The Woman Question Reconsidered: Gender, Race, and Class in the Work
of Kate Chopin and Frances Harper
By
Melissa Adams
Knox College
McNair Summer Research 1999
Mentor: Audrey Petty, Asst. Professor of English, Knox College
The label “New Woman,” formulated by Ouida in 1894, describes a political ideology of
radical feminism as much as it refers to the actual supporters of the 19th century’s gender
revolution (Ardis10). Side stepping the issue of race, New Woman advocates focused on gender
and class struggles. They were upper, middle, and lower class white women and gender radicals
of both sexes. Developed in the last two decades of the 19th century, New Woman politics
challenged the strict Victorian social order by advocating “free love,” female employment,
economic independence, and the destruction of class distinctions. In particular, the ideology
rejected the middle class emphasis on marriage, motherhood, male “protection,” and female
sexual “passionlessness.” Broader than the women’s suffrage movement, the New Woman
movement embodied an assault on the very crux of 19th century Western society.
The Victorian doctrine of separate spheres encapsulates much of the New Woman’s
frustration. This postulate holds that men’s and women’s lives are distinct and divided. Men
live in the public sphere of politics and labor while women live in the domestic sphere of
household and familial responsibilities. The New Woman sought to destroy this philosophy
while envisioning the unrestricted freedom of self-determination. The seemingly radical demand
for self-actualization appears radical only because it had not been previously met. Yet, this was
not the opinion of most of her contemporaries. Critics took the opportunity to turn the
economically and sexually independent New Woman into a myth. Due to the small number of
women actually carrying out this political view, the New Woman was easily marginalized as a
fictional character from the world of literature. A reviewer of the Athenaeum argues that “the
New Woman is a product oftener met with in the novels of the day than in ordinary life, where
fortunately, she remains so rare as to be seldom seen in the flesh at all” (Ardis 12-13). These
same critics went on to parody the New Woman as a social deviant and/or lesbian, thus,
permitting the conservative Victorian population to dismiss her and her political agenda. With
the stereotype at hand, any author attempting to treat the New Woman seriously was subject to
ridicule and stigmatization. Attacks on the New Woman’s actual existence and on her moral
character demonstrate the critics’ desperate attempt to limit the demand for gender revolution to
the (nonliterary) public sphere, of course, off limits to women. By silencing feminist power from
writing, these critics destroyed the New Woman’s most effective tool for social change.
Most nineteenth century American women were socialized to eagerly await marriage, the
event that would transform and complete them. It was this finality, this expectation of
submission, that provoked the New Woman to reject marriage as an institution little better than
slavery. In many ways, Kate Chopin (1850-1904), a noted author of Southern local color stories,
agrees. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard receives the news of her husband’s unexpected
death at first with outbursts of grief; yet within minutes she realizes the unexpected gift of
freedom widowhood will bring. She thinks, “There would be no powerful will bending hers in
that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private
will upon a fellow-creature” (Chopin 214-15). With her husband gone, Mrs. Mallard will live
her life for herself: “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and
summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life
might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long”
(215). This passage, perhaps Chopin’s strongest anti-marriage statement, clearly demonstrates
her belief that marriage destroys a woman’s capacity for self-realization.
In contrast, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), a Northern black orator and
writer for the abolition movement, praises a suitable match where interests align and love reigns.
In Iola Leroy, Harper ends Iola’s story in blissful matrimony. Devoted to the black community,
to “bettering the race,” and to one another, Iola and Dr. Latimer are Harper’s ideal couple.
Marriage, then, is not the problem for Harper. In “The Two Offers,” Harper shows her readers
that irresponsible choices result in unhappiness. Laura, an indulgent young woman, has had two
offers of marriage and can not decide which to accept. Her sensible friend Janette advises that
she reject both if she does not love either enough to have a preference. She says, “I think a
woman who is undecided between two offers, has not love enough for either to make a choice;
and in that very hesitation, indecision, she has reason to pause and seriously reflect, lest her
marriage instead of being an affinity of souls or union of hearts, should be a mere matter of
bargain and sale, or an affair of convenience and selfish interest” (Harper 106). Laura ignores
this advice and goes on to marry a miserable drunkard and die an early death from lack of love.
Harper’s message is clear: marriage is a weighty decision not to be taken lightly. Harper gives
Janette a radical stance: she encourages her friend not to marry. Still, marriage itself is never
called into question. For Harper, it is simply a matter of making the right choice, one in which
love is key.
Historically, we must remember the differences in these two author’s perspectives. Iola
Leroy was published in 1892, not even thirty years since the Emancipation Proclamation freed
American slaves allowing them for the first time to be legally married. Thirty years is hardly
time enough for African Americans to consider marriage an oppressive institution. At the
publishing of The Awakening in 1899, it had been approximately one hundred years since Mary
Wollstonecraft spoke out for upper and middle class white women in her groundbreaking
feminist text, Vindication of the Rights of Women. The chasm between these women’s
experiences and expectations for the future is as wide as their views on marriage.
When examining marriage from a woman’s perspective, it seems most appropriate to
establish the power dynamic between the sexes as it exists within the woman’s specific culture,
her family, and her relationship with her spouse. In Chopin’s The Awakening, the reader learns
that in 19th century white America, men held authority over their wives and children; husbands
were the undisputed sovereigns of their homes. With the public endorsement of the doctrine of
separate spheres and the strong male presence of their own fathers throughout childhood, most
women accepted and even expected this despotism. In a conversation with her married friend,
Adelle, Edna remembers the childish desire to escape her father’s strict Protestant influence. She
says, “Likely as not it was Sunday…and I was running away from prayers, from the Presbyterian
service, read in the a spirit of gloom by my father that chills me yet to think of” (Chopin 60). In
a later visit to New Orleans, Edna’s father is described as a military man who enjoys strong
drinks, racing horses, and dictating to others. When Edna refuses to attend her sister’s wedding,
the Colonel tells her husband, Leonce, “You are too lenient, too lenient by far…Authority,
coercion are what is needed. Put your foot down good and hard; the only way to manage a wife.”
