Would you describe what looks to me like an odd sort of connection between Chopins short story “A Shameful Affair” and her stories “At The Cadian Ball” and “The Storm”?
Perhaps it’s not so odd a connection. “A Shameful Affair” is an earlier Chopin story, is set in Missouri rather than in Louisiana, and does not involve Creole or Acadian society. But in some ways it’s similar to Chopin’s two more famous works in its focus on a man and woman attracted to each other but restrained by the sexual norms of the times. Mildred and Fred are wealthy, educated people who, because of late nineteenth-century norms, keep their sexual feelings towards others, especially others of their own class, under very tight control. It was, however, common for an upper-class man to have a “fling,” as Chopin calls it in “At the ‘Cadian Ball,” with a woman of a lower social class. An upper-class woman would not likely have a fling with a lower-class man. But Chopin in this story reverses those male/female roles. Until Mildred gets the letter from her friend (after she and Fred kiss) she does not realize that Fred is from her own class. But he’s a handsome, sexually powerful guy,
Related Questions
- The story "Athénaïse" seems really out of character with Kate Chopins other works—with The Awakening and stories like "The Storm," "The Story of an Hour," "A Respectable Woman," or "A Pair of Silk Stockings." What do critics think of it?
- Would you describe what looks to me like an odd sort of connection between Chopins short story "A Shameful Affair" and her stories "At The Cadian Ball" and "The Storm"?
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