Parallels Between the Muting of Women and Blacks in Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" by Billy Sayers
Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby," a work of fiction, walks the line between the feminine and the feminist1 as it parallels the muted culture of the white American woman with that of the slave, primarily that of the black slave, in 1800's America. Using clear visual imagery and subtle literary clues, Chopin paints a picture revealing the oppressive nature of the white, male-dominated culture. In doing so, she allows her readers to look through the veil to see a harsh reality where both women and blacks are denied a voice. The story is the tale of the foundling Desiree, a young mother who is cast out by her husband, Armand Aubigny because of the black child born to them. Desiree vanishes into the swamp with her child while Armand discovers a letter proving that he himself is half-black. The story is engendered in such a way as to draw a sympathetic ear from both men and women. Chopin speaks out against abuses of masculinity and against racial inequality. Her primary argument is that dominance does not equate with righteousness and that a dominant culture may still be very wrong in its actions and viewpoints. She exemplifies the concept of un-naming, both for women and slaves, particularly in regard to female gender formation in the male gaze. She takes special care to illustrate the physical, sexual, and psychological domination of these two muted cultures. It is through careful examination of these three primary means of social domination, physical, sexual, and psychological, as well as a careful examination of Desiree's un-naming that readers come to a full understanding of the parallel circumstances of the black slave and the white woman.
On the most basic of levels, Chopin draws parallels between the physical domination of the two muted cultures featured in "Desiree's Baby." Armand Aubigny, the primary male figure in the story. is drawn as a physically abusive overlord. Passages such as "Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one, too, and under it his negroes had forgotten how to be gay," reveal to the reader the kind of physical domination placed upon the shoulders of the slaves (Chopin 2). A similar passage, "When he frowned [his wife] trembled, but loved him" suggests to the reader that young Aubigny, Armand, was as physically intimidating with his wife as he was with his slaves (Chopin 3). This of particular importance, because physical intimidation is one of the primary and most effective tools used by dominant cultures in order to both establish and maintain their dominance. Chopin paints her pictures carefully, showing the physical effects of such a culture. For example, she writes, "[Aubigny’s house] was a sad looking place, which for many years had not known the gentle presence of a mistress"(Chopin 2). This visual imagery is more than just descriptive of a location; it is descriptive of the culture of the day, male dominated, white dominated, without the input of another, both sad and harsh.
Physical domination is further exemplified as Armand acts upon those physical reminders of his wife's perceived racial heritage. After the birth of his and Desiree’s “black child,” Armand assumes the child’s race is purely the fault of its mother. Desiree and the baby are driven away, and their possessions are burned. By physically removing the evidence of that which he does not like, Armand once more asserts his own dominance, much the same as he would when "the spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves" (Chopin 3). In fact, the only option left to Desiree is to commit suicide. It is her final cry to establish a voice for herself. Gregg Camfield, author of Kate Chopin-houer: Or Can Metaphysics Be Feminized? states that through her suicide Desiree physically asserts her will in the only way she can, "because it can no longer assert itself otherwise." Camfield surmises that the will cannot "give up willing" and therefore must therefore instead "give up living." Neither slave nor women have the physical power to overcome the influence of their oppressors, and so they speak out in the only way they can. The only physical acts that have any meaning are those of suicide or submission. In the case of the slaves in "Desiree's Baby," Chopin suggests only submission. Desiree, of course chooses suicide. Each is effectively muted in life and Desiree is only audible in death. In essence, she is free only to die, because her life has been determined by her husband’s desires.
