The Role Of Society In The Short Stories "Mademoiselle" And "Desiree´S Baby"

In the short stories "Mademoiselle" and "Desiree´s Baby", society plays a
significant role, determining a person´s sexual and racial identity.
o How are the characters´ lives influenced by society in these two stories?
o How can society´s function be explained in the stories` context?
o Provide textual evidence to support yourarguments.


In Kate Chopin`s Desiree`s Baby and in Guy de Maupassant`s Mademoiselle is pre-

sented the same great issue:society`s function against everything that is far from the ste

reotypes that have predominated each time.In both stories society influences the identi-

ty of the two basic heroes. In Desiree`s baby is influenced the racial identity ,while in

Mademoiselle isinfluenced the sexual identity. Kate Chopin`s heroine is a sensitive

but also brave woman who wants to live happily with her husband and her child. Her

husband,Armand, is a man who loves his wife but above all he thinks about society`s

opinion and his personal fame.As a result both Desiree`s and Armand`s lives are in-

fluenced in the worst way since they divorce in order to be inaccordance with the so-

cial stereotypes of their time.On the other hand Mademoiselle, a very delicant, tender

and vulnerable person is easily influencened by people and generally society ,so that he

tries to change his true nature in order to be acceptable,but he ends up being miser-

able.This particular society`s function can be explained by the fact that society does

acceptsonly the medium and not anything different and unordinary.

Desiree`s baby hypothesis is the following:Desiree is a young and beautiful woman,

who was adopted ever since she was a baby and she is married to Armand Aubigny, a

rich landowner from Louisiana.Some months after their marriage their first child is

born and they both feel very happy and proud.But three months later thebaby´s skin

becomes darker and Armand does not hesitate to blame Desiree for her unknown ori-

gin.Finally Desiree leaves Armand and takes the baby with her, while some weeks later

he discovers from an old letter that it was him, who belonged to the black race.On the

contrary in Mademoiselle the basic hero, Jean-Marie Mathieu Valot, is a young man

who was called since his birth"Mademoiselle",a nickname that her mother had given to

him.As a result Jean-Marie started wearing clothes for women and adjusted his behav-

iour in order to be more feminine.Everyone got used to him,so when he makes his

appearence dressed like a boy ,after he had been challenged by a villager,he receives

great hostility.The next day dressed himself as a girl again ,but some timelater he was

caught, while he was trying to rape a village girl,named Josephine.

In both stories there is a third person narrator ,who presents through the actions and

the conflicts the heroes`characters.In Desiree`s baby Desiree is delineated as an ordin-

ary and romantic woman ,who loves and cares about her husband and wants to live

happily.She is sensitive ,because she hasan outburst of pain when she is accused by her

own husband unjustly(...A quick conception...laughed hysterically & 25)but she is also

brave and proud,since she desides to live alone with her child in a very difficult time for

women generally.Furthermore she is the obvious victim of the story because she pays

more attention to her own happiness than society`s taboes.On theother hand Armand

is totally a different character.In the beggining he seemed to love Desiree but later it`s

prooved that society`s stereotypes were more important for him ,since he sends away

his wife and child because he thinks that the baby has a dark skin because of Desiree`s

origin.As a result,he becomes very cold,strict,cruel and ironic to his wife(..."Armand"

she called at...