(125). In turn, Leonce thinks, “The Colonel was perhaps unaware that he had coerced his own
wife into her grave” (125). Though the reader finds no clear evidence of exactly how the
Colonel “coerced” his wife to death, it can be inferred that he must have dominated her until she
no longer had a will of her own. Even in rebellion, Edna cannot escape her father’s patriarchal
influence. Her decision to marry Leonce Pontellier is only augmented by her father’s “violent
opposition” to her marriage with a Catholic. This early rebellion foreshadows Edna’s later
behavior in reaction to her husband’s singular authority. After an evening at the club, Leonce
returns home late and informs his sleeping wife that their son has a high fever that requires
attention. Edna knows her children are healthy, yet Leonce “reproached his wife with her
inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after the
children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He
could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at
home to see that no harm befell them” (48). Such a speech confirms the reader’s suspicions:
Edna has married a gender-conservative, insensitive man. Born into a male dominated culture,
raised by a patriarchal father, and married to an authoritative husband, Edna finds no outlet for
her own individuality.
In Iola Leroy, Harper presents the reader with an idealistic interpretation of the power
dynamic within Iola’s specifically African American culture, family, and marriage relationship.
Achieving an autonomous and unified family within the confines of slavery was nearly
impossible. Fathers were often missing, unidentified, or the white “masters.” Mothers, then,
became the cohesive forces holding black families together. Sold or separated from their
mothers during slavery, many African Americans began to search for their missing mothers after
the Civil War. This drive to relocate the mother, thus reuniting the separated slave family, pulls
Iola, Harry, and their uncle, Robert, together in a quest for the mothers they have lost. When
Robert finds his mother, Iola gains a grandmother and the family begins to pull together. When
Iola finds her mother, the female line, from grandmother to granddaughter, is once again
connected and the story can progress. Harper argues that without a strong matricentric tie to the
past, Iola and her family can have no future. Unlike Edna, Iola has no strong male presence to
maintain patriarchy. She goes on to find a husband who is worthy, honest, respectful,
understanding, who encourages her desire to help her race. Instead of denying her the right to
self-expression, Dr. Latimer joins Iola in a partnership to better the black community. He says, “
I think, Miss Leroy, that the world’s work, if shared, is better done than when it is performed
alone. Don’t you think your life-work will be better done if someone shares it with you?”
(Harper 242). For Frank and Iola, marriage is not a static conclusion, but rather, the beginning of
a partnership dedicated to serving others. It is no surprise that Dr. Latimer is a trusting,
egalitarian husband. Black men, Frank among them, were forced to recognize the physical,
emotional, and intellectual strength of black women; women who had worked side by side with
them in the fields, who had survived the endless indignities of slavery, and who continued to
fight racism after the Civil War. In a literal sense, the doctrine of separate spheres could not
apply to black women because of the unique cultural experience of American slavery. Thus,
women’s cultural attitudes, family experiences, and marital relationships significantly influence
their capacity for self-realization and equality within marriage.
While the length of time these two couples have been married is an important
consideration in establishing the power dynamic of the marriage, it is perhaps more valid to
demonstrate the variance in each couple’s goals. The Awakening begins several years into
marriage, when Edna and Leonce have grown accustomed to one another and to their roles as
husband and wife. At the end of Iola Leroy, Iola and Frank are still flushed with newlywed
pleasure. Iola’s brother Harry says, “I don’t believe that there is a subject I could name him,
from spinning a top to circumventing the globe, that he wouldn’t somehow try to bring Iola in.
And I don’t believe you could talk ten minutes to Iola on any subject, from dressing a doll to the
latest discovery in science, that she wouldn’t manage to lug in Frank” (Harper 277). Compare
this infatuation with Edna and Leonce’s relationship: “Looking at [her hands] reminded her of
her rings, which she had given to her husband before leaving for the beach. She silently reached
out to him, and he, understanding, took the rings from his vest pocket and dropped them into her
open palm” (Chopin 45). The differences in communication style and content serve as indicators
of the progression of the marriage relationship while also marking the uniqueness of each
couple’s goals. For Frank and Iola, communication and consideration function as the basis of
their relatively equal partnership. The above quote from The Awakening illustrates the
significance of ownership and control in Edna and Leonce’s relationship. Leonce is master and
Edna’s rings symbolize his claim over her. Consequently, differing goals prove more influential
to the power dynamic of these two couples than the length of their marriages.
Harper promotes Iola’s marriage to Dr. Latimer, not, as many critics claim, to convey a
conventional romance plot, but rather to promote the necessity of equality for a felicitous marital
relationship. Claudia Tate points to the allegorical nature of the novel, claiming that Iola’s happy
marriage is symbolic of the success and prosperity of the black community. Upon closer
examination, the reader understands that marriage is not the conclusion for Iola; marriage will
not complete her. This partnership is only the beginning of a life dedicated to serving others.
