “ companion-
ate ” ideal, and they scandalize the community of Plymdale in agreeing that Eleanor
should study French in Paris, where her husband will join her each summer.
Meanwhile, Charles befriends two very different women who illustrate Chopin ’ s
pattern of juxtaposing progressive and traditional female characters, as Per Seyersted
has noted. 7 Margaret Beaton resembles the stereotypical New Woman of popular
satire; she is “ slightly erratic, owing to a timid leaning in the direction of Woman ’ s
Suffrage ” (52), and she wears garments that, “ while stamping their wearer with the
distinction of a quasi - emancipation, defeated the ultimate purpose of their construc-
tion by infl icting a personal discomfort that extended beyond the powers of long
endurance ” (52 – 3). 8 Likening Margaret to bloomer - wearing feminists of the nine-
teenth century, the narrator mocks her earnestness in contrast to her prettier sister
Kitty, who “ [clamored] for no privileges doubtful of attainment and of remote and
questionable benefi t ” (53) and who captures Charles ’ s attention.
Eleanor unhappily suspects her husband of romantic distraction, and after Charles
arrives in Paris, she suggests that they return to America, admitting to her jealousy:
“ ‘ I have found that there are certain things which a woman can ’ t philosophize about,
any more than she can about death when it touches that which is near to her ’ ” (58).
Charles, pleased, kisses his wife as he thinks, “ ‘ I love her none the less for it, but my
Nellie is only a woman, after all ’ ” (58). In contrast to the conclusion of “ Wiser Than
a God, ” this text thus dismisses the possibility of a “ new ” kind of marriage emphasiz-
ing individuality, and conventional assumptions about gender prevail, at least in the
mind of Eleanor ’ s husband, for failing to articulate one ’ s feelings in a logical manner
means being “ only a woman. ” However, Chopin does not satirize Eleanor ’ s inability
to live in a companionate marriage; rather, this story depicts her as someone for whom
that ideal does not lead to contentment. Indeed, “ A Point at Issue! ” expresses a theme
throughout much of Chopin ’ s fi ction: that a woman ’ s own sense of what makes her
happy is most important, whether it be as an independent artist or intellectual or as
a housewife and mother.
Another early story by Chopin contains the more radical implication that marriage
is not for all women, an idea taken up in several New Woman novels. Her sole attempt
at historical fi ction, “ The Maid of Saint Phillippe ” (1891), has received scant critical
attention, perhaps because Chopin thought it an unsuccessful venture. 9 Set in the
Missouri territory during the 1760s, the story tells of Marianne Laronce, a buckskin -
clad, rifl e - toting young woman who is more content hunting in forests than at home
caring for her aged father, and who in the course of the story responds to two marriage
proposals. She fi rst refuses an offer to move to the new settlement of Saint Louis with
fellow colonist Jacques Labrie, saying that she cannot force her father to leave the land
Kate
Chopin
155
where his wife lies buried. Soon after, a French soldier, Captain Vaudry, offers the
young woman a luxurious life back in France “ ‘ [w]here you shall wear jewels and silks
and walk upon soft and velvet carpets ’ ” (122). Marianne refuses, and when Vaudry
presses his case, she responds:
“ I will not look into your eyes … with your talk and your looks of love – of love! You
have looked it before, and you have spoken it before till the strength would go from
my limbs and leave me feeble as a little child. … Go away to your France and to your
treacherous kings; they are not for me. ” (122)
Though the story is set in the eighteenth century, Marianne ’ s response is signifi cant
in its critical perspective on ideals of love and marriage in Chopin ’ s own era. In refus-
ing to allow love to weaken her into a “ feeble ” infant or invalid, Marianne rejects a
feminine response to love often portrayed in nineteenth - century sentimental fi ction.
Instead, Chopin appropriates an archetype for male protagonists in American
literature through the conclusion of the story; Marianne resolves to live among the
Cherokees, declaring, “ ‘ Hardships may await me, but let it be death rather than
bondage ’ ” (122). The bondage that she rejects is not only the incipient political
oppression of the English in her region but also the constraints of marriage, and she
literally turns away from potential husbands and patriarchal protectors:
While Vaudry sat dumb with pain and motionless with astonishment; while Jacques
was hoping for a message; while the good cur é was looking eagerly from his door - step
for signs of the girl ’ s approach, Marianne had turned her
back upon all of them. With
gun across her shoulder she walked up the gentle slope; her brave, strong face turned
to the rising sun. (122 – 3)
In portraying the response of the local priest as well as those of Marianne ’ s suitors in
this scene, Chopin suggests how he is not only a surrogate father fi gure but also an
emblem of Catholicism, a religion that Chopin often presented as constricting to
women. 10
Marianne thus turns from the constraints of her culture to the wilderness, though
it contains the civilization of Native Americans whom both French and English set-
tlers often saw as “ Other. ” She does so in the manner of Cooper ’ s Natty Bumppo and
his literary descendants, such as Melville
’
s Ishmael and Twain
’
s Huck Finn, and
Barbara Ewell calls this conclusion a “ narrative clich é ” (Ewell 81). However, Chopin ’ s
conclusion hardly conforms to the pattern that Leslie Fiedler noted throughout Ameri-
can literature in depicting a woman leaving society to enter the wilderness. Moreover,
Marianne ’ s rejection of Vaudry and of her culture refl ects gender ideology in Chopin ’ s
own era. In declining to let him adorn her with jewels and live under a “ treacherous ”
patriarchy, she metaphorically eschews another institution: the economic dependence
of women in middle - class marriage which Charlotte Perkins Gilman criticized in
Women and Economics (1898) and which Chopin later explored in The Awakening . Even
Chopin
’
s Marianne, in a narrative set in the eighteenth century, recognizes the
156
Charlotte Rich
problematic basis of the union that Vaudry describes, and as a questioning of nine-
teenth - century notions of marriage, “ The Maid of Saint Phillippe ” is an early example
of the theme to which Chopin would return more explicitly in her most famous text.
Complementing these treatments of the institution of marriage, other stories from
the earlier years of Chopin ’ s career explore the subject of divorce. Her interest in this
topic extends from her fi rst novel, At Fault (1890), through two stories written in
1893 to her English translation in 1894 of Guy de Maupassant ’ s story “ A Divorce
Case. ” In that text, a lawyer defends his client ’ s desire to divorce her husband because
A Companion to the American Short Story Page 34