desiree's baby case study answers

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The Case of Desiree's Baby

The Genetics and Evolution of Skin Color

By Patricia Schneider

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This case is based on Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby,” a tragic tale of race and gender in antebellum Louisiana first published in 1893. Students read the story and then answer a series of questions about the genetics and evolution of skin color. The case was developed for a general biology course organized around the general theme of evolution. It could also be used in anthropology and biology courses for non-majors.

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• Explain polygenetic inheritance.
• Describe the inheritance of skin color.
• Discuss the “sunscreen” and “vitamin” hypotheses of skin color evolution.
• Write a short essay summarizing the key points in a popular science article.

Skin color; skin pigmentation; polygenetic inheritance; allele; genotype; Mendelian genetics; Punnett square; evolution; racism; race; racial; Kate Chopin; Desiree's Baby

Subject Headings

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL

High school, Undergraduate lower division

TOPICAL AREAS

Social issues, Social justice issues

TYPE/METHODS

Teaching Notes & Answer Key

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Désirée’s Baby

Kate chopin, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Desiree’s Baby Questions and Answers

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Desiree's Baby

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A Summary and Analysis of Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Désirée’s Baby’, originally known by the longer title ‘The Father of Désirée’s Baby’, is an 1893 short story by the American writer Kate Chopin (1850-94). It is among Chopin’s most widely studied stories, partly because it deals with the subject of race as well as gender. The story tells of a woman who marries a plantation-owner; when she gives birth to their child, she is shocked to discover the baby is mixed-race.

Plot summary

Madame Valmondé drives to visit Désirée, her adopted daughter, who has recently married Armand Aubigny, who owns a Louisiana plantation. Désirée has recently given birth to a baby girl, and Madame Valmondé recollects how her husband had found the abandoned baby Désirée eighteen years earlier and the couple had adopted her as their own.

Armand Aubigny had recently started to notice Désirée blossoming into womanhood and fallen in love with her, and the couple had married. Aubigny has been living in Louisiana since coming to the United States from Paris at the age of eight, after his mother had died. He did not care about Désirée’s past as an orphan, and wanted to marry her regardless.

As Madame Valmondé approaches L’Abri, the name of Aubigny’s plantation, she reflects on how sad the place looks. The black slaves who work on the plantation know no happiness, in stark contrast to the relative contentment they had known when Aubigny’s father (now dead) had been the man in charge.

When Madame Valmondé sees Désirée’s baby, which is four weeks old, she is shocked by the young baby boy’s appearance. But Désirée is extremely happy, and tells her adoptive mother that her husband is a proud father who has not mistreated his slaves since his son was born. But three months after her baby’s birth, Désirée begins to sense something is amiss. Her husband becomes increasingly distant with her.

Eventually, when she confronts her husband over their child, he gruffly tells her that she is not white and must be of mixed race. Mortified, Désirée writes to her mother, asking her to refute the accusation against her. Madame Valmondé writes back, telling her to come home and to bring her child.

When she asks Aubigny what she should do, he tells her to go. He has fallen out of love with her because of the ‘unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name.’

Désirée does not want to leave her husband, but when he makes no attempt to stop her, she makes the difficult journey to her adoptive mother’s, taking her baby with her. The story ends with Aubigny burning a series of items in a large bonfire, including some letters.

One of these letters was written by Aubigny’s mother and addressed to his father; this letter reveals that Aubigny has black ancestry, with his mother thanking God that she and her husband had so arranged their 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.’

Although the plot of Kate Chopin’s story appears to have been definitively resolved by the end of ‘Désirée’s Baby’, the twist ending is more ambiguous than it may first appear. After we have been led to believe that Désirée, whose biological parentage is unknown, is ‘responsible’ for the mixed-race appearance of her and Aubigny’s baby, the final paragraph reveals that Aubigny has black ancestry.

Indeed, there is even a question-mark hanging over how long Armand Aubigny has known about his own ancestry. Presumably he has known all along, and one might suspect that one of the reasons, perhaps even the chief reason, he was drawn to Désirée as a potential mother for his children was that she was ‘white’ enough for him to ensure (so he believed) that their children conceived together would not show any signs of his own mixed-race blood.

Désirée describes her own skin as ‘fair’ at one point, and Chopin makes numerous references to her ‘white’ clothes: after giving birth she is dressed in ‘her soft white muslins and laces’, and later she is in a ‘thin white garment’. These references to whiteness in relation to Désirée not only emphasise her ‘fair’ skin but also symbolise her purity and innocence: she is not guilty of committing any crime, and indeed, the end of the story suggests she wasn’t even unconsciously responsible for her child’s mixed-race blood.

Note the wording we use here, however: what the story does not reveal is that Aubigny but not D é sir é e is the parent with black ancestry. After all, it might still be both. A question mark hangs over Désirée’s racial heritage, and it remains possible that both of them have black ancestors.

Indeed, when the story was first published in Vogue magazine in 1893, it bore the longer title, ‘The Father of Désirée’s Baby’. This title threw the focus firmly onto Aubigny, rather than his child with Désirée; Chopin presumably shortened the title to remove this hint as to the story’s eventual revelation.

The eventual title also makes the child, but also Désirée herself, the focal point of the story. And Chopin makes it clear that becoming Aubigny’s wife but also the mother of their child has been a source of great happiness, not just for Désirée, but for her husband as well.

When doubts start to creep in surrounding the baby’s appearance and racial heritage, Chopin is inviting her readers to question whether such a development is worth sacrificing all of this new-found happiness over.

After all, Désirée has been faithful to Aubigny. The sacrament of their marriage remains intact. She has done nothing that would lead him to mistrust her or her fidelity to him.

Indeed, when the story’s omniscient third-person narrator switches to Aubigny and focalises the story through his eyes, it’s made clear that he acknowledges that the ‘injury’ she has brought on their home is ‘unconscious’ on her part: she did not deliberately seek to sabotage their happiness. It is the social stigma around miscegenation which is responsible for that.

And even if the twist ending of the story doesn’t definitively clear up the issue of Désirée’s ancestry, it does invite us to question the logic of apportioning ‘blame’ over such a matter. If Armand Aubigny, whose family name is one of the ‘proudest’ in Louisiana, cannot know his own racial heritage, how can Désirée be expected to know hers?

Miscegenation is the key theme of ‘Désirée’s Baby’. Miscegenation (the ‘mis-’ is actually from miscere , meaning ‘mix’: the word literally means ‘mixed race’, more or less) was a difficult and emotive topic in late-nineteenth-century America when Chopin was writing, and Aubigny, the white owner of a slave plantation, would have been even more aware of the problems attendant on siring a mixed-race baby: rumours would doubtless start that he had sired the child out of wedlock with one of his slaves, or that his wife had cuckolded him with one of the male slaves working for him.

There was also the racial hierarchy which was still very much in existence in the United States. Aubigny’s social position would be damaged by such a revelation. This is why he is more concerned by the ‘unconscious injury’ he perceives Désirée to have caused to ‘his home and his name’, i.e., his reputation.

However, it is worth noting that he was willing to accept his wife’s mysterious origins when he fell in love with her. Here Chopin has also raised the importance of names: Aubigny ‘was reminded that she was nameless’, we are told, but he was not bothered about her lack of family reputation or standing: ‘What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?’

But Désirée’s lack of a name will turn out to matter to him more than Armand Aubigny initially realised, since her lack of a name also suggests – perhaps wrongly, it turns out – that she was the product of miscegenation between a black slave and a white American. Chopin’s story reveals what a fraught and sensitive issue miscegenation could be for American families at this time, while also inviting us to question whether it is worth destroying one’s marital and parental happiness over.

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KateChopin.org

The kate chopin international society, kate chopin: “désirée’s baby”, “désirée’s baby” is kate chopin’s short story, set before the american civil war, about a baby and a racial crisis between a husband and wife. for over half a century, it has been one of chopin’s most popular stories..