Iola’s plans for the future do not end here, nor do the aspirations of the black community. Frank
and Iola have a freedom not to be found within white marriage. With the relative newness of the
Emancipation Proclamation, many black couples have had little time to develop strict gender
roles within a “legal” marriage. The power dynamic between black men and women, especially
between former slaves, was not comparable to that between white men and women. Black
women worked in the fields alongside men, proving their strength and independence on a daily
basis. When Iola’s husband encourages her to find some way to help her race, he is
acknowledging Iola’s capabilities. Thus, Iola and Lucille find male support for their interest in
the public realm, while Edna stands on a pedestal out of reach of her desires. Race and class are
often inseparable in the work of Chopin and Harper, especially when comparing Iola and Edna.
Though both start out as privileged white females, Iola’s circumstances change dramatically.
Once labeled a “Negro,” she becomes less than human when auctioned off by her white uncle.
Even after the war, Iola remains a second-class citizen despite her middle class aspirations. For
Edna, the pedestal of upper class white womanhood is simply unfulfilling. She seeks a wider
avenue of sensuality and sexuality which was at this time usually available only to women of
different ethnic or class backgrounds. Women of Edna’s class succumbed to the limitations of
society’s demand for moral and sexual virtue. Through close examination the reader finds that
race, class, cultural norms, and family background impact women’s experiences of marriage in
profound and unique ways.
An important consideration when comparing Chopin and Harper is the effect of style in
each author’s work. Chopin writes with the description of a realist, portraying her characters’
inner psychological and emotional landscape in an open, unapologetic manner. Peter Seyersted, a
leading Chopin expert and biographer, argues that The Awakening goes further in its “truthful
treatment of material,” (206) especially the treatment of sexuality, than the works of Dreiser,
Crane, Norris, and other American Realists of the time. Harper writes in a utopian vein, detailing
her vision of racial and gender equality by conveying a character’s actions and words. Here,
what a character says or does is more important than what he thinks or feels. The reader may
begin to question whether the variance seen in Chopin and Harper’s views on marriage,
sexuality, motherhood, and economic independence is related to stylistic concerns rather than
race and class. To draw out the point, the reader should examine the views of Frank Latimer and
Leonce Pontellier in connection with their wives involvement in the public sphere. Harper’s
character, Frank, encourages Iola’s interest in helping her race. He suggests,
Why not…write a good, strong book which would be helpful to [the black
community]?…Miss Leroy, you have a large and rich experience; you possess a
vivid imagination and glowing fancy. Write, out of the fullness of your heart, a
book to inspire men and women with a deeper sense of justice and humanity.
(Harper 262).
Again, the reader notices the emphasis on action and word; Harper’s style evokes a desire for
social change. Compare this supportive statement to Leonce’s reaction to Edna’s decision to
move to the “pigeon” house:
When Mr. Pontellier learned of his wife’s intention to abandon her home and take up her
residence elsewhere, he immediately wrote her a letter of unqualified disapproval and
remonstrance…He was not dreaming of scandal…He was simply thinking of his
financial integrity…But remembering Edna’s whimsical turn of mind lately…he grasped
the situation with his usual promptness and handled it with his well-known business tact
and cleverness…Mr. Pontellier had saved appearances!” (Chopin 150-51).
Here, Chopin describes Leonce’s actions and the internal thought process that motivated him. As
Frank encourages Iola, demonstrating faith in her innate abilities, Leonce describes Edna as
“whimsical” and “rash.” Chopin presents Mr. Pontellier at his best and worst, while Harper
makes Dr. Latimer a saint with no possible faults. Though these male characters reflect their
authors’ stylistic achievements, they also illuminate race and class considerations. In the
example above, Leonce is concerned with the threat of rumors of financial misfortune (which a
move to a smaller house might warrant) thus, harming his business investments. These are the
concerns of an upper class white businessman. On the other hand, Dr. Latimer’s reputation
would only be enhanced in the black community if his future wife authored a book, or became a
philanthropist or Sunday-school teacher. His standing is not based on appearances, but on his
service to the community. In The Awakening and Iola Leroy, discussion of marriage reflects not
only the authors’ beliefs on the subject but also their writing style and understanding of race and
class.
Marriage brings the expectation of sexuality, a topic that fascinated both Chopin and
Harper. The taboos, secrets, and sexual restrictions of the Victorian period are well known to
our modern sex-filled society. What the reader does not expect are Victorian women breaking
the code of silence surrounding sex. Many New Woman supporters advocated free love, that is,
sex outside of marriage. Others fought to end the sexual double standard that permitted men the
sexual freedom to patronize prostitutes, keep mistresses, and sexually assault black women.
Both Chopin and Harper were outspoken on the subject of sexuality, and though their techniques
and opinions differed, their writing remains fresh and relevant today.
In her book, Women on the Color Line, Anna Elfenbein describes how Chopin uses
existing stereotypes about the sexual promiscuity of women of color to explore topics off-limits
to “chaste” white women. Chopin’s stories, she explains, exploit an iconographic convention
that assimilates the presumed sexual ardency of the black woman to the sexuality of the white
woman by juxtaposing them. Thus, although Chopin makes free with the racist assumptions
prevalent in her day to depict realistically those women already stigmatized by imputations of
hypersexuality, she creates women characters on both sides of the chasm of color who are
motivated by romantic dreams but react in similar ways to sexual urges. Stressing the similarity
of her women characters, Chopin exploits the blurred racial categories of the milieu she describes
(Elfenbein 119-20).
