Irony in Kate Chopin

ENGL 1302-021
2 March 2014
Irony in Kate Chopin's "The Storm" and "Désirée's Baby" Kate Chopin's stories characteristically end or contain an ironic twist. Chopin uses irony to create excitement and suspense and to also provide a deeper meaning to her story. Irony can create different parallels to a story that would otherwise be one dimensional. Kate Chopin uses irony in "The Storm" and "Désirée's Baby" effectively creating beautiful and complex stories. "The Storm" contains both dramatic and situational irony. Alcée takes shelter in Calixta's home as the storm begins. Bobinôt, Calixta's husband, and their son Bibi, are waiting the storm out at a local store. As the story progresses, Alcée and Calixta indulge in their attraction and lust for one another and find satisfaction in each other's flesh. On their way home, Bobinôt and Bibi stop just outside their house to clean the mud that collected on their pants and shoes because of the heavy rain. Bobinôt tells Bibi, "My! Bibi w'at will yo' mama say! You ought to be ashame," believing that Calixta is going to be angry with them for the mud on their clothes (Chopin 118). The narrator uses Bobinôt's concerns with entering the house dirty to introduce a twist of irony. "Then prepared for the worst, the meeting with an over scrupulous housewife, they enter cautiously at the back door (118). Instead being angry, Calixta was happy. She expressed happiness for their safe return and laughs so loudly that "anyone might have heard them as far away as Laballière's" (118). The house is already tainted by the affair between Calixta and Alcée. Therefore, Bobinôt and Bibi cannot make the house any dirtier than Calixta has. Calixta shows her lack of concern about her actions by laughing with her family. She laughs loud enough, according to Lawrence I. Berkove, that one can assume that she "intended for her laughter to carry to [Alcée's] house" giving hope to Alcée for further encounters and showing Calixta is not "genuine and honest" in her concerns for her family's safety (192). Bobinôt and Bibi cleaning up to come into an impure house and Calixta's lack of moral integrity depict Chopin's use of situational irony. After having the affair with Calixta, Alcée writes to his wife telling her to stay in Biloxi for another month if she so wishes. Upon receiving the letter, Clarisse is happy her husband will allow her to stay longer because it is "the first free breath since her marriage [and it] seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days" (Chopin 118). Clarisse is having a good time living as a single woman and as "devoted as devoted as she is to her husband, their intimate conjugal life is something which she is more willing to forego for a while" (118). Berkove suggests that one can assume that "Clarisse, not overly fond of Alcée anymore is happy in being able to stay away from him . . . [and] happy in being ignorant of her husband's adultery (192). Alcée is accepting of her absence even encouraging Clarissa to stay away because he is finding satisfaction in his affair with Calixta and "hopes for a repeat performance" (192). Chopin's ironic twist is that neither of them are truly aware of the other's true motives for Alcée wanting Clarissa to stay away and Clarisse not wanting to come home. In Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby," the narrator uses irony in several ways. Armand Aubigny falls in love with Désirée who was abandoned by her family and adopted by the Valmondé's. Armand insisted on marrying Désirée even against Monsieur Valmondé's warning to Armand to consider "the girl's obscure origin" (Chopin 190). Armand and Désirée are blessed with a baby boy and couldn't be happier. Three months after the birth of their son, Armand withdraws from Désirée and their baby. When Désirée asks Armand why he is doing this, he says, "that child is not white . . . you are not white" (192). In this part of the story, the narrator uses this ironic twist to punish Armand for not listening and rushing into marriage with Désirée. Her heritage is unknown and in Louisiana in the 18th century it is frowned upon to consort with or marry a person with African descent. Désirée asks Armand if he would like her to leave and he says yes. Weeks after Désirée and the baby leave, Armand is burning any remnants of Désirée and the baby. He opens a drawer to grab letters that Désirée wrote during their courtship. "Back in the drawer from which he took them . . . was part of an old letter from his mother to his father" (194). The narrator doesn't give any information whether or not Armand knew the letter was there. Armand reads his mother's letter, "I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery" (194). Here is the hidden twist. Most would read this and think that the story ends there. Margaret D. Bauer says, "Chopin does not show Armand reacting to the contents of the letter" and the narrator does not show Armand being surprised about finding the letter (162). One would think that he is shocked at finding out his true heritage, but Bauer agrees, "Such calm might also suggest that he is not at this point just learning about his mother's race" (163). This suggests why Armand so anxiously wanted to marry Désirée despite knowing the origin of her heritage. Both Désirée and Armand have light features and in needing an heir to his legacy, took the chance on having a baby. Since everyone knew that Désirée was abandoned and adopted, if the child showed African features it could be blamed on Désirée's descent; keeping Armand's true origin a secret. This explains why he fell in love "as if struck by a pistol shot" and fell out of love just as fast (Chopin 189). The beauty of Chopin's writing and her use of irony is evident in "Désirée's Baby" and is nothing short of powerful. The use of irony in Kate Chopin's "The Storm" and "Désirée's Baby" gives the plot and climatic events excitement and suspense. Chopin is well known for adding ironic twists to her stories that give them profound meaning. The irony in "The Storm" gives the reader insight that the characters don't have. In "Désirée's Baby," it gives the story different aspects to hide the true nature of Armand. Without irony, these stories still may tell a wonderful story, but having irony adds to the drama and excitement.