By the Editors of KateChopin.org

Read the story online Characters Time and place Themes When the story was written and published What critics and scholars say Questions and answers Accurate texts New All of Kate Chopin’s short stories in Spanish Articles and book chapters about the story Books that discuss Kate Chopin’s short stories

Reading Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby” online and in print

You can read the story in our online text , although if you’re citing a passage for research purposes, you should check citations for accuracy against one of these definitive printed texts.

“Désirée’s Baby” characters

• Armand Aubigny: owner of L’Abri
• Désirée: foundling, wife of Armand
• Madame Valmont: woman who raised Désirée
• Sandrine: servant at L’Abri

“Désirée’s Baby” time and place

The story takes place in Louisiana before the American Civil War. It is one of the few stories Kate Chopin sets before the war.

“Désirée’s Baby” themes

As we explain in the questions and answers below, readers often see this as a story about racism–defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” Other readers find different subjects and themes in the story.

You can read about finding themes in Kate Chopin’s stories and novels on the Themes page of this site.

When Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby” was written and published

The story was written on November 24, 1892, and published in Vogue on January 14, 1893, the first of nineteen Kate Chopin stories that Vogue published. It was reprinted in Chopin’s collection of stories Bayou Folk in 1894 .

You can find out  when Kate Chopin wrote each of her short stories and when and where each was first published.

What critics and scholars say about “Désirée’s Baby”

“The antidote to the poison of racial abstraction that destroys Désirée, the baby, and Armand is love, a deeply personal relationship which denies the dehumanizing and impersonal categorization of people into racial groups.” Robert D. Arner

“The reader must come to see the one indisputable fact—Désirée’s total powerlessness—the result of the life-and-death power of the husband in her society.” Anna Shannon Elfenbein

Evidence in the story shows that Armand Aubigny knows about his racial heritage. He has been aware all along of what the letter at the end of the story says. He has been “passing,” that is, presenting himself as white. Margaret D. Bauer

“Human situations can never be as clear as ‘black’ and ‘white.’” That’s one of Kate Chopin’s major themes. In her fiction, she confronts the “bleak fact” that life is uncertain, unsettled, full of “tenuous stabilities.” Cynthia Griffin Wolff

Thomas Bonner, Jr. recalls first reading “Désirée’s Baby” as a high-school student in 1956 on a New Orleans streetcar, at a time when your seat was designated by your skin color, when a sign directed white people to the front of the streetcar and African Americans to the back: “I felt embarrassment at what I had read—feeling that everyone about me knew that I had experienced something forbidden. When I looked up, I observed that many people in front of the sign were darker than many of those behind it.”

“Désirée is disruptive, not because she produces flaws in the signifying system but because she reveals flaws that were already there. . . . Chopin presents these three reasons—unconsciousness, negativeness, and lack of solidarity—to help explain why Désirée does reveal her society’s lack of knowledge but fails to change its ideological values, much less its actual power hierarchies.” Ellen Peel

Questions and answers about “Désirée’s Baby”

Q: This is an amazing story. Do other people know about it?

A: Yes. It’s been reprinted countless times since 1929 and was Chopin’s best-known work before The Awakening was revived in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1936, critic Arthur Hobson Quinn called it “one of the greatest short stories in the language,” and many readers over the decades have shared his opinion.

Q: I was totally unprepared for the ending. It stunned me! Is this typical of Kate Chopin?

A: Chopin handles closings as well as any writer. “The Storm,” “The Story of an Hour,” “Fedora,” and “A Respectable Woman,” among other short stories, also have brilliant last sentences.

Q: Should I have seen that ending coming?

A: There are some suggestions that point to it. The story notes in paragraph six that Armand Aubigny’s mother was French. She and her “easy-going and indulgent” husband raised Armand in Paris, where an interracial marriage was, it seems, socially possible in the first half of the nineteenth century, in part because slavery as it was known in rural Louisiana did not exist in mainland France. And the description of L’Abri, Armand’s house, in the sixth paragraph carries overtones of trouble to come.

Q: Is it possible that Désirée and her baby did not die in the bayou, that they continued on to her family’s plantation?

A: In most works of fiction, the answer to such a question depends upon what the author tells us. We have only Kate Chopin’s words near the end of the story to go on: Désirée “did not take the broad, beaten road which led to the far-off plantation of Valmondé. She walked across a deserted field, where the stubble bruised her tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds. She disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; and she did not come back again.”

 There is nothing here to suggest that Désirée and her baby survive.

Q: If Armand was eight when his mother died, why doesn’t he remember her?

A: Perhaps he does remember her. If by your question you mean why doesn’t he remember his mother as having dark skin, it may be that she had light skin.

Q: Is Armand’s father dead?

Q: I am trying to figure out why Armand married Désirée. We have to assume it is more than impulse, but if he really loved her, he most likely would not have turned her out.

A: If we were looking at a real-life person, we could talk with Armand, with his family and friends, or with others who know him, seeking evidence to better explain why he married Désirée.

But this is fiction. The only evidence we can gather to understand what’s motivating Armand is what Kate Chopin gives us. Armand and Désirée do not appear again in anything else Chopin wrote, so all we have to work with is the words in this story.

Désirée was “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere,” Chopin says. Armand “had fallen in love with her. That was the way all the Aubignys fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot. . . . The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles.” Nothing Désirée’s guardian warned Armand about could change his mind. Apparently he married Désirée because she was “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere,” and when he saw her one day, he fell in love with her.

But he has, it seems, a cruel character. In dealing with his slaves, Chopin tells us, his “rule was a strict one,” unlike that of his father. And Désirée says that “he has n’t punished one of [the slaves]—not one of them—since baby is born,” which means that he routinely does punish them.

As for why he rejects Désirée when he discovers his child is black, you might keep in mind Armand’s character and remember that this story takes place in the American South in the distant past, before the Civil War.

Q: Why is Armand burning things at the end of the story?

A: Apparently he is trying to destroy memories of his wife and child to remove what he thinks of as the taint of their race.

Q: Are there clues in the story to show Armand might have known he was of African American descent?

A: He is of mixed race, but he is not African American, if by that you mean someone who is a descendant of Africans brought to America as slaves. His mother was French. So he is American (on his father’s side) and French (on his mother’s side), although his mother evidently had roots in Africa. Is this the first time he is learning that his mother was black? Most scholars assume it is, but Margaret D. Bauer argues that he has known about his racial makeup all along, that he has been “passing,” presenting himself as white. You may want to read her article.

Q: Would it be accurate to say that Désirée and the baby are victims of racism?

A: Yes. Readers usually see this as a story about racism–defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” It may, however, be worth noting that some readers understand racism as damaging  both those who are judged (Désirée and the baby) and those who are judging (Armand). So you might argue that racism victimizes everybody in the story, although not, of course, with equivalent consequences.

Q: I’m wondering if you might offer some insight into the importance of La Blanche in the story. The fact that Armand had been at the cabin of La Blanche and the comment by Armand that Désirée’s hands were the color of La Blanche’s led me to question the relationship between Armand and La Blanche.

A: The story is set before the Civil War, at a time when a white slave owner often considered that because his female slaves were his property, he had a right to have sex with them. Kate Chopin would certainly have been aware of that.

Because of this passage in the story–“‘And the way he cries,’ went on Désirée, ‘is deafening. Armand heard him the other day as far away as La Blanche’s cabin'”–you might ask why Armand is around La Blanche’s cabin.