In her most sexually overt story, “The Storm,” Chopin creates an explosive scene of
adulterous passion between Calixta and Alcee, characters from a previous story “The ‘Cadian
Ball.” In the earlier story, Chopin describes Calixta as a lower-middle class “Spanish vixen”
with brown skin and “hair that kinked worse than a mulatto’s” and a voice “with cadences in it
that must have been taught by Satan, for there was no one else to teach her tricks on that ‘Cadian
prairie” (Chopin 179). The narrator explains, “Calixta’s slender foot had never touched Cuban
soil; but her mother’s had, and the Spanish was in her blood all the same. For that reason the
prairie people forgave her much that they would not have overlooked in their own daughters or
sisters” (179). Alcee Labelliere is a prosperous upper-class white plantation owner with a
reputation for being a lady’s man. Before marrying their respective spouses, Calixta and Alcee
had a history of flirtation and kissing. When a storm leaves Calixta alone in the house and Alcee
stops by to take shelter, the situation revives their old attraction and leads to a steamy sexual
encounter. Without judgment, Chopin alleviates the shock of this sexual encounter by reminding
her readers of Calixta’s lower-middle class origins and her Spanish blood. Compare Calixta
“sewing furiously at the sewing machine” (281) to Madame LeBrun from The Awakening who
hires a young black girl to run the sewing machine: “The Creole woman does not take any
chances which may be avoided of imperiling her health” (66). Chopin reminds the reader of
Calixta’s class when she gives her a Southern dialect while Alcee speaks in grammatically
perfect English. Finally, the reader remembers Calixta’s Spanish origin in the subtle comment
about her vivacity and the hair that “kinked more stubbornly than ever” (282). Her overflowing
sexuality then, is linked to her race and class. Calixta cannot marry Alcee, though they are well
suited for one another, because of her background. Instead, she must marry the bumbling
Bobinot, a man of her own class, who significantly, is never referred to by his last name. The
lack of a surname indicates that Bobinot is not a prosperous landowner. He cannot compete with
the Labelliere name, nor can he offer Calixta the fineries that Alcee can.
Despite her sexual attractions, Calixta proves no temptation to Alcee when Clarisse
enters the picture. Besides being virtuous and hard to get, Clarisse is of the same social class and
ethnicity as Alcee. She would provide Alcee with the respectable marriage his station requires.
At the end of “The Storm,” the reader sees that though Chopin has allowed Calixta to experience
adulterous sexual fulfillment, Clarisse maintains the frigidity expected of an upper class white
woman. The narrator explains her sexual distance in the following passage: “And the first free
breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days. Devoted as
she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than
willing to forego for a while” (Chopin 286). Though Chopin attempts to tackle the controversial
topic of women’s sexual fulfillment, she confines her investigation to stereotypes of promiscuity
surrounding women of color.
In The Awakening, Chopin finally creates a white woman character with the remorseless
sexuality previously limited to women of color. Edna’s transformation from virtuous to sensuous
can be best illustrated by a close examination of her relationship with Mariequita. A passenger
on the ferry taking Edna and Robert to Grand Isle, Mariequita is described as “ a young
barefooted Spanish girl, with a …round, sly, piquant face and pretty black eyes…her feet were
broad and course. She did not strive to hide them. Edna looked at her feet, and noticed the sand
and slime between her brown toes” (Chopin 80). Mariequita represents a free and easy sexuality.
Self-confident, flirtatious, and unashamed of her body, she becomes the unconscious model on
which Edna moulds her awakening sexuality. At Grand Isle, Edna revels in the autoerotic quality
of her own body. Later, she learns sexual fulfillment in her affair with Alcee. In the final scene
before she swims to her death, “she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the
first time in her life she stood naked in the open air…How strange and awful it seemed to stand
naked under the sky! How delicious!” (175). Toes in the sand, naked to the world, Edna’s
transformation is complete.
In “Desiree’s Baby,” Chopin draws strong parallels between the relative powerlessness
of white women and black women under the oppressive hand of white male authority (Peel 226).
Early feminists often compared the white female experience of marriage to slavery. Though
dramatic, this metaphor proved compelling for Chopin. Whether white or black, Desiree’s
options are unsatisfactory. Elfenbein reminds the reader that as a white woman, Desiree could
easily be divorced for infidelity, yet has no power to divorce her husband on these charges. If
proven black, she and her child could be relegated to the status of a slave. Still worse, “If
Armand is black, Desiree may be vindicated by the discovery that she is not responsible for the
racial characteristics of their child, but she will be forever stigmatized socially by the fact that
she has been possessed by a black man and has borne his son” (127). The relationship between
Desiree and La Blanche underscores Chopin’s understanding of a shared oppression between
these two women: Armand Aubigny is the master of both women.
In her article, “Semiotic Subversion in ‘Desiree’s Baby,’” Ellen Peel points to the subtle
doubling of these characters’ names. The name Desiree “merely reflects others’ ‘desires’” (Peel
225). Symbolically, Desiree has been stamped with the desires of others, leaving her blank to her
own identity and interests. La Blanche literally means “white,” referring to the whiteness of her
skin, but “blanche can also mean ‘pure’ or ‘blank,’ recalling Desiree’s blankness” (Peel 226).
Another parallel appears when Desiree finally notices her child’s biracial heritage as she
subconsciously compares La Blanche’s son to her own. Ironically, Chopin alludes to a sexual
union between Armand and La Blanche, indicating that La Blanche’s son was fathered by
Armand. Not only do their sons share a father; these two women share one lover. Their sexual
positions are identical, yet the respectability of whiteness keeps Desiree from understanding her
connection to La Blanche. Armand himself acknowledges the similarity of their positions when
Desiree demands that her skin is whiter than Armand’s and he retorts, “As white as La
Blanche’s” (Chopin 193). With the buffer of whiteness removed, Desiree’s sexuality is
unsanctioned; she has lost the respect and protection of white femininity. Clearly, Chopin is
pointing out the powerlessness of female sexuality, black or white. When one human being has
control over and access to another’s body, pleasure, and reproductive capacity, life becomes
limited and dependent. While “The Storm” tells the story of a minority woman’s capacity for
sexual pleasure, “Desiree’s Baby” speaks of the universal oppression of women. Unfortunately,
Chopin’s women characters never outgrow the individualism that prevents them from uniting
against the stereotypes, limitations on passion, and oppression that confine their freedom and
self-realization. Chopin’s treatment of sexuality, though perceptive and often radical, is neither
empowering nor uninhibiting.
