Though constrained by biological determinism, social conditioning, and marriage, Louise reclaims her own life-but at a price. Her husband’s death forces Louise to reconcile her “inside” and “outside” consciousness-a female double consciousness within Louise’s thoughts. Alone among magazines of the 1890s, Vogue published fearless and truthful portrayals of women’s lives.” Emily Toth Because she had Vogue as a market-and a well-paying one-Kate Chopin wrote the critical, ironic, brilliant stories about women for which she is known today. “In the mid- to late 1890s, Vogue was the place where Chopin published her most daring and surprising stories. Kate Chopin “was a life-long connoisseur of rickety marriages, and all her wisdom is on display in her piercing analysis of this thoroughly average one.” Christopher Benfey Mallard will grieve for the husband who had loved her but will eventually revel in the ‘monstrous joy’ of self-fulfillment, beyond ideological strictures and the repressive effects of love.” Mary Papke
Love is not a substitute for selfhood indeed, selfhood is love’s precondition.” Barbara C. “Love has been, for Louise and others, the primary purpose of life, but through her new perspective, Louise comprehends that ‘love, the unsolved mystery’ counts for very little.
The story is “one of feminism’s sacred texts,” Susan Cahill writing in 1975, when readers were first discovering Kate Chopin. A great deal has been written about this story for many years.
