Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” is about the complexities of being a woman in post-antebellum south. At the surface, it is a story of Desiree giving birth to her first child and the aftermath. Peeling back the layers, however it is much more than a sad story, it is a snapshot in time that reveals the double standards of the post-antebellum south. In this paper I discuss the role of women in “Desiree’s Baby”, and how they can both meet and defy expectations set on them by a society that sees women as mere props to their male counterparts.
Desiree’s adopted mother is the first female in the story to defy expectations set upon her. A wealthy woman who has no biological children. We can surmise that Madame Volmondé is wealthy because her last name is the same as her estate, which she refers to when asking Desiree to come home. “’My own Désirée: Come home to Valmondé; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child.’” (1075) and she is referred to as “portly” (1073) she also had the means to take in young Desiree, something that would not have been done if she could not care for her. Her want for a child to call her own is stronger than the conventions of society. Conventions which tell her that taking in a child, especially one that has been abandoned is not what is done when you are a woman with some wealth. She takes Desiree in and raises her lovingly; as her own. Madame Valmondé obviously cares greatly for her daughter as she urges her to come back to their home and stay with her son after Desiree’s relationship with Armond sours. She also expresses concern for her daughter earlier when asking if her son-in-law has seen the child, knowing that he must see what her daughter does not.
Desiree deifies the expectations set by society during the 1800s. Despite being left by a caravan from Texas as a toddler she is adopted by Madame Volmonedé as her own. She is then seen by Armond Aubigny and promptly engaged to him, another defiance. She, with no name marries and bears a child with one of the most storied names in New Orleans at that time. At the same time, she meets expectations as she gives birth to a son, who can carry on the name of his father.
She lives her life as a wealthy wife would, “The young mother was recovering slowly, and lay full length, in her soft white muslins and laces, upon a couch.” (1073) And she has no issue handing her child off to others, as one would do if they had the means for servants and slaves. Still she is defiant at the core, she talks casually with her husband and is unafraid to talk back to him in an argument. “’Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand,’ she laughed hysterically.” (1075) She also does not fully understand her mother’s apprehension over her new grandson. She may have been raised as a lady of the time but she still often reacts in opposite to how she is expected to. She understands their weight and as she is crushed to learn that her child is not fully white despite her being pale and presumed white. Whether or not she knows that Armond is the one who is partially black or not, is unknown but she bears the full weight of the accusation, never once accusing her husband in turn. In her last act she both meets expectations by bearing the full brunt of the accusations of her husband but she is also defiant till her last hour by deciding to drown herself and her son, rather than living a quiet life with her mother.
Armond uses Desiree as a tool and a prop. At first we are made to believe that Armond was so taken by her beauty that he married her despite being warned that she was left as a child and therefore had no agency. He may well have loved her in the beginning but as the story unfolds it becomes increasingly clear that he has used Desiree to test his own lineage. As Desiree has no name and no known biological family it is very easy for him to blame their son breaking the “one drop rule” on her. Never letting anyone know that he is the one who is not fully white.
“He coldly but gently loosened her fingers from about his arm and thrust the hand away from him. ‘Tell me what it means!’ she cried despairingly.
‘It means,’ he answered lightly, ‘that the child is not white; it means that you are not white.’” (1075) This exchange showcases Armond’s indifference towards his wife now that they have had a child and it cannot pass for white. Yet he is still gentle because there might still be an inkling of affection for her in his heart. Still, that affection for her cannot outdo his ambition. An ambition that cannot be obstructed by chains of racism in the south. So he casts her away and squarely lays the blame on her, lying to her face by saying that she is the one who is not fully white when it is in fact him. Armond may not be fully white, but he is still a man and in the 1800’s a man’s word meant more than a woman’s did. Especially when he is a man who can pass for fully white.
Armond’s relationship with his own mother is complicated. There are few sentences in the story in which she is referred to. In the very beginning it is alluded to that she moved and died in France, her country. Women of that time and status did not normally care for their children on their own and usually had a wetnurse or nurse who looked after the child. That is shown with Desiree and her own baby, at the end she goes looking for her child and takes it from a nurse.
“Désirée went in search of her child. Zandrine was pacing the sombre gallery with it.
She took the little one from the nurse’s arms with no word of explanation, and descending the steps, walked away, under the live-oak branches.” (1076) So it can be assumed that Armond’s mother had little to do with his actually upbringing, even in his earlier years. All ties were cut when she left for France and based on the story’s end, Armond probably did not know the truth of his heritage until later in life. For as this passage shows,
“’But, above all,” she wrote, ‘night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our 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.’” (1076)
Although we have no contextual clues in the actual story the reader can infer that Armond is filled with shame and even spiteful towards his mother as he burns all evidence of Desiree, all while reading the letter claiming him as her son. Perhaps keeping the letter as a reminder of who he really is, that he may be passing but he can’t ignore his own history.
Kate Chopin does a great job of linking the three woman presented in “Desiree’s Baby” and illustrating their influence on men and how that relates to their position in life and in society. Even women who marry to wealthy men with status in the community are powerless when confronted by their male counterparts. Although they may have status, ultimately they are seen as decoration, as property and means to make an heir. They have little agency over their own life.