And you might consider this passage:

“She [Désirée] sat in her room, one hot afternoon, in her peignoir, listlessly drawing through her fingers the strands of her long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders. The baby, half naked, lay asleep upon her own great mahogany bed, that was like a sumptuous throne, with its satin-lined half-canopy. One of La Blanche’s little quadroon boys–half naked too–stood fanning the child slowly with a fan of peacock feathers. Désirée’s eyes had been fixed absently and sadly upon the baby, while she was striving to penetrate the threatening mist that she felt closing about her. She looked from her child to the boy who stood beside him, and back again; over and over. ‘Ah!’ It was a cry that she could not help; which she was not conscious of having uttered. The blood turned like ice in her veins, and a clammy moisture gathered upon her face.”

We don’t know what Désirée is thinking, but you might wonder if she sees a resemblance between her own baby and La Blanche’s little boy, and–if that’s what she sees–if it suggests to her that Armand had been having sex with La Blanche before their marriage. And if you want to look at this long passage in the context of the shorter one, you might want to ask if Désirée wonders if her husband continues to have sex with La Blanche.

Q: Who are the neighbors who visit L’Abri? I am thinking about this sentence: “It had only been a disquieting suggestion; an air of mystery among the blacks; unexpected visits from far-off neighbors who could hardly account for their coming.”

A: Chopin scholar Thomas Bonner Jr. writes: “Social life on Southern plantations was similar to that among the country estates in England. The considerable distances among the plantations generally meant that visits involved stays for several days, even weeks. In areas near rivers the plantations tended to be closer to one another, like those along the Cane River in Louisiana, but even so these visits were most often planned around birthdays and holidays. The plantation class included extended family and friends. It seems obvious that Armand had consulted his “peers” about “the disquiet” at home regarding features of the child and that his friends had come to assist in ascertaining the racial implications of his daughter’s features. These visits were made outside the ordinary calendar of visits and likely arranged through correspondence.”

Q: How did Kate Chopin know about slavery? Did she grow up with slaves in the house?

A: Yes. Her family in St. Louis, like many families in the city, held slaves in the 1850s.

Q: My literature anthology says that Kate Chopin’s mother was Creole. Does that mean that Chopin herself has African roots?

A: No. In American English, the word “Creole” (the noun form of the word) carries several different meanings. For Kate Chopin, the following definition applies (it’s from the Merriam Webster online dictionary): “a white person descended from early French or Spanish settlers of the United States Gulf states and preserving their speech and culture.”

Q: I was wondering about the use of the expression “yellow nurse” in this story. Does the word “yellow” here mean “Asian”? When this story was written, would that expression have been considered offensive, as it is today?

A: No, the word “”yellow” does not refer to an Asian person. And it would probably not have been offensive in Kate Chopin’s time, as it is today.

Three Chopin scholars discuss the expression:

Emily Toth: “I would read it as ‘high yellow–i. e., a light skinned black person, maybe octoroon or quadroon. The term ‘high yellow’ is pretty old, so I assume it existed in Chopin’s day. Also, house servants–those who did child care–were usually light-skinned, and were most likely the children of the master by his slaves. (Mary Boykin Chesnut writes about that in her diary.) The term wasn’t considered offensive, just descriptive, when I taught at a historically black college in the 1960s–1970s, but I think Tom [Bonner] would be the most knowledgeable about this. ‘Mulatto’ is considered offensive now.”

Barbara C. Ewell: “My sense is that this would have been simply a descriptive term, that white folks (and perhaps most blacks) would not have thought to be offensive, especially in this context. In fact, I think that was true well into the twentieth century. . . .”

Thomas Bonner, Jr.: “The term as you both note refers to a very light skinned black person. Historically, it was used, as Barbara notes, without rancor more often by whites and blacks. The tone sometimes suggested an ‘uppity’ attitude when used by whites and darker blacks, but the text here does not suggest this. Mulatto is like Negro in that it is now archaic, but, as Emily indicated, it is currently ‘offensive’ as well.”

Q: A friend of mine has written a sequel to “Désirée Baby” and she is considering publishing it. Would doing that violate any of Ms. Chopin’s copyrights or the rights of any organization that may hold copyrights on Ms. Chopin’s work? Since copyrights can be a tricky thing I thought that I would contact you and ask for your advice and help on this matter.

A: “Désirée’s Baby” and almost all the rest of Kate Chopin’s works, including The Awakening , are in the public domain. Only a few stories–those first discovered and published in the 1960s–are not. The best known of the still-copyrighted works is “The Storm,” which is controlled by the Louisiana State University Press in Baton Rouge.

So your friend is free to do as she wishes with “Désirée’s Baby” and almost anything else Chopin wrote except “The Storm” and a few other stories. If you’re concerned about a different Chopin work, get back to us and we’ll be happy to check on its status.

You can read more questions and answers about Kate Chopin and her work, and you can contact us with your questions.

For students and scholars

Accurate texts of “désirée’s baby”.

The Complete Works of Kate Chopin . Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969, 2006.

Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. Edited by Bernard Koloski. New York: Penguin, 1999.

Kate Chopin: Complete Novels and Stories . Edited by Sandra Gilbert. New York: Library of America , 2002.

Articles and book chapters about “Désirée’s Baby”

Some of the articles listed here may be available on line through university or public libraries.

Hubbs, Jolene. “Untranslatable Creole: Language Suppression, Racial Segregation, and Louisiana Local Color Fiction.”  American Quarterly , vol. 73, no. 3, Sept. 2021, pp. 1–21.

Ahmetspahić, Adisa, and Damir Kahrić. “It’s a Man’s World: Re-Examination of the Female Perspective in Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’ and ‘The Story of an Hour.’”  ESSE Messenger , vol. 29, no. 1, Summer 2020, pp. 23–37.

Koloski, Bernard. “Kate Chopin.” Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature, edited by Jackson Bryer, Oxford University Press, 2020 [update].

Fox, Heather. “Mapping Spatial Consciousness in Kate Chopin’s Bayou Folk Stories.”  South: A Scholarly Journal , vol. 48, no. 1, 2015, pp. 108–128.

Ostman, Heather, and Kate O’Donoghue, eds.   Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. The book contains this essay:

Armiento, Amy Branam. “‘A quick conception of all that this accusation meant for her’: The Legal Climate at the Time of ‘Désirée’s Baby’”: 47–64.

Bonner, Jr., Thomas. “New Orleans and Its Writers: Burdens of Place.” Mississippi Quarterly 63. 1–2 (2010): 95–209.

Mayer, Gary H. “A Matter of Behavior: A Semantic Analysis of Five Kate Chopin Stories.” ETC.: A Review of General Semantics 67.1 (2010): 94–104.

Pegues, Dagmar. “Fear and Desire: Regional Aesthetics and Colonial Desire in Kate Chopin’s Portrayals of the Tragic Mulatta Stereotype.” Southern Literary Journal 43.1 (2010): 1–22.

Shen, Dan. “Implied Author, overall Consideration, and Subtext of ‘Désirée’s Baby’.” Poetics Today 31.2 (2010): 285–311.

Elfenbein, Anna Shannon. “Reckoning with Race in The Awakening .” Awakenings: The Story of the Kate Chopin Revival. Ed. Bernard Koloski. Louisiana State UP, 2009. 173–183.

Perrin-Chenour, Marie-Claude. “‘Désirée’s Baby’, de Kate Chopin ou l’envers de l’histoire.” [in French] Nouvelles du Sud: Hearing Voices, Reading Stories. Paris, France: École Polytechnique, 2007. 105–111.

Gibert, Teresa. “Textual, Contextual and Critical Surprises in ‘Désirée’s Baby.’” Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 14 (2004-05): 38–67.

——-. “The Role of Implicatures in Kate Chopin’s Louisiana Short Stories.” Journal of the Short Story in English 40 (2003): 69–84.

Skredsvig, Kari Meyers. “Mapping Gender: Feminist Cartographies in Kate Chopin’s ‘Regionalist’ Stories.” Revista de Filología y Lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica 29 (2003): 85–101.

Fitz, Brewster E. “Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’: Emancipating the Readers.” Short Story 8 (2000): 78–91.

