Hannah Cary
The Unexpected by Kate Chopin
In this short story that is set in the Victorian ages, Dorothea the traditional Victorian women is married to her husband who works and Dorothea stays at home. Her husband Randall gets sick in the story and has to go to his home and get better. Dorothea cannot bare the separation, however when she next sees him in an ill state she decides this isn’t what she wants and flees. She runs away to somewhere she or any other Victorian women has ever been to… freedom.
Kate Chopin explores the position of Victorian women very well in this short story and it starts right at the beginning when Randall has to part because of him being ill. The short and snappy descriptive words creative a good impact on how Victorian women were. It creates this impression that would not be normal to any other Victorian women reading this story. We have always thought of the marriage between any other Victorian couple to be plain and simple but the affection and emotion that Kate Chopin writes steers us from this. In the opening paragraphs Chopin creates this impression of mutual attraction between the couple of Dorothea and Randall by saying the “parting was bitter” stating that when they said goodbye it was hard for them. Already straight away we did not expect this and for there to be more the reader is shocked in the opening paragraph. By shocked I mean this because you do not really expect this from a Victorian couple. “Lingering kisses and sighs” Dorothea could not bare being apart. She used words like “torture” and “impatient” and this shows how Chopin has expressed how Dorothea is feeling. All this is all very sensual and tells us that Dorothea at this point in the story seems very much in love with Randall. The unexpected it yet to come; when Randall returns Dorothea’s feelings are very different. Kate Chopin shows this by stating, “this was not the man that went away” Straight away this tells us that she could be slightly feeling different. “The man she loved and promised to marry” She has changed her mind. “Hideous transformation….skin waxy and hectic…..clothing hung loosely” How Chopin writes this shows that Dorothea was very much in love with Randall’s face, his looks, maybe once not his personality as we have nothing yet that proves this. I think that Dorothea was very disappointed and had missed him and she wanted to see him very badly although he was not better yet and should have waited because this put her off. Randall is very much in love with Dorothea at this point in the story but Dorothea in not in love with Randall and this is causing a conflict. Chopin makes the reader sympathise with Dorothea by describing Randall as “hungrily” kissing her – this gives the image of a parasite, which is very negative.
