26 pages • 52 minutes read
A Respectable Woman
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Literary Devices
Ambiguous Ending
“A Respectable Woman” begins with an expectation, but it resolves without one. The story opens with Mrs. Baroda’s presumptions about her husband’s friend, while the ending wraps up by directly withholding her expectations or plans. In this regard, the ambiguous ending adds a symmetry to the narrative. Furthermore, instead of revealing exactly what Mrs. Baroda will do, the ambiguous ending invites readers to form their own expectations and make their own meaning out of the story. This literary device, therefore, has a rhetorical purpose, allowing the story to be more engaging by encouraging readers to enter more deeply into the imagined world and consider its many possibilities. When “A Respectable Woman” was first published in Vogue magazine in the 1890s, the primary readership likely would have been women with lives similar to Mrs. Baroda’s, which would have made the ambiguous ending even more relevant and engaging.
Verisimilitude
Writers working within the Realist tradition sought to bring a “realness” to their writing via the characters, plot, and setting. Verisimilitude in fiction involves using specific details that give the story an appearance and feeling of reality.
Chopin creates verisimilitude for the Louisiana plantation setting through small, specific details, such as the “wide portico in the shade of one of the big Corinthian pillars” (Paragraph 5), “the scented, velvety touch” of the breeze coming off of a sugar field (Paragraph 6), and “the live oak tree at the end of the gravel walk” (Paragraph 17). There are elements of verisimilitude in the characters, as well. Gaston’s character uses French expressions when talking to his wife, which would be true-to-life for a Louisiana planter of French ancestry. Gouvernail’s cigar, and his quotation of Walt Whitman, are also authentic-seeming details that lend the story greater realness.
The injection of these descriptions within such a short story adds a sense of truth to the story, making it more immersive.
Juxtaposition
Chopin employs various forms of juxtaposition to compare and contrast elements of the text. The Search for Female Identity and Devotion Versus Desire are two central themes, both of which are developed through juxtaposition. Mrs. Baroda is torn between two very different, conflicting images of what kind of woman she is: a respectable woman or a rebellious and independent one. An adjacent juxtaposition involves which type of relationship she will pursue: one of duty and devotion or one of passion and desire. There are then the two male characters. Gaston is frank and talkative, while Gouvernail is mysterious and quiet. Gaston is tied more to everyday details of married life and the sugar plantation, whereas Gouvernail is an outsider and linked to broader concepts like nature and poetry.
Foil
While there is juxtaposition in the characterizations of Gaston and Gouvernail, the two characters both also function as foils for Mrs. Baroda, bringing out different aspects of her character.
Gaston highlights the qualities that Mrs. Baroda believes make her a respectable woman: her social standing as a planter’s wife, her devotion to her husband, her sensible nature, and her duty to do what is expected. By contrast, Gouvernail highlights her other qualities, which become increasingly prominent. These include her curiosity, her sense of discovery, her feelings of desire, and her sense of independence. The two men’s contrast with one another, and how they each emphasize aspects of the protagonist, make the story more dynamic and accentuate its major themes.
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By Kate Chopin