Foster, Derek W., and Kris LeJeune. “‘Stand by Your Man …’: Désirée Valmondé and Feminist Standpoint Theory in Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby.’ ” Southern Studies 8 (1997): 91–97.

Arner, Robert D. “Pride and Prejudice: Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’.” Critical Essays on Kate Chopin Ed. Alice Hall Petry. G. K. Hall, 1996. 139–146.

Bauer, Margaret D. “Armand Aubigny, Still Passing After all these Years: The Narrative Voice and Historical Context of ‘Désirée’s Baby.’ ” Critical Essays on Kate Chopin Ed. Alice Hall Petry. G. K. Hall, 1996. 161–83.

Bauer, Margaret D. “Armand Aubigny, Still Passing after All These Years: The Narrative Voice and Historical Context of ‘Désirée’s Baby.’ ” Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. New York: Hall, 1996. 161–83.

Koloski, Bernard. “The Anthologized Chopin: Kate Chopin’s Short Stories in Yesterday’s and Today’s Anthologies.” Louisiana Literature 11 (1994): 18–30.

Lundie, Catherine. “Doubly Dispossessed: Kate Chopin’s Women of Color.” Louisiana Literature 11.1 (1994): 126–44.

Peel, Ellen. “Semiotic Subversion in ‘Désirée’s Baby.’ ” Louisiana Women Writers: New Essays and a Comprehensive Bibliography Eds. Dorothy H. Brown and Barbara C. Ewell. Louisiana State UP, 1992. 57–73.

Foy, Roslyn Reso. “Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby.’ ” Explicator 49.4 (1991): 222–23.

Erickson, Jon. “Fairytale Features in Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’: A Case Study in Genre Cross-Reference.” Modes of Narrative: Approaches to American, Canadian and British Fiction Eds. Reingard M. Nischik and Barbara Korte. Königshausen & Neumann, 1990. 57–67.

Toth, Emily. “Kate Chopin and Literary Convention: ‘Désirée’s Baby.’ ” Southern Studies 20.2 (1981): 201–8.

Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. “Kate Chopin and the Fiction of Limits: ‘Desiree’s Baby.’ ” Southern Literary Journal 10.2 (1978): 123–33.

Books that discuss Chopin’s short stories

Fox, Heather A.  Arranging Stories: Framing Social Commentary in Short Story Collections by Southern Women Writers . University Press of Mississippi, 2022.

Ostman, Heather.  Kate Chopin and Catholicism . Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Ostman, Heather, and Kate O’Donoghue, eds.  Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. The book contains these essays:

Koloski, Bernard. “Chopin’s Enlightened Men”: 15–27.

Walker, Rafael. “Kate Chopin and the Dilemma of Individualism”: 29–46.

Rossi, Aparecido Donizete. “The Gothic in Kate Chopin”: 65–82.

Gil, Eulalia Piñero. “The Pleasures of Music: Kate Chopin’s Artistic and Sensorial Synesthesia”: 83–100.

Ostman, Heather. “Maternity vs. Autonomy in Chopin’s ‘Regret’”: 101–15.

Merricks, Correna Catlett. “‘I’m So Happy; It Frightens Me’: Female Genealogy in the Fiction of Kate Chopin and Pauline Hopkins”: 145–58.

Sehulster, Patricia J. “American Refusals: A Continuum of ‘I Prefer Not Tos’ as Articulated in the Work of Chopin, Hawthorne, Harper, Atherton, and Dreiser”: 159–72.

Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi and Geetha Rajeswar. “What Did She Die of? ‘The Story of an Hour’ in the Middle East Classroom”: 173–85.

O’Donoghue, Kate. “Teaching Kate Chopin Using Multimedia”: 187–202.

James Nagel.  Race and Culture in New Orleans Stories: Kate Chopin, Grace King, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and George Washington Cable.   Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2014.

Brosman, Catharine Savage.  Louisiana Creole Literature: A Historical Study . UP of Mississippi, 2013.

Wan, Xuemei.   Beauty in Love and Death—An Aesthetic Reading of Kate Chopin’s Works  [in Chinese]. China Social Sciences P, 2012.

Hebert-Leiter, Maria.  Becoming Cajun, Becoming American: The Acadian in American Literature from Longfellow to James Lee Burke . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2009.

Gale, Robert L.  Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Kate Chopin . Jefferson, N C: McFarland, 2009.

Beer, Janet, ed.  The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin . Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2008. The book contains these essays:

Knights, Pamela. “Kate Chopin and the Subject of Childhood”: 44–58.

Castillo, Susan. “’Race’ and Ethnicity in Kate Chopin’s Fiction”: 59–72.

Joslin, Katherine. “Kate Chopin on Fashion in a Darwinian World”: 73–86.

Worton, Michael. “Reading Kate Chopin through Contemporary French Feminist Theory”: 105–17.

Horner, Avril. “Kate Chopin, Choice and Modernism”: 132–46.

Taylor, Helen. “Kate Chopin and Post-Colonial New Orleans”: 147–60.

Ostman, Heather, ed.  Kate Chopin in the Twenty-First  Century:   New Critical Essays . Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2008. The book contains these essays:

Kornhaber, Donna, and David Kornhaber. “Stage and Status: Theatre in the Short Fiction of Kate Chopin”: 15–32.

Thrailkill, Jane F. “Chopin’s Lyrical Anodyne for the Modern Soul”: 33–52.

Johnsen, Heidi. “Kate Chopin in  Vogue : Establishing a Textual Context for  A Vocation and a Voice ”: 53–69.

Batinovich, Garnet Ayers. “Storming the Cathedral: The Antireligious Subtext in Kate Chopin’s Works”: 73–90.

Kirby, Lisa A. “‘So the storm passed . . .’: Interrogating Race, Class, and Gender in Chopin’s ‘At the ’Cadian Ball’ and ‘The Storm’”: 91–104.

Frederich, Meredith. “Extinguished Humanity: Fire in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Godmother’”: 105–18.

Beer, Janet.   Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Stein, Allen F.  Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction . New York: Peter Lang, 2005.

Lohafer, Susan.  Reading for Storyness: Preclosure Theory, Empirical Poetics and Culture in the Short Story.  Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003.

Shaker, Bonnie James.  Coloring Locals: Racial Formation in Kate Chopin’s Youth’s Companion Stories . Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2003.

Perrin-Chenour, Marie-Claude.  Kate Chopin: Ruptures  [in French]. Paris, France: Belin, 2002.

Evans, Robert C.  Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction: A Critical Companion . West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 2001.

Koloski, Bernard, ed.  Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie by Kate Chopin . New York: Penguin, 1999.

Beer, Janet.   Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction.  New York: Macmillan–St. Martin’s, 1997.

Koloski, Bernard.  Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction . New York: Twayne, 1996.

Petry, Alice Hall, ed.  Critical Essays on Kate Chopin . New York: G. K. Hall, 1996. The book contains these essays:

Pollard, Percival. “From  Their Day in Court “: 67–70.

Reilly, Joseph J. “Stories by Kate Chopin”: 71–74.

Skaggs, Peggy. “The Boy’s Quest in Kate Chopin’s ‘A Vocation and a Voice’”: 129–33.

Dyer, Joyce [Coyne]. “The Restive Brute: The Symbolic Presentation of Repression and Sublimation in Kate Chopin’s ‘Fedora’”: 134–38.

Arner, Robert D. “Pride and Prejudice: Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’”: 139–46.

Bauer, Margaret D. “Armand Aubigny, Still Passing After All These Years: The Narrative Voice and Historical Context of ‘Désirée’s Baby’”: 161–83.

Berkove, Lawrence I. “‘Acting Like Fools’: The Ill-Fated Romances of ‘At the ’Cadian Ball’ and ‘The Storm’”: 184–96.

Wagner-Martin, Linda. “Kate Chopin’s Fascination with Young Men”: 197–206.

