The Kiss by Kate Chopin.

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

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The Kiss

People might appear different than they really are. We have to examine them in different ways. They might mislead us. In the story, “The Kiss”, Kate Chopin portrays how deceitful a character could be. She reveals that a person should not be judged only by his or her appearance.

In the short story, Kate Chopin tells us a self-seeking story. Nathalie is in love with Harvey and Brantain at the same time. She choose Brantain because he is very rich, and if she marry him she thinks that her live will be better After Nathalie and Brantain’s wedding ceremony, Harvy comes and says that Brantain has sent him there to kiss her. She wanted that kiss so her lips looked hungry for the kiss,but suddenly Harvy tells that he’ve stopped kissing women, and leave the ceremony. After that, Nathalie realize that she can’t have everything in this world.

The character, Brantain, is a rich man but he is very unattractive. “ Brantain sat in one of these shadows; it had overtaken him and he did not mind. The obscurity lent him courage to keep his eyes fastened as ardently.” This is how Brantain was first introduced to the reader. Chopin, the writer, contradicted him with darkness. She revealed that Brantain belonged to darkness, she mentioned that Brantain was not as simply as he appeared. Chopin implied that Brantain was dangerous and deceitful character which people were not award of. The writer used irony to show that Brantain is not innocent in the story. During Brantain and Nathalie’s wedding party, Harvy told Nathaile, “ your husband has sent me over to kiss you.”. This mentioned that Brantain had already resisted with Harvy about his relationship with Nathalie. The kiss Brantain requested is not a tolerance of Harvy and Nathalie’s relationship, but it is a sign of awareness and a demand to end Harvy and Nathalie’s relationship. In fact, Brantain also asked Nathalie to end their love affair between she and Harvy. Brantain told Nathaile that he hoped their life would not be interrupted by the intimacy between her and Harvy. However, Nathalie did not understand. She reffered the intimacy between Harvy and Nathalie as brother and sister. Brantain means the lover relationship because the sibling relationship would not end but the intimacy between lovers would. In my opinion, Brantain is not innocent.. He might do anything, good or bad, to obtain what he wants. He did his best and ended the relationship between Harvy and Nathalie.

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Nathalie is not innocent either. She took the whole incident as a chess game. She compared herself as a chess player who seems handled the game well and let things go as she intended. She thought that she can have everything in this world but suprisingly, she was played by Brantain. Throughout the story, Nathalie thought Brantain did not know anything between her and Harvy, but Brantain did know everything. When Harvy walked into Nathalie’s room and kissed her, Harvy was a friend who Braintain knew quite well. Brantain must know there are something going on between Harvy and Nathalie. If not, “ the ardent lingering kiss” should have explained the intimacy between the relationship of Harvy and Nathalie. Braintain shows himself as a guileless man, who did not know anything. Even at the end, Nathalie still believed she was in charged, which also shows that Brantain was a smart and profound man. Nathalie deserved no pity when she fell into Brantain’s trap because she wasn’t honest throughout the whole incident.

I think a person must be honest in his or her relationship, because you must be open to your partner. Cheating on your partner makes you uncomfortable and distrustful. For example, in the movie “ Unfaithful”, woman has a great husband and smart kid. One day, she meet with a young guy and had little relationship with him. She knows that she desired him but she cannot tell that to herself because she must have a selection between her family and her desires. Then she choose her desires and be with the young man. Then she repended what she was doing but it was too late because her husband learns their affair. In the summary she lost her everything. Your affairs and your desires makes you different than you are, like Nathalie in the short story.

Kate Chopin used the complex relationship between Harvy, Nathalie and Brantain to show how worthless a love relationship were when confronted with money. Money is not everthing. You can be happy without money, but not without love. If you don’t love your partner, you might will be unhappy and divorce soon. In Turkey, we all see this scenario in celebrity channels and celebrity shows. This glittered world also shows us the unseened part of marriages. A woman married a rich man. They are not in love but they take some electric form each other. A year later, this marriage cracked because they are not in love, so they will be divorced. In this example we realize thast money is not important to be happy. There is a proverb in Turkish, which is “ There will not be any happiness with money”. In my opinion, this proverb explains the whole incident.

In this story, Nathalie chose money and so she is the most guilty person. She compared Harvy and Brantain, and chose Brantain because he is tremendously rich. But at the end of the story, Kate Chopin told that “ Her eyes was bright, and tender with a smile as they glanced up into his; and her lips looked hungry for the kiss which they invited” . I think, she thinks that she is the most smartest woman in this world, because she tries to control Harvy and Brantain. The story says., Nathalie knows that Brantain is supposedly an open, genuine man who is head over heels in love with her, and plans on marrying him for his wealth while at the same time carrying on an affair with Harvy. The dramatic irony is that Nathalie thought she was the one manipulating others and putting others into their place when really she was just a pawn that was being manipulated by Brantain and she was so foolish that she didn’t even know it. In conclusion, sometimes things can decieve people. But we have to know that they can be totally different from the way to look.

Word Count: 1075