Confronting and negating stereotypes about black female sexuality becomes a primary
goal in Harper’s novel, Iola Leroy. Upon discovery that she is biracial and will be sold into
slavery, Iola, like Chopin’s Desiree, loses all the virtue and sexual protection she had as a white
female. Still, Harper contrives to allow Iola to maintain her virginity despite the attempts of
several white masters to initiate sexual contact. Though unrealistic, Harper intends for Iola’s
intact virginity to be a sign of empowerment. Still, the relationship between strength and virtue
is complex. Virginity was something to be protected and treasured. That Iola managed this feat
alone in the face of such temptation and hardship, is, for Harper, a sign of Iola’s strength and
excellent moral character. Ironically, at the same time that she is praised as a “reg’lar spitfire,”
she is spoken of as powerless “to protect herself from the highest insults that lawless brutality
could inflict upon innocent and defenseless womanhood” (Harper 39). Her virginity is inherently
a sign of vulnerability, a signal for chivalrous men to take action. Tom Anderson, a fellow slave
at the Anderson plantation, appeals to the Commander of his Northern post to protect Iola and set
her free: “The next day Tom had the satisfaction of knowing that Iola Leroy had been taken as a
trembling dove from the gory vulture’s nest and given a place of security” (Harper 39). Harper is
caught in her own web. Iola may be strong enough to defend herself, yet she must be delicate
and in need of rescue to meet white middle class definitions of womanhood.
In several instances, Iola refuses sexual advances or marriage proposals by referring to
her highly spiritual ideals or her devotion to her race. In Frank Latimer, Iola finds a dedicated
black man with similar intellectual, spiritual, and race-related pursuits. In the scene where Dr.
Latimer proposes, the reader, instead of finding romance and passion, hears only of the couple’s
dedication to their race: “His words were more than a tender strain wooing her to love and
happiness, they were a clarion call to a life of high and holy worth” (271). Against the myth of
black female hypersexuality, Iola loses nearly all sensuality, a sacrifice her lofty spirit does not
seem to miss. In trying to disprove stereotypes, Harper commits a double wrong by conforming
to white male sexual standards. First, she plays into the oppressor’s hand by accepting his sexual
standards. Second, she denies black women the right to acknowledge the assault and abuse from
white men, the right to claim their desire and passion, and the right to express that desire outside
of white male standards. Perhaps it is too much to ask Harper and other black women of the time
to risk personal safety by defying white rule to reclaim their sexuality. We must give credit to
Harper’s achievement: recognizing and disproving this long-standing stereotype.
In her poem, “A Double Standard,” Harper disapproves of the sexual double standard
that condemns a woman as “fallen,” yet allows a man to walk away from sexual sin. Though it
promotes a radical revision of sexual standards, Harper’s poem buys into the white middle class
belief that previous sexual experience is negative, a belief that would have been impractical and
unrealistic for the thousands of black women who had been raped, abused, and coerced into
unwanted sexual contact. Clearly, these women lived outside of white America’s sexual
standards. The difficulty of living in a culture that ignored, misinterpreted, and erased one’s
specific historical perspective must have been enormous. For Harper, the choice of alliances
would have been precarious. To continue receiving the support of wealthy white patrons, her
writing must be accessible to a white audience, yet her work was centered around “uplifting”
black communities. For many black Americans, the logical solution to this dilemma was to try to
“fit in” with normative white middle class attitudes. Thus, the black “uplift” movement touted
assimilation and conservatism, while the New Woman sought ways to break free from the rules
and restraints of the American middle class. Both Chopin and Harper spoke out against negative
views of female sexuality, but by conforming to preexisting stereotypes or sexual standards, both
authors limited their arguments.
Before the advent of birth control, marriage and sexuality brought with it the possibility
of pregnancy and motherhood. For mainstream Victorian society, motherhood was a woman’s
crowning glory. It was believed that a lifetime of love and devotion to one’s children should be
enough to fulfill any woman. Once again, the New Woman disagreed. She questioned why
women were expected to give up their future goals and dreams to become mothers, why
motherhood was compulsory to success as an adult woman. These questions are familiar to
readers of Chopin’s The Awakening. For Edna, motherhood felt unnatural and burdensome;
thoughts of the children came only sporadically. Marriage and motherhood held her back from a
discovery of her true self, the self she was expected to sacrifice to the needs of others upon
marriage. Edna explains to her married friend Adelle, “ that she would never sacrifice herself
for her children, or anyone. ‘I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would
give up my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin 97). Later, as Edna makes
her final suicidal swim, she thinks of her husband and children: “they need not have thought they
could possess her body and soul” (176).
In Harper’s essay, “Enlightened Motherhood,” she calls on black mothers to teach their
children to become good, strong citizens. She says, “The work of the mothers of our race is
grandly constructive. It is for us to build above the wreck and ruin of the past more stately
temples of thought and action…We need mothers who are capable of being character builders,
patient, loving, strong, and true, whose homes will be an uplifting power in the race” (Harper
292). Here, motherhood is a virtue, a much-needed skill in the effort to make the world a better
place. This very faith in the progress of the race (and the world) gives black women a hope and
goal that Edna and others like her did not have. After the horrors of slavery, progress seemed
inevitable for African Americans. Still for Chopin and other white women, progress was harder
to envision.