A second, but equally important concept is a subtle thread woven through "Desiree's Baby", that of sexual domination. This is, of course, the most powerful form of physical domination. Heightening the concept of simple physical control, the concept of sexual domination is focused primarily on the desires of the dominant, their lusts and appetites. Astute readers are quick to notice that the engagement between the titular Desiree and Armand is not protracted but rather sudden. He fell in love with her, "as if struck by a pistol shot" upon seeing her; "The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles" (Chopin 1). This is the very image of unbridled lust. The husband takes the wife because she pleases him, not so that he may please her. The meaning of Desiree's name, “the desired one,” places her here as a mere object of Armand's lust. In parallel, there are also subtle hints as to Armand's sexual domination of the slaves he keeps. At least three times in Desiree's Baby is a character named La Blanche mentioned in such a way as to suggest a sexually intimate relationship between herself and Armand. First, Desiree mentions that Armand could hear her child crying from "as far away as La Blanche's cabin" (Chopin 2). Readers must wonder why he is there. It was certainly not uncommon for men of the day to have sexual relations with their female slaves. The slaves were, after all, considered to be only property. The psychological effect on those slaves cannot be truly measured. The men would feel powerless to stop the abuse of their women, while the women themselves must certainly be devastated. Chopin enhances this suggestion by relating that La Blanches children are "quadroon" (Chopin 3). Readers understanding Armand's own ethnic background will be quick to surmise that he could easily be the father. Chopin then reveals Armand's intimate physically familiarity with La' Blanche. He is so familiar with La Blanche's physical form that at one point he comments that Desiree's hands are "As white as La Blanche's" (Chopin 4). This sexual domination of his slaves carries over to affect Desiree as well, serving as an example to the sexual domination of women by men. Women of the day were most probably not in the practice of pleasuring themselves with their male slaves. This is more than just a separate sphere culture. In this milieu, men are given a sexual liberty that elevates them above their female counterparts. They are, by virtue of exercising their lust upon their slaves, elevating themselves, sexually, above even women of their own race. Continuing this line of reasoning, readers must understand that because of such sexual domination, that a woman's race had little impact or meaning on her social status. Desiree is entirely dependent upon the status of Armand. According to author Anna Shannon Elfenbein's brilliant discussion on the subject, Desiree's life is bound to the race of her husband. If he is black, she is outcast, sexually contaminated. If he is white, she is of no more value than a slave, an object to be used at his discretion (127). Such domination is overtly sexual. It places nearly limitless sexual freedom upon white men, while subjecting women of any race to their "masters' desires." The significance of Desiree’s name here cannot be understated. She is a desired possession of her husband, nothing more.
While the physical and sexual domination of the black slave and the white woman serve as primary tools of the white master, they are both merely a means to an end. That end is the psychological domination of both the woman and the slave, and in this they are both slaves. Desiree, clearly referred to and described by Chopin as "white" throughout, is forced to question if she is of what she believes to be an inferior race of people, and this simply because her husband says it is so. Desiree is chastised by her husband as being at fault for the race of the child, bearing the sole blame without any semblance of fault assigned to himself. Author Teresa Gilbert suggests that readers themselves are drawn into the net of placing stereotypical judgments upon the characters. She argues that readers never question the race of Armand, and that they do not question his race simply because he is wealthy and perceived as white, thereby making him above reproach. Desiree, through the psychological domination of the white male society around her, has fallen into the same snare. She has lost her own ability think rationally, instead looking to her husband, or her adopted mother, to tell her even which race she belongs too. After being blamed for the race of her child, she calls out to her mother for help, pleading, "Armand has told me I am not white" (Chopin 4). When called home by that same compassionate mother, then clearly unloved and unwanted by her husband, she still defers to him for the decision to be made, asking, "Shall I go, Armand? Do you want me to go?" (Chopin 4). His psychological torture of her is evident as Chopin describes him as thinking "Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him; and felt, somehow, that he was paying Him back in kind when he stabbed thus into his wife's soul" (Chopin 4). Chopin paints Armand as a cold master, treating his wife as he would one of his slaves, casting her off rather than tolerating the sight of her or her contaminated child. He takes no ownership or responsibility for the two lives his own actions destroy.
Under such domination, it is little wonder that Desiree lost her ability to think for herself. In fact, her suicide is her only act of free will, from her marriage to her death. In this loss, she parallels a loss of humanity that is suggested towards the slaves. Though finally mentioned by name, one slave is first described by Chopin as "yellow nurse woman" (Chopin 2). Such a description dehumanizes her, as does the description of Desiree as "The idol of Valmonde" (Chopin 1). She is an object to be worshipped at best, to be looked upon certainly, but nonetheless an object made by the master's hand and discarded at his displeasure. Desiree's place was simply to please her husband, to maintain the status quo within his sphere, just like the slaves, inhuman, without a voice, "out in the still fields ... picking cotton"(Chopin 5). Because they have been denied the ability to think, they are dehumanized, devoiced, and remain under the thumb of a tyrant. In this dehumanization, race and gender are equally unprivileged outside of the dominate combination, white and male. All others are not only disregarded by the dominant, but taught to disregard themselves, deferring to the dominant for personal definition.