Walker, Nancy A. “Her Own Story: The Woman of Letters in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction”: 218–26.

Elfenbein, Anna Shannon.  Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin . Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1994.

Fick, Thomas H., and Eva Gold, guest eds. “Special Section: Kate Chopin.”  Louisiana   Literature :   A Review of Literature and Humanities . Spring, 1994. 8–171. The special section of the journal contains these essays:

Toth, Emily. “Introduction: A New Generation Reads Kate Chopin”: 8–17.

Koloski, Bernard. “The Anthologized Chopin: Kate Chopin’s Short Stories in Yesterday’s and Today’s Anthologies”: 18–30.

Saar, Doreen Alvarez. “The Failure and Triumph of ‘The Maid of Saint Phillippe’: Chopin Rewrites American Literature for American Women”: 59–73.

Dyer, Joyce. “‘Vagabonds’: A Story without a Home”: 74–82.

Padgett, Jacqueline Olson. “Kate Chopin and the Literature of the Annunciation, with a Reading of ‘Lilacs’”: 97–107.

Day, Karen. “The ‘Elsewhere’ of Female Sexuality and Desire in Kate Chopin’s ‘A Vocation and a Voice’”: 108–17.

Cothern, Lynn. “Speech and Authorship in Kate Chopin’s ‘La Belle Zoraïde’”: 118–25.

Lundie, Catherine. “Doubly Dispossessed: Kate Chopin’s Women of Color”: 126–44.

Ellis, Nancy S. “Sonata No. 1 in Prose, the ‘Von Stoltz’: Musical Structure in an Early Work by Kate Chopin”: 145–56.

Ewell, Barbara C. “Making Places: Kate Chopin and the Art of Fiction”: 157–71.

Boren, Lynda S., and Sara deSaussure Davis (eds.),  Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1992. The book contains these essays:

Toth, Emily. “Kate Chopin Thinks Back Through Her Mothers: Three Stories by Kate Chopin”: 15–25.

Bardot, Jean. “French Creole Portraits: The Chopin Family from Natchitoches Parish”: 26–35.

Thomas, Heather Kirk. “‘What Are the Prospects for the Book?’: Rewriting a Woman’s Life”: 36–57.

Black, Martha Fodaski. “The Quintessence of Chopinism”: 95–113.

Ewell, Barbara C. “Kate Chopin and the Dream of Female Selfhood”: 157–65.

Davis, Sara deSaussure. “Chopin’s Movement Toward Universal Myth”: 199–206.

Blythe, Anne M. “Kate Chopin’s ‘Charlie’”: 207–15.

Ellis, Nancy S. “Insistent Refrains and Self-Discovery: Accompanied Awakenings in Three Stories by Kate Chopin”: 216–29.

Toth, Emily, ed.  A Vocation and a Voice by Kate Chopin.  New York: Penguin, 1991.

Showalter, Elaine.  Sister’s Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing . Oxford, England: Oxford UP, 1991.

Papke, Mary E.  Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton . New York: Greenwood, 1990.

Elfenbein, Anna Shannon.  Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin . Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1989.

Taylor, Helen.  Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1989.

Bonner, Thomas Jr.,  The Kate Chopin Companion . New York: Greenwood, 1988.

Bloom, Harold, ed.  Kate Chopin . New York: Chelsea, 1987. The book contains these essays:

Ziff, Larzer. “An Abyss of Inequality”: 17–24.

Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. “The Fiction of Limits: ‘Désirée’s Baby’”: 35–42.

Dyer, Joyce C. “Gouvernail, Kate Chopin’s Sensitive Bachelor”: 61–69.

Dyer, Joyce C. “Kate Chopin’s Sleeping Bruties”: 71–81.

Gardiner, Elaine. “‘Ripe Figs’: Kate Chopin in Miniature”: 83–87.

Ewell, Barbara C.  Kate Chopin . New York: Ungar, 1986.

Skaggs, Peggy.  Kate Chopin . Boston: Twayne, 1985.

Toth, Emily, ed.   Regionalism and the Female Imagination . New York: Human Sciences Press, 1984.

Stein, Allen F.  After the Vows Were Spoken: Marriage in American Literary Realism . Columbus: Ohio UP, 1984.

Huf, Linda.  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman: The Writer as Heroine in American Literature . New York: Ungar, 1983.

Christ, Carol P.  Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers on Spiritual Quest . Boston: Beacon, 1980.

Springer, Marlene.  Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin: A Reference Guide.  Boston: Hall, 1976.

Cahill, Susan.  Women and Fiction: Short Stories by and about Women . New York: New American Library, 1975.

Seyersted, Per, ed.   “The Storm” and Other Stories by Kate Chopin: With   The Awakening . Old Westbury: Feminist P, 1974.

Freedman, Florence B., et al.  Special Issue: Whitman, Chopin, and O’Faolain . WWR, 1970.

Leary, Lewis, ed.  The Awakening   and Other Stories by Kate Chopin . New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

Seyersted, Per.  Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969.

Rankin, Daniel,  Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories . Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1932.

(92) 336 3216666

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• Desiree’s Baby

Read our detailed study guide on the short story Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin. Our study guide covers Desiree’s Baby summary , themes, characters, and literary analysis.

Desiree’s Baby Summary

The story opens with Madame Valmonde traveling to L`Abri. She is actually visiting her step-daughter, Desiree because she has recently given birth to a baby. Madame Valmonde is visiting them to see Desiree and her baby. On her way to L`Abri, Madame Valmonde reminds how the little girl Desiree came into her family. The little girl was a youngster when Monsieur Valmonde found her in the plantation region of Valmonde.

The little girl, when he found her, was sleeping there and he could not ascertain whether someone lost her on the way or she was deliberately abandoned by someone. She took the child and brought it home because she had no child of her own. Whoever she was, Madame Valmonde believed that she was the gift of God to her.

She grows and turns into a beautiful girl. This beauty attracts many of the young boys and Armand Aubigny is one among them. He lives in a neighborhood and he was eighteen years when his mother died so he started living in the town where Monsieur Valmonde lives. He fell for  Desiree deeply.

When the family got to know about the relationship between the two, Monsieur Valmonde proposed that Armand should look for the family background of Desiree but he was in such deep love with the girls that he never bothered to be concerned about her real parents. He was of the view that Armand’s family name was important which he would give to Desiree. They got married and started to live happily.

Madame Valmonde does not like the outlook of L`Abri. She thinks that the place is gloomy and does not show happiness since it has been a long time since the mother of Armand Aubigny died and afterwards, no one lived there. After the death of his mother, his father called it a gloomy place.

She reaches the house and sees that Desiree is lying on the couch and she is holding her baby in her lap. She notices that the baby is not like the other babies but she does not give Desiree any hint of that. She asks Desiree what are Armand`s thoughts about the baby.

She replies that Armand is very much happy with his child and he has shown his love for the baby. To prove that she is right Desiree tells her mother that since the child is born, Armand has not been rude to slaves, which shows he is happy about the birth of the baby.

This is the truth that Armand has changed after his marriage. He has become gentle with the people and slaves.  After some months, when the baby is born, Desiree notices that the slaves have strange expressions on their faces and that the neighbors are coming more and frequently to the house to see the baby. She gets worried about all this. She also notices a change in the mood and attitude of her husband because he starts avoiding her and the baby. On that day, Armand becomes very violent and beats the slaves wildly which frightens Desiree.

One day, Desiree is combing her sleek hair and she is trying to adjust her hair. The baby is fast asleep on the couch and one of the slaves’ kids is trying to fan the baby so that he could be cool and asleep. Desiree is not easy with the attitude of the environment and the people around her as everyone is trying to have a suspicious look at the baby. Suddenly, Desiree feels that there is a stark similarity of her own baby to the kid of a slave.

