Literary themes

Her prose style is unique and rather “making-difference” as she is considered to be one of the first authors, who displayed a powerful insight into the world of women, expressing strong feministic approach. She herself wasn’t a conventional housewife, but exhibited a strong personality and had an unconventional view on the rights of a woman in the society. Her soul ached to be more free and feminized. The novel by her “The Awakening”, which was published in 1899, caused a great scandal and won her a reputation of a skillful author. The novel portrayed a strong woman involved in an adulterous affair, that’s why it caused a great splash in the literary world. An interesting fact is that Kate Chopin really wasn’t an ordinary woman at that times and that “expected-to-be” women social behavior, as she drank and smoked heavily, behaving like a man. I can assume, that she in some way wanted even to portray personal traits of character and her unwillingness to behave as somebody wants. Her husband didn’t mind such behavior and appreciated her way of living and unconventional style of writing.

Her main topics are: women rights, marriage, and choice in life, which every person must face . She always displayed a non-traditional approach towards such themes, making her characters to chose between what society expects them to do and what they really desire; it’s clear that her characters commonly decide to follow their own paths. What’s more, in her fiction the author explored such forbidden themes as sexual relationships, stating that women commonly need simply sex and furthermore, women are desperately looking for independence and self-realization. All of the abovementioned themes are explored in her last novel “The Awakening”, which caused a great deal of controversy, because critics praised her style on the one hand and accused her of writing immoral novels on the other hand. Nevertheless, her novels and short stories are still considered to be masterpieces, which give a strong insight into women’s rights, independence, sexuality and express a strong feministic approach.