The absolute oppression of the slaves of L'Abri parallels the oppression of Desiree-- and thereby-- of the white woman of the day, in one other key way. Desiree is un-named. Her name, meaning the "desired one," is not her own, given to her, as it was, by her adopted mother. Chopin gives her both an ambiguous past, and an uncertain name to serve as dramatic tools, casting doubt in the reader's minds as to her true race, and to serve as a marker for the muting of her own voice. This un-naming of Desiree speaks to the relationship she holds next to the dominant figure of Armand. In fact, though she was named by her adopted mother, her own husband, for the duration of the story, never addresses her by that name. Author Derek Foster states, "Armand never calls Desiree by name; thus, he never affords her a title. It suggests that Armand is really more concerned with himself and glorifying himself than with the acknowledging on any level of Desiree's equality in the relationship." In fact, Armand states that her name did not truly matter to him, for, "What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?" (Chopin 2). Ellen Peel, author of "Semiotic Subversion in 'Desiree's Baby'" says that the significance of Desiree's name parallels the common practice of renaming African slaves :"Namelessness connotes not only femaleness but blackness in antebellum society...her lack of a name could serve figuratively as a warning to Armand that she might be black. But he only sees what he desires".
This un-naming and re-naming marks a hierarchy of authority in Desiree's baby. Armand, the understood white male, sits at the top, while Desiree sits only slightly elevated above the status of a slave, and that only by the whim of her husband. Armand holds all the power, repressing his own racial memories of his black mother. He defines his wife in such a way as to remain blameless in the face of anything less that absolute proof of his own corruption, and even perhaps moving beyond that due to the perception of his own whiteness. R.R. Foy, author of "Chopin's Desiree's Baby" suggest that Armand's treatment of his wife is a construct of the societal expectations set upon him, calling him a "deeply flawed character," who "hates the very thing that he is." Those same societal expectations, however, provide him with the necessary tools to not only hide his "flaws" but to assign them to another because of her culturally assigned inferior role.
Readers are given no indication that the events described in the final lines of "Desiree's Baby" bring about any change in Armand; however, his mother serves as an excellent example of a culture voluntarily muted. Not a slave, but a free black woman in France, she embraces an early death, celebrating that her son will not know the truth of his own heritage. Her voice as a black woman is voluntarily silenced. She is her own oppressor, and to a large degree responsible for the oppression of others. She is the black mother of a black boy who will grow to be a white man. Readers might wonder if Desiree could survive in the wild zone into which she vanishes, but her survival is unlikely. Ultimately, she is silent, beaten psychologically, unaware of who she is, with no voice to speak for her. Her body is unwritten. Her voice is unheard. Her name is not even her own. She is a slave like any other, because she does not own herself. She cannot define herself. She has succumbed to the physical, sexual, and psychological oppression of her husband. She has only the name that was given to her, a name which her oppressive mate will not even use. She is a slave to her own acceptance of her place in society. Her role as a woman is of no more value to her than a slaves role is to them. Both are silent. It is with this tragic silence that Chopin speaks to her readers. It is with the magnification of this silence that she writes her own voice, her own body, and her readers hear. Distinguishing right and wrong is not a mysterious process within "Desiree's Baby." The true villainy of the dominant culture is revealed clearly, and in seeing such tragedy, Chopin's readers are inspired, to take a psychological stand, to speak for themselves against the domination that has for so long left their voices unheard. Neither sex nor race, but the quiet submission to the voice or will of another is what truly makes one a slave.
Works Cited
Camfield, Gregg. "Kate Chopin-hauer: Or Can Metaphysics Be Feminized?."Southern Literary Journal 27.2 (1995). Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Nov. 2010.
Chopin, Kate. "Desiree's Baby." A Pair of Silk Stockings and Other Stories. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1996.1-5. Print.
Elfenbein, Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin.Charlottesville:UP. United States. 1989. Print.
Foster, Derek W., and Kris LeJeune. "'Stand by Your Man …': Désirée Valmondé and Feminist Standpoint Theory in Kate Chopin's 'Désirée's Baby'."Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South 8.1-2 (1997): 91-97. EBSCOhost. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.
Gibert, Teresa. "Textual, Contextual and Critical Surprises in 'Désirée's Baby'."Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 14.1-3 (2004): 38-67.MLA International Bibliography. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.
Peel, Ellen. "Semiotic Subversion in 'Désirée's Baby'." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 62, no. 2 (June 1990). MLA International Bibliography.Web. 9 Nov. 2010.
Showalter, Elaine. “The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature and Theory.” New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. Print.
1 Elaine Showalter, one of the most respected feminist critics in modern America, defines the ideas of the feminine and feminist according to at least two distinct literary traditions. They my be categorized by time period to some degree, 1840-1880 and 1880-1920, respectively. Showalter argues that the female author’s style and approach to her writing in respect to her culture is vastly different in these two traditions. The feminine is more conformed, using subtle literary tools to speak with her audience, while the feminist is more bold, directly conflicting with, and often rebelling against, the cultural norms of her day. See Showalter’s introduction to The New Feminist Criticism (Showalter 3-17).