Desiree is terrified by the realization and she asks the slave boy to go out of the room and starts looking at her baby with terror. Armand comes home and she calls for him because she feels panic and agonized. She pleads in front of her husband to tell her the reason as to why the child is very much similar to the slave boy. But he remains untouched by her emotions and feelings. He tells her that this simply implies that the child does not belong to a white race and it simply means that Desiree does not belong to a white race.

Desiree argues and fights with the husband that the revelation is not true and it is a white life. She claims that she, along with her baby, is white but her husband tells her that if they are white then why does the baby bear resemblance to the slave kid. He gets angry and leaves the room.

Desiree is in shock because her happiness has turned into a catastrophe for her. She writes to her mother and tells her that she is very upset and that she does not want to live anymore.

Her mother replies to her quickly and asks her to come home with her child. She holds the letter and goes to her husband and presents the letter before her. Armand reads the letter and tells her to leave the home and go to her mother`s home. His behavior towards her wife is cold and he thinks that God has done unjustly with him so by coldly treating his wife, he thinks that he is paying God back in the same coin. He does not say a goodbye to her wife because he thinks that by giving birth to such a child she embarrassed his family name.  Desire collects some of her belongings and asks the maid to hand her the child. Desiree is sad and she leaves the house in despair.

Desiree leaves and the sun is about to set. She does not travel on the road rather she makes her way in the path and moves towards her mother`s house. She moves towards the swamp and is never returned afterwards.

After a few weeks, Armand burns all the belongings of Desiree and the child. He also burns all the letters which he once wrote to Desiree before their marriage had taken place. The container from which he takes out all the letters, he finds another letter which was written to his father by his mother.  The letter read that she was very thankful for the kind behavior and love of Armad’s father towards her. She also thanked her husband, he had decided not to tell their son, Armand, that the truth that his mother was destined with slavery. This implied that not Desiree but actually Armand belonged to the black race.

Background of the Story

Desiree`s Baby is written by American author, Kate Chopin.  It was written on 24th November 1892. It was published on 14 th January 1893, in Vogue.  It is the first of nineteen stories of Chopin. It appeared in the section “Character Studies” under the title of ‘The Father of Desiree’s Baby.’ It was included in Bayou Fold, which is a short story collection of Kate Chopin, published in 1894.

In “Desiree’s Baby” Chopin investigates Southern prejudice and the boundless severe dislike of the blend of races. The story centers around the life of a young lady, named Desiree, who was adopted by an opulent Louisiana family and grows up and weds a well off Louisiana person who has a business of plantation. When Desiree and her husband Armand have a kid who seems to have a dark color, Armand blames Desiree for having a blended family line.

As an embraced female, she has no capacity to contend with him. At that point, the plot takes a sudden bend and the catastrophe that outcome prompts a severe comprehension of the individual degradation that emerges from a social framework dependent on racial domination and the enslavement of ladies and minorities.

The Setting of the Story

The setting of this story is Southern Louisiana in the Antebellum period. Antebellum period means the period in the first half of the 19 th century and it marks the pre-Civil War era. Louisiana became a state of the United State of America in 1812.

The action of the story takes place in Valmonde and L`Abri in Louisiana where people amassed a fortune by plantation and farming. Farming was a profitable business during the antebellum period in Louisiana.  In Louisiana, the major crops were sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco and corn. Corn grew to a larger extent but in this story, Chopin refers to slaves picking up the cotton in the fields. The families involved in the Plantation business were rich families with large estates. The Aubigny family was one of the famous and influential families in Louisiana along with the Valmonde family. They both had a plantation business.

Louisiana had many cultural influences. It had two major halves; the southern and the northern halves. Both these halves were full of immigrant people coming from various regions. In the northern part, the culture of Africa, Britain and Protestant America was dominant while the southern part was dominated by Spanish, French and Catholic American cultures.

Themes in Desiree’s Baby

Racial discrimination.

Racial discrimination is one of the central themes of this story. The writer has tried to show the negatives implications of racial discrimination. The central conflict of the story is that Armand has issues with the baby born by Desiree and the issue is based on racial background. He hates the black race and thinks that the baby belongs to the black race. He also suspects that Desiree belongs to the black race and that’s why the child is black. 

He never thinks that he can actually turn out to be black. He thinks that a black wife is a shame to his name and he leaves Desiree. He thinks that he has wasted all his years with his wife and now the child is a definite shame to his family name. Desiree pleads before him that it is not the truth but he does not believe her. He would have never believed but when he reads the letter he convinces himself the child had a dark complexion because he himself belongs to the black race. In the end, he is feeling guilty as what he did to Desiree but all in vain.

The Intersection of Classism, Sexism and Racism

Desiree’s Baby” delineates the manners by which the sexual orientation and monetary disparities present in mid-nineteenth century Southern culture strengthened and intermixed with the imbalances of a racist culture. Frequently these three issues are interconnected, as in the job of La Blanche, a captive of Armand’s, who additionally appears to have a sexual relationship with him. Armand’s situation as a well off, white male permitted him to practice unlimited control over a poor, dark lady.

Chopin shows that imbalances between the sexual orientations and immense incongruities of riches give rise to racism. Desiree is white but she is treated as a possession. Armand accepts that he can claim her by purchasing fine garments and presents for her. These signs of riches strengthen Armand’s status, just as arranging Desiree as a controllable article.

Then, the division of her maternal consideration obligations to others shows Desiree’s riches and position. The dark medical attendant Zandrine thinks about her child. Her lavish way of life mirrors her riches and position, which, in spite of the fact that she is as yet liable to Armand’s will as a lady, is fortified by her white skin.

The striking goals of the short story, wherein Armand has Desiree’s assets decimated in a blaze, show how class, sex, and race associate socially. Armand consumes Desiree’s assets to free him of recollections and signs of her. Since these recollections are physical articles, his activities are again decreasing Desiree to a belonging.

Besides, just a rich individual could bear the cost of the advantage of burning belongings and things like silk outfits, ribbon, caps, and gloves are characteristics of a wealthy woman. At last, Armand doesn’t consume the assets himself, yet sits and observes comfortably while the difficult work is finished by twelve of his slaves. The elimination of Desiree—a lady and a belonging—likewise exhibits Armand’s riches and his order of others on the sole distinction of the shade of his skin.

What we find in the story are two limits of connection.  Monsieur and Madame Valmonde eagerly take in Desiree as an infant about whom they know nothing. There were hypotheses among the townspeople that she was left by a gathering of voyaging Texans; however, that didn’t appear to have any kind of effect for the Valmondes.  

She grows up to be a beautiful lady and then gets married to Armand. When Desiree acknowledged Armand’s opinion of racial background about the baby, she wrote a letter to Madame Valmonde. The Madame sends back a concise answer that my own Desiree, Come home to Valmonde and be back to your mom who cherishes her. She also tells her to bring her child. It is more than clear that paying little heed to every one of that has occurred, Valmonde eagerly advises Desiree to return home.  

This is very much different from the manifestation of family displayed by the rude, racist, arrogant and uncontrollable manner of Armand. Armand renounces and ends his ties with Desiree nearly as fast as he at first fabricated them. His choices are made very fast. It is this evil natured demeanor and mindset that makes issues for Desiree and for Armand, and in the end, prompts both of their destructions.

Love is a ground-breaking transformative power in Desiree’s Baby. Love essentially attempts to relax characters, permitting them to think about others comprehensively. Madame and Monsieur Valmonde are changed when they find a relinquished kid and welcome her as their own regardless of their obscured identity. Armand is relaxed by his affection for Desiree. It is out of love that he wishes to wed a young lady of strange sources; however, he pampers benevolence and lavish blessings on her. 

After his love marriage, he changed in his treatment of others, especially his dark slaves. He even giggles when one man claims to be harmed to avoid work, as Desiree reports to her mother. Indeed, even Armand’s physical highlights change affected by his adoration for Desiree and his face is helped and he grins as opposed to scowling.