In her introduction to A Brighter Coming Day, Frances Smith Foster raises important
questions in connection with Harper’s origins. She notes that nearly all biographies mention that
Harper was born September 24, 1825, yet no where is there a record of her parents’ names
(Foster 5). Scholars agree that her mother died early, leaving Harper an orphan at the age of
three. This early loss left her in the care and tutelage of her aunt, Henrietta, and her uncle,
Reverend William Watkins, founder of the Watkins Academy. Harper attended the academy
until the age of thirteen, when she left to earn her own living. Foster argues:
Given the invisibility of women in most public records…it is not surprising that
[Harper’s] mother is not identified. However, given the prominence of the Watkins
family in Baltimore at that time, it is intriguing that biographers do not identify or
speculate about the identity of her father. This may be a conscious attempt to avoid
any…challenge[s] by white bourgeois audiences, because it is quite possible that Frances
Watkins [Harper], like many African-Americans, was fathered by a white man (6).
Not surprisingly, Harper’s own experience as an orphan helped her write about a people without
roots. In Iola Leroy, the period just after the Civil War was specifically focused on reunifying
families and forming attachments within the black community. For Iola and her uncle, finding a
mother was central to this healing process. The mother, then, becomes a way to connect with the
past and, in the process, connect with others. The widespread loss of ties to family, community,
and history actually functions to unite a drifting and disoriented people in a common experience.
Ironically, just as Harper was creating a bond between her fictional characters and their past, she
failed to leave an accurate record of her own origins and childhood. Historically, biographers
know little of Harper outside of her writing and letters. Today, no one knows the names of her
parents, yet she spoke of their absence in her lifetime: “Have I yearned for a mother’s love? The
grave was my robber. Before three years had scattered their blight around my path, death had
won my mother from me. Would the strong arm of a brother have been welcome? I was my
mother’s only child” (Still 784). Harper’s uncertain origins may also help explain the confusion
in her choice to support white middle-class standards, what some would call assimilation politics.
For instance, the unrealistic sexual standards of white America championed in “A Double
Standard” can be compared to the highly moral tone of “Vashti.” Here, Harper suggests that
retaining feminine virtue is more important than agreeing with the authority figure. Thus, at the
same time that she is defending white sexual standards, she rebels against the absolute power of
the ruling (white) class. The shortsightedness of Harper’s attack is ultimately weakened by the
inability to see the paradox that surrounds her argument.
Chopin also has an interesting personal history when examined in connection with her
writing. She grew up surrounded by strong, successful, and independent females. According to
Chopin’s biographer, Emily Toth, the author’s father died in a train accident when she was only
five. The loss of this domineering and patriarchal figure enabled Chopin’s mother to gain access
to an independence and freedom for which few married women could have hoped. After her
father’s death, Chopin’s grandmother, also a widow, moved into the house. She told her young
granddaughter stories of their women ancestors surviving and thriving in the rugged west. In
fact, Chopin’s great-grandmother was the first woman to divorce her husband in the state of
Missouri. Surrounded by generations of forceful women, Chopin gained further examples of
women’s strength while schooled at the Academy of the Sacred Heart. It was through the
examples of the nuns that she learned of women’s capacity for spiritual and intellectual fervor.
Although her childhood was filled with powerful women, most of Chopin’s women characters
are weak and trapped by the oppressive forces around them. One might conclude that her
personal experience with women’s independence made her especially sensitive to the oppression
of other women. Knowing that women can and do survive without male “protection”
undoubtedly changed her vision of Victorian gender constructs and enabled her to record the
injustice she saw in her fictional writing.
Despite her own female centered background, Chopin creates no strong mother daughter
relationships in The Awakening. In fact, the only mention of a mother and daughter interacting
takes place at a recital on Grand Isle: “ A little girl performed a skirt dance in the center of the
floor. The mother played her accompaniments and at the same time watched her daughter with
greedy admiration and nervous apprehension. She need have had no apprehension. The child
was mistress of the situation” (Chopin 69). In this short description, the reader finds that
mothers instruct their daughters on the proper behavior, attire, and posture with which to
construct an outward image pleasing to the audience of onlookers. This early performance is
merely a fantastic training session in the elaborate process of becoming an enticing Victorian
woman. The daughter’s success will be measured in her ability to capture a desirable husband,
and this achievement will be a representation of the mother’s skillful instruction. Underlying the
concern with outward appearance, there is little focus on self-understanding, self-realization, or
negotiating a successful relationship with one’s husband. Edna’s frustration with the
responsibilities of marriage and motherhood is, in part, a reflection of her own mother’s early
death. She has had little preparation for filling her role as wife and mother. The narrator
concludes, “It would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define to his own
satisfaction or any one else’s wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children. It was
something he felt rather than perceived …In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman”
(51). Edna has had even less encouragement to discover her own wishes and desires or attempt
to understand her own identity, and yet “Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in
the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within
and about her” (57). Edna’s disconnection from mother-daughter relationships also works to
enforce her sense of isolation in a patriarchal world. The narrator comments that Edna “ was not
a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child
she had lived her own small life all within herself” (57). With no intimate childhood girlfriends,
Edna has learned to undervalue female friendships and, consequently, to fill up her youth with
romantic fantasies of older men. Her fascination with the male sex and her romantic tendencies
foreshadow Edna’s dissatisfaction with the everyday realities of marriage, eventually leading her
to adultery. Her lack of female connection also prevents Edna from finding a realistic role model
in her search for self-realization. Clearly, Edna is neither a “mother-woman,” nor a celibate
intellectual and artist like Mademoiselle Reisz. When Adelle asks Robert to stop flirting with
Edna, she remarks, “Let Mrs. Pontellier alone…She is not one of us; she is not like us. She
might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously” (64). Adelle understands that Edna
is not a Creole either. She is an outsider looking in, desperately seeking her own identity.
