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ENGL1302
US
The University of Texas at Arlington
Some of the remarkable characters of Kate Chopin can be found set against the backdrop of America nearing the end of 19th century, who are far away from being confined to the roles of traditional women. However, some of the characters who deserve high literary merit can be found in the short stories “A Respectable Woman”, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Storm” and “Her Letters”. Throughout the works that Chopin has published, many are held in the light of sheer artistic brilliance and a complete different portrayal of female characters who were slowly reawakening to their own desires and aspirations. However, not every character conceived in the tory deserve attention since some are created solely to epitomize the brilliance of the rest. In this respect some of the characters are well-developed and round whereas others are flat by being mere reflection of womanish traits. Thesis Statement: Chopin has made some of his characters flat while a majority of extraordinary characters are made round or dynamic characters. The essay will explore these flat and round characters as presented by Chopin by enumerating what flat and round characters denote.
Topic Sentence: A round character should be realistic and dynamic and should have undergone a remarkable change by the end of the story. In “The Story of an Hour”, Louis Mallard who is afflicted with serious heart issues, as the story unfolds, Louis comes to know about the sad demise of her husband which further accentuates her feeling of desolation and misery. However, the literary merit of the author lies in crafting the character of a woman in such a manner who as if almost like an epiphany discover her thirst for freedom and decides to come out unfettered from the chains of marriage and family (Gale). She is a wonderful example of a round character since she has been manifested with a number of transformative phases, and the readers come to encounter a radically different Louis Mallard than he had in the starting of the story. The brilliancy of her character lies in the slow discovery that she makes about herself, her self-discovery helps the character withstand a major transformation making her of the most riveting round character in the annals of literature.
Topic Sentence: Round or dynamic characters should bear an air of mystery and obscurity. Another interesting character to interpret has to be the anonymous woman portrayed in ‘Her Letters” is a complex character who rekindles love for her past lover and consequently enters into conflicting relationship with her own self (McConnell). Much of the logic and answers of the story are kept in the dark and more so after the death of the woman. One of the interesting aspects of a complex character is enigma and mystery that surround the character like a hallo. In this regard Chopin’s woman is sheer literary art and exemplary of round characters. Her enigma lies in her lack of explicitness and number of questions that surrounds regarding her decisions that twist the story.
Topic Sentence: One of the characteristics of flat character is that they hardly ingratiate within themselves any substantial growth during the course of the narrative. Therefore one of the major examples of such an instance has to be Josephine who in The Story of an Hour who has been sketched in a poor fashion solely for the development of Mallard. Josephine, the sister of Ms. Mallard is the perfect example of a flat character, even the readers hardly read her engaging into anything apart from imploring to her sister (Morgan). Another interesting character study to explore more about flat characters would be Clarissa who demonstrates one of the essential aspects of flat character, a character who is not indispensable or essential for the progression or linear development of the story. Clarissa is indeed quite inconsequential in the story especially when we study her side by side Calixta and Alce Laballiere (Belzer, Alisa, and Pickard). Chopin has invested little or nothing into the character that would amount to a significant transformation in her essential elements and therefore it can be firmly deduced that Clarissa is a flat woman character of Kate Chopin’s creation.
Topic Sentence: According to E.M Foster, a flat character is a uninvolved and unadorned character bereft of any depth or complexity that would elevate them to a character of high literary standard. In this respect The Awakening has careful to juxtapose flat and round women characters like Edna who is the protagonist of the novel a character replete with complexities and consciousness (Bhatt). In this scenario, Adele Ratignolle who is the bosom friend of Edna is rather shallow in her representation as she is indeed a dimwitted character fettered by familial love that is the reason behind many decisions. As a character she is very little more than her essential self that identifies her as a stereotypical nineteenth century woman contend with her simpleton manners and life that is restrictive and conforming. On reading the novel the readers grasp very little about Adele apart from her childish romantic fantasies that populate her brain. Adele can never be characterized as a static character for the quite simple reason that Chopin makes her nothing more than her role to act as a foil for Reisz (George).
Therefore from the above discussion it is apparent that while some of the characters are dynamic characters some others do not qualify as round characters owing to their simplicity and mediocrity. One can never anticipate the action of these characters, who are carefully sketched with artistic precision. Chopin has shown her true artistic genius by interweaving these characters to knit stories that would be forever etched in readers’ mind. Since Chopin wanted to produce range of characters to show the free spirit of New Women in fiction she achieved it with the help of contrasting round and flat characters. In It is interesting to note that one can find both static and dynamic characters in Kate Chopin repertoire like Adele and Mallard to help the readers draw pleasure from the sheer contradiction.
Belzer, Alisa, and Amy Pickard. "From heroic victims to competent comrades: Views of adult literacy learners in the research literature." Adult Education Quarterly 65.3 (2015): 250-266.
Bhatt, Aparna. "The New Woman and Her Doomed Fate in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure and Kate Chopin’s the Awakening." (2018).
De Cima Juárez, Marta. "The New Woman in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction." (2015).
Fletcher, Marie. "The Southern Woman in the Fiction of Kate Chopin." Louisiana History (1966): 117-132.
Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Kate Chopin's" The Storm". Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.
George, Sarah Forest. "A Vanishing Act: The Invisible Quadroons of Chopin’s the Awakening." Ethos Review 2.1 (2015).
McConnell, Mikaela. "A lost sense of self by ignoring other in The Awakening by Kate Chopin." The Explicator 72.1 (2014): 41-44.
Morgan, Thomas L. "Criticizing Local Color: Innovative Conformity in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction." Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 70.1 (2014): 135-171.
O’Donoghue, Kate, and Heather Ostman, eds. Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches. Springer, 2016.
Ostman, Heather, and Kate O’Donoghue. "Introduction: Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches." Kate Chopin in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2015. 1-11.
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