Love has another, increasingly rebellious, a transformative force that is uncovered through Desiree’s character. Desiree’s love for Armand makes her disregard his deficiencies and his pitilessness. When Armand is angry Desiree is afraid of him yet she loves him. Desiree’s blindness takes a progressively outrageous structure as for her infant.

Despite the fact that Armand and he belong to a dark race, Desiree is blind to all these traits.  While blindness is commonly viewed as a negative thing, in Desiree’s Baby one may really think of it as a positive. Since it is when love isn’t sufficient to cause blindness that catastrophe unfurls. Armand’s parents hide their own legacy from Armand because they love him. 

This makes Armand to have faith in the generalizations and chains of importance that cause him to desert his wife. In all these events, Madame Valmonde remains as a model of adoration and love, revealing to her little girl to get back home because she loves her daughter regardless of the fact that she might belong to the dark race. But such love in the bigot Southern universe of the story isn’t sufficient.

Characters Analysis

Desiree is the central character and the protagonist of the story. She is an orphaned girl found by Valmonde. He brings her to homes and looks after her. Valmonde and his wife consider her to be the gift of God because they do not have children of their own.  She turns out to be a beautiful girl. Armand falls in love with her and he eventually succeeds to marry her. 

They both start their life happily and then they are blessed with a baby boy. The boy turns out to be a mixed-raced boy. He grows to be a dark-colored boy. Armand is unhappy with her wife and considers her a dark race woman as well. Desiree is upset with the situation and leaves home with her baby. She goes towards swamps and then never returns from it.

Madame Valmonde

She is the stepmother of the protagonist. She nurses Desiree as her own daughter. She is the epitome of love throughout the story.  When she hears about the birth of the baby boy, she goes to see Desiree and her baby boy. There she notices that the boy is a mixed-race but she does not say anything to her daughter. When Desiree writes her a letter that her husband is treating her well and she wants to leave the house, Madame Valmonde tells her to come back to her because she loves her more than everything.

Monsieur Valmonde

He is the stepfather of Desiree and he is the man who brings the little girl to his home. He raises the little girl and then marries her off with Armand who loves the beautiful girl.

Armand Aubigny

He is a wealthy businessman. He was eight years old when his mother died in Paris. After the death of his mother, he moved to L`Abri along with his father. He falls in love with Desiree when he is only eighteen. He is in deep love with the girl and wants to marry her at any cost. Before the marriage, Valmonde tells him to see the family background of Desiree but he is so blindfolded by his love that he does not even bother to look for that. 

He marries her but when a child gets born, he develops a hate for his wife. The boy is a dark race and he considers his wife to be a dark race woman. He permits her to leave because he is unable to live with her. When she leaves, he burns all her belongings. He even burns the letter which he sent Desiree before the marriage. In those letters, he finds another letter, which his mother sends to his father.

In the letter, his mother has clearly told his father that she is thankful that his father has not told Armand that she belongs to an African origin. This unfolds that not Desiree but Armand himself belongs to an African origin.

Le Blanche is the servant of Armand Aubigny. Indirectly, it is stated in the story that she had a sexual relationship with Armand Aubigny. She has her children and one of the kids is a mixed race. The boy is dark and the baby boy of Desiree, too, is dark. This clearly indicates that Armand belonged to African origin and that he had an illicit relationship with Le Blanche.

This baby boy is the son of Desiree and Armand. The boy has a dark complexion and this becomes the central conflict of the story. It is because of this conflict that Desiree is dead. It later turns out his dark complexion is because of his father`s African origin.

Mrs. Aubigny

She is the mother of Armand. She is dead a long way before the action of the story happens. She is a woman who belonged to African heritage. She lived in Paris with Armand`s father because inter-racial marriages were socially acceptable in Paris. Armand gets to know the truth towards the end of the story when all is gone and he leaves in despair.

Literary Analysis

All through this short story, the writer portrays a community in which the property and social status keep individuals from talking reality with regards to race, gender and bondage. For instance, Madame Valmondé’s underlying reaction to Desiree’s son shows her anxiety with the infant’s dark traits. She doesn’t obviously voice her doubts on the grounds that to uncover the racial discriminations of this kid is to uncover something the general public evaded because it could bring serious repercussions.

Afterwards Desire, in her conversation with her mother, remarks that Armand is regularly going to La Blanche’s lodge and uncovers her total honesty in regards to Armand`s sexual bond with the servant La Blanche. This indication of  Desiree’s numbness, Chopin delineates a portion of the impacts of her general public’s decision to select some matters unthinkable in an amiable discussion. 

Armand faces less ramifications for his activities until his wife gets the idea of what’s going on. Desiree is in more of a situation to be harmed by Armand’s activities as long as she does not get an idea of these activities.  When Desiree finds that her son is similar to the son of the maid, her acknowledgement is done through two different dimensions. She sees not just the cultural heritage, the two kids share, but their physical posture is of common parentage too. Her question, “what does this mean?” isn’t just an inquiry with respect to race but about the constancy of Armand.

Chopin analyzes society’s presumptions about individuals dependent on riches and economic well being. She features the lack of definition of Desiree’s starting points and builds up Armand as a ground-breaking and all around regarded individual from his general public. Desiree is a girl whose parents are unknown. 

The storyteller specifies a few times that Armand`s mother is Frenchwoman and he experienced childhood in France. Desiree`s mother trusts Armand’s mom cherished her own territory too well which is a conviction that likely mirrors the convictions of the individuals in her groups of friends. Just in the last sentence it is uncovered that Armand’s mother belonged to African race.  

Chopin organizes this data cautiously, managing the readers to limit Armand as the conceivable wellspring of the African American features attributes people see in the child. Indeed, even present-day readers, whose mentalities toward race might be universes not the same as the perspectives of Chopin’s peers, are probably going to expect Armand is unadulterated white to the very last paragraph of the story.

The title of the story is Desiree`s Baby. This title very clearly demonstrates that the story is going to revolve around Desiree. The title is not indicating the name of the baby which means that it is Desiree who is the center of the conflict and not the baby. It also states the innocence of Desiree`s because it is Desiree who is the victim but she is made to suffer because of her son. She is asked to leave because of the color of the skin. Thus, this title holds the significance that she is innocent.

Point of View

The story is told from the perspective of a third person who is narrating the story to his audience or readers. The third person narrator in this short story holds a significant role because this point of view is not partial. It is a clear narration that is revealing the truth and the actual circumstances of the actions happened.

This short story belongs to the genre of Historical Realism.

The tone is now and again inauspicious, indicating inconvenience that lies ahead, especially because of the choices that Armand Aubigny makes which are very ill-advised and hurried in nature. Otherwise, the joy with which Desiree communicates her adoration for Armand and fervor for her infant fill in as lighter minutes in the story.

The story does not provide any concise views of slavery and racism because there are a number of ambiguities and weaknesses in the plot of this story. Chopin`s contemporaries did not present slavery in the true spirit but Chopin presented the ugliness of slavery. Chopin`s Armand Aubigny shows the cruel side of the slavery, he not only beats the slaves but sexually abuses them as well, This is clear when Desiree makes a comment to her mother that Armand listens to the cry of the baby as far as Le Blanch`s cabin. It is a clear indication that he goes to the cabin of the servant. This case proves to be strong because the baby boy of the servant had strong similarities with the baby of Desiree`s.

Chopin also talks about the implications of racism in her society. The reactions of people towards the baby of Desiree show that people had racist attitudes towards each and everyone and that it had been inculcated into their minds. Madame Valmonde senses that the baby does not belong to the pure white race but she does not say anything. She gets to know that the baby would be suffering in future because of the cultural heritage and this comes true just after three months of his birth.

Armand, the father of the baby, reacts coldly towards the baby. He grows violent and then he starts neglecting the baby and Desiree. He hates her due to the cultural heritage and permits her to go out of his house because of this reason.