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, more women left their homes to seek
employment. In response, conservatives once again used the doctrine of separate spheres to
remind women of their place in the home. New Woman supporters encouraged women to seek
higher education and to pursue their own careers. Although faced with prejudice at school, on
the job, and in the amount of pay received, they believed that a career or outside interest gave
women opportunities for self-realization that marriage and motherhood could not. In The
Awakening, Chopin’s character Edna aspires to be an artist. Art brings her “satisfaction of a kind
which no other employment afforded her” (Chopin 55). The creative act, the ability to see the
end product of her skill and imagination, provides Edna with a sense of meaning. The label of
artist gives direction to her listless energies. Without the opportunity to define herself through
work, Edna feels dissatisfied. In Iola Leroy, our heroine seeks employment at a department
store, not because she needs the money, but because “I have a theory that every woman ought to
know how to earn her own living.” The choices available for Edna and Iola demonstrate the
differences in their race and class. Art is intensely introspective and requires not only time, but
also a great amount of money. Edna’s desire to become an artist suits her introspective nature,
and is simultaneously, being one of the few occupations available for a respectable woman of her
class. Iola’s choice to work at a department store is rather daring: in those days, counter work
was reserved for white women. The public confrontations and descriptions of overt racism give
Iola the strength and determination she needs to help her people in the transition from slavery to
freedom.
Though each character’s choice of work proves beneficial in some way, race and class
limitations impact the connection and meaning these characters draw from their work. For Iola,
the problem is more than just a desire to work; she must also face the racism of her white
employers and coworkers. When her coworkers discover her ethnicity, she is immediately
ostracized and quickly resigns. Iola’s opportunity to define herself through her work is limited
by her coworkers’ definition of who should work in a department store (obviously, not minority
women). Yet, by barring Iola because of her race, these white female coworkers are playing into
the system of white male power. The same oppressor that forces black women into menial
domestic work prevents white women from obtaining high paying careers or moving into
traditionally male-dominated fields. Edna must also face others’ definitions and limitations for
female artists. When Leonce chastises Edna for putting her painting ahead of her family
obligations, he says, “It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household,
and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier days which would be better employed
contriving for the comfort of her family…in God’s name paint! but don’t let the family go to the
devil” (Chopin 108). A closer examination proves that both Chopin and Harper recognize the
limitations Edna and Iola face in their quest for meaningful employment.
In each case, Chopin and Harper agree that an outside occupation or talent can provide
women with the chance to find meaning in life or to attain some sort of self-realization. Why is
it that when it comes to economic independence, there is unanimous support? For Chopin,
writing provided the meaning she sought in life. It also opened her eyes to the sexism within the
worlds of art and literature. Harper, too, felt a sense of accomplishment at being able to support
herself through her lectures and writing. In her essay, “Colored Women of America,” she
proudly describes the success of hard working Southern black women:
The women as a class are quite equal to the men in energy and executive ability…In the
field the women receive the same wages as the men, and are often preferred…In
different departments of business, colored women have not only been enabled to keep the
wolf from the door, but also to acquire property…[and in some cases, be] the mainstay of
the family” (Harper 271-72).
Despite race or class, women gained a sense of pride in their accomplishments and in their
inherent skills through working. In a world where women were told to be self-sacrificing, work
provided a valuable sense of self-worth.
Interestingly, both Chopin and Harper use the presence of the “other” to convey a
heroine’s oppression to the reader and at times to the heroine herself. The “other” also functions
to connect the multiple forms of oppression through race, class, and gender in the reader’s mind.
In The Awakening, Edna has several encounters with women of different class and ethnic
backgrounds. In one of the most direct encounters with the “other,” Edna must face the forces
that keep her in check. Feeling the weight of her marriage bond, Edna symbolically attempts to
break the ties that hold her to Leonce: “and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the
carpet…she stamped her heel upon it…but her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a
mark upon the little glittering circlet” (Chopin 103). Hearing the commotion, the maid enters the
room, cleans up the remnants of Edna’s tantrum, and returns her ring. With this small action, the
maid reminds Edna of her place as Mrs. Pontellier, a respectable and well-behaved upper class
white woman. Literary critic, Anna Elfenbein argues, “Caring for Edna as she cares for the other
possessions in Leonce Pontellier’s household, the maid extends the reach of Leonce’s power by
reenacting his [earlier] gesture with Edna's wedding ring. Edna’s response to the maid signals
once more her blind resignation to the relationships that perpetuate her husband’s power over
her” (151). This scene proves compelling because the tensions surrounding and between these
two very different women is rooted not only in class distinctions, but also in their connection to
Leonce Pontellier. One wonders if the maid realizes Edna’s frustration and isolation and
conversely, if Edna sees the maid’s oppression.