These reactions of people, Armand, the worry of Madame Valmonde show that society was obsessed with the concept of racism.

Desiree’s correspondence with Armand demonstrates the powerlessness of Desiree by the hands of Armand. This is clear when Desiree understands her child is not white she can refuse the claim of her husband but she does not. This provides him the strength to overlook his own cultural heritage and pass judgment on Desiree`s cultural background. His comments are a racist comment when he says that It implies that the youngster isn’t white; it implies that you (Desiree) are not white. Both Armand and Desiree are the guardians of the child, yet just Desiree is straightforwardly blamed for nonwhite legacy.

Until the encounter with Armand, Desiree has appeared to be fundamentally substance to live inside the requirements of her community. She experienced passionate feelings for the man who chose to wed her, and she acknowledged his furious nature as an unchangeable unavoidable truth. In any case, when Armand discloses to Desiree she is not white, she conflicts with her tendency and contends with him. She does not retaliate rather she accepts the claim as a submissive and oppressive lady of the society

Desiree doesn’t blame Armand for having a nonwhite legacy and this is indistinct whether she speculates it. Maybe she makes an unpretentious allegation when she brings up and claims the color of her skin is more white than Armand`s. Armand closes her down effectively, saying her skin and the skin of La Blanche is similarly white. La Blanche, whose name signifies the white one, will be one of the slaves at L’Abri. A few insights in the story recommend that Armand has fathered at least one of her kids. The storyteller says that Armand is talking remorselessly when he analyzes Desiree and the maid at the same level. This might be on the grounds that he is comparing Desiree with the maid or in light of the fact that he is helping his wife to remember that only he has got the ability to do to ladies like La Blanche.

 The narrator doesn’t uncover any of Desiree’s contemplations when she strolls into the swamp with her infant, so it is difficult to know her precise purposes behind evidently deciding to murder herself and her kid. Her husband had expelled her on the doubt that she and her kid were not white. 

In their white-commanded, male-overwhelmed society, individuals are probably going to acknowledge the perception of people. Indeed, even Madame Valmonde, who composes that she despite everything cherishes and acknowledges Desiree, doesn’t repudiate the end that she has African American legacy. This implies Desiree never again has a place with the white community Desiree has constantly known and that she and her child would confront a perspective of the future as normal members of the society.

The portrayals of Desiree’s appearance all through the story supports the idea of Desiree being white. For instance, when she inquires as to whether he wants Desiree to leave his house, she remains quiet, white, and still. She, then,  strolls toward the inlet, the storyteller underscores the brilliant sparkle of Desiree`s hair. Nonetheless, it is imperative to take note of Desiree`s African legacy. As the story clarifies, there would be no simple method for characterizing racial highlights. One the moral message in this story is that it is difficult to understand the realities about anybody’s legacy and that putting a lot of significance on that legacy could prompt disaster.

A man like Augbiny is a victim of society and its organizations like servitude. A man invests his energy to developing slavery and racism and at last, these two things swallow their lives into the obscure. Slavery and racism are intended to serve the enthusiasm of whites however it is amusing that they again devastate him particularly when Augbiny finds that he also is dark. Augbiny anticipates that his dreams should be genuine therefore lays every one of his expectations in shading. In the event that it is currently white, he doesn’t need anything to do with it. He erroneously expects that society will acknowledge him since he has a discarded family just to find that he also is dark.

The ethical issues of wickedness, misunderstanding and deception emerge in this story. Individuals shiver at the idea of being dark. Augbiny doesn’t comprehend that the color and birthplace of a person can neither be changed nor be disposed of. Desiree disposes of her color, that of her child and her background in death. This infers subjection and prejudice are things that are extremely insidious in the public arena and ought to be disposed of or they will eat into the human spirit. Blacks are people and color is quite shallow and is directed by their qualities; things that none can stifle or change . Madame Valmonde acknowledges her little girl and child. She is that piece of society that grasps what the elites have dismissed. Madame Valmonde’s letter to her little girl shows humankind, an acknowledgment that can be found in the core of mankind.

The mischievousness of the establishment of slavery and racism is obviously delineated in the plot of this story. Augbiny’s mother implores that her child ought to never find that he has a dark mother. It plainly shows the manner in which whites deny that blacks are people and a piece of society. Death is exceptionally wicked in light of the fact that it grasps even the honest like Desiree’s child. It doesn’t separate between the uninformed, rich or colored. It just takes everything that goes ahead of its way.

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Desiree's Baby

36 pages • 1 hour read

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Summary and Study Guide

Summary: “désirée’s baby”.

“Désirée’s Baby” is a short story by Kate Chopin, first published under the title “The Father of Désirée's Baby,” in Vogue on January 14, 1893. It later appeared in Chopin’s 1894 short story collection Bayou Folk. The story takes place in Louisiana in the antebellum , or pre-Civil War, period. Its characters are Creole—descendants of colonists who lived in Louisiana during its periods of French and Spanish rule, who typically spoke French and practiced Catholicism . Chopin, herself, was Creole and is known for her work that centered women in late 19th-century Southern American society.

Told in third-person point-of-view, “Désirée’s Baby” opens with Madame Valmondé driving to visit her daughter, Désirée , and her new grandchild, whom she hasn’t seen in four weeks. Désirée was discovered as a toddler by the gates of the Valmondé estate, perhaps left behind by a band of travelers. Madame Valmondé believes that God sent her Désirée, since she could not have children of her own.

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It was at those same gates that Désirée, as an 18-year-old, attracted the attention of Armand Aubigny . He fell in love with her instantly, as is the habit of the men in his family. Armand lived in France with his father and mother until he was eight years old; when his mother died, he and his father returned to the United States.

Upon arriving at Armand Aubigny’s estate, L’Abri, Madame Valmondé ’s mood changes from light to heavy. She feels a chill entering the property and recalls how Armand Aubigny’s father was “easy-going and indulgent” (Paragraph 7), especially when it came to treatment of the people he enslaved. Armand, unlike his father, is strict, and this contributes to Madame Valmondé’s negative impression of the place.

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When Madame Valmondé finally greets her daughter Désirée, who is recovering from childbirth, she’s shocked at the appearance of the infant. Désirée misinterprets this shock to be in reference to the baby’s growth. Madame Valmondé agrees the baby is different from when she last saw, but she doesn’t articulate exactly what she’s observed and instead asks about what Armand thinks. Désirée replies that Armand is proud and that one result of his happiness is that he’s stopped punishing the enslaved people. Désirée is happy, largely because her husband is happy.

Later, when the baby is three months old, Désirée senses an inexplicable threat in the air. She suspects that people around her know something she doesn’t. Armand turns angry and hateful and returns to abusing the people he enslaves. It’s only when Désirée sees her son side-by-side with the son of an enslaved woman that she begins to see her son in a new way. Unable to put words to this, she asks her husband, who tells her what he already has figured out that her son is not white and she, therefore, is not white either.

Désirée begs Armand to reconsider her fair skin and grey eyes, but he rejects her. Désirée writes to her mother, begging her to confirm her whiteness and saying she’ll die if she’s not: “I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live” (Paragraph 28). Madame Valmondé neither confirms nor denies this but rather tells Désirée to bring her baby and come back home. Désirée asks Armand if she should go. When Armand tells her she should leave, Désirée takes the baby from the arms of Zandrine, an enslaved nursemaid, and exits the house. Instead of going home, Désirée wanders into a field, where the terrain begins to wear away at her clothes and body.

The story jumps forward a few weeks to when Armand, with the aid of the workers he enslaves, methodically burns every household relic belonging to Désirée and the baby. When he goes to burn her love letters, he finds an old letter from his mother to his father. In the letter, Armand’s mother reveals that she (and, by extension, Armand) “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Paragraph 47) and that God has organized the family’s life in such a way that Armand would never find out. 

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