Though Edna’s vision may be obstructed, Chopin’s narrator oversteps these limitations
to comment on the women of color enabling Edna and her friends to continue her privileged
existence. Perhaps Chopin’s most satiric commentary on the mistreatment of the “other” comes
in the scene when Edna visits the LeBruns in New Orleans. As she waits at the gate, Edna
overhears Victor arguing with the maid about who should open the gate. Later he explains that,
“the black woman’s offensive conduct was all due to imperfect training, as he was not there to
take her in hand,” (Chopin 111). By continually casting him in a bad light, the narrator reproves
Victor and his mistreatment of the servants. The narrator’s subtle observations and wry
commentary on the plight of the “other” illuminate Chopin’s awareness of the oppression
surrounding her. Elfenbein comments: “Striving for individual transcendence, Edna discovers
the bounds of her prison, coterminous with those confining other women. But because her
thinking, including a negative view of her own sex, is grounded in convention, her solitary
insights are unfocused” (143). Although Edna is not always aware of her privileged existence,
the narrator’s subtle irony reveals Chopin’s determination to convey the oppression surrounding
her.
In the final scene when Edna arrives at Grand Isle, she again confronts the “other,” this
time in the form of Mariequita. Filled with Victor’s stories and exaggerations of Edna’s party,
Mariequita’s vision of this upper class white woman has been skewed: “She contemplated with
the greatest interest this woman who gave the most sumptuous dinners in America, and who had
all the men in New Orleans at her feet” (Chopin 174). The young Spanish woman, who had
been chatting comfortably with Victor, is immediately restored to her lower rank upon Edna’s
unexpected arrival. Victor says, “You may go to my room to brush up and rest yourself.
Mariequita will show you” and again, “‘Run and find Philomel’s mother,’ Victor instructed the
girl. ‘I’ll go the kitchen and see what to do. By Gimminy! Women have no consideration! She
might have sent me word.” Here, Edna’s upper class insensitivity makes her unable to consider
the trouble she has caused for these “others.” While Edna is swimming out to her death,
Mariequita and Victor will be hurriedly arranging suitable accommodations for her. Elfenbein
sums up Mariequita’s role as the
dark woman [Edna] needs to provide a plausible story of her accidental drowning.
Mariequita will provide that story, for she believes in the mythic Edna [of] Victor’s
construct…[her] belief in the mythic Edna reconfirms the potency and prevalence of the
romantic illusions that divide women from each other. A final contrast to Edna, who
detaches herself from story-making and story hearing by committing suicide, Mariequita
survives untouched by Edna’s awakening (157).
Here, Chopin forces a direct encounter between the privileged and the other in a moment of
crisis. By simply commenting on Mariequita’s role in Edna’s final moments, Chopin directs our
attention to the plight of the “other.”
In Chopin’s short story, “La Belle Zoraide,” Manna-Loulou tells her mistress, Madame
Delisle, a bedtime story of desperate lovers and madness. Set in the antebellum era, MannaLoulou’s story is about La Belle Zoraide, a beautiful slave, who falls in love with an
inappropriate man. When Zoraide gives birth, her mistress sells the father and tells Zoraide that
her infant is dead. Misery piles higher as Zoraide goes insane and becomes a useless slave.
What strikes the reader about this story is Manna-Loulou’s creative power. When Madame
Delisle asks Manna-Loulou for a true story, she turns over her own reality for the interpretations
from the “other.” Manna-Loulou’s ability to connect Zoraide’s powerlessness as a black woman
with Madame Delisle’s own passivity as a Southern “lady” listener escaping her reality through
the stories of “others” is incredible. Yet, Madame Delisle fails to “see the connection between
Zoraide’s escape into madness and her own escape into a world of fantasy” (Elfenbein 134).
Chopin brilliantly weaves together the lives of these characters and illustrates the
interdependence race and class have on her character’s existence.
While Chopin’s characters often miss the relevance of the “other” in their need to retreat
from the reality of their own lives, Harper’s characters--on the receiving end of racism and
sexism--generally seem to grasp the perspective of the “other,” in this case, the white majority,
with ease. When Iola speaks to her uncle about working at a department store, he speaks from
the white storeowner ’s perspective: “When [the owner] advertises for help he means white
women…He doesn’t expect any colored girl to apply” (Harper 205). Still, understanding that
racism exists does not prevent the Leroy family and their friends from trying to improve society
and defy white prejudices. Living with the multiple layers of oppression everyday, Harper’s
characters relate to the presence of the “other” by disproving white stereotypes and
demonstrating their own worthiness. Iola’s uncle, Robert, is an excellent example of Harper’s
ability to navigate through the omnipresent, yet, often missing, white presence. Harper opens the
novel with Robert as the information connection between the slaves and news of the war. Highly
educated for a black slave, Robert secretly reads the newspapers and spreads word of the fight
for freedom. When he runs away to join the Union army, Robert quickly becomes an officer of
the black regiment. Again, he is a link between the upper echelon of white command and the
black soldiers fighting for every slave’s freedom. Though many black characters are portrayed
with a dialect, Robert speaks perfect English. After the war, Robert reunites the Leroy family
and moves North to start his own successful hardware store. Despite Northern prejudices,
Robert is a financial and social success. He is able to provide for his new family and enter the
new black intelligentsia. The reader finds that Harper sets Robert as a model of success to enrich
the hopes of her black audience, yet like Chopin’s Manna-Loulou, she also uses him as a bridge
between black and white culture.
For the modern reader, Chopin and Harper offer a glimpse at the past through a specific
gender, race, and class view. We learn of women fighting to change limitations on their freedom,
we learn of women breaking free of class and race restrictions, we learn of women fighting
stereotypes and creating new forms of self-expression. We also see how gender, race, and class
assumptions bound these two authors into certain limited ways of thinking and expressing
themselves. Comparing Chopin and Harper to the gender radical New Woman also provides the
modern reader with a deeper comprehension of the varying critiques of contemporary Victorian
political and social values. Radically ahead of their time, Chopin and Harper continue to offer us
a modern examination of the multiple layers of oppression in nineteenth century American
culture.
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