Desiree's baby by kate chopin literary analysis - Essay Example

However, fate was soon to prove what kind of a lover Armand really was. Yet, the irony lies in how he quickly judged his wife, saying she was not white when in the end, he was to discover that he was the quadroon. After Armand’s mother died, his father brought him from France to Louisiana when he was just eight years old. He met Desiree when they first went to the place however he seemed to notice her or never felt any strong feelings toward her until the day he saw her standing against the stone pillar while he was riding by.

The man is described to have such strong feelings toward the maiden such that he seemed to have been “swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles” (Chopin). Perhaps the love that the young felt toward the woman was really strong so that he did not mind her background but was even willing to get her the best gifts for her wedding, patiently waiting for them to arrive from Paris. Moreover, Armand’s love for the woman made him a better man as exemplified by the way he treated his servants from the time he married Desiree.

It is also mentioned that the man’s face “had not often been disfigured by frowns since the day he fell in love with her”. . He accused his wife of being Black because of their child who was growing to show the features of black people. He became cold toward Desiree and never bothered to hold his son again. He even was very willing to let go her wife and son just because of his suspicions. He did not show any interest in his wife or his son and he showed how strongly decided he was with his perceptions about her race when he never even stirred to stop the woman when she left the house with her son.

As mentioned earlier, Armand is seen as a racist whose feelings toward his wife changed because of the color of his son’s skin. He assumed that Desiree might have come from a Black bloodline and this made him dislike her. However, reading through the end of the story, one cannot help to think that Armand’s reactions toward Desiree might have been deliberately done to hide what he might have felt about himself. The story does not clearly show if the letter of Armand’s mother confessing about her race was discovered even before Desiree and her son left.

It is possible that Armand might have felt ashamed about his forebears and was embarrassed to even admit about it therefore he might just have made his wife the excuse to explain the color of his son. Armand became a man who was too proud to admit he was black or he might have been afraid about how he would be treated if his family background became known. As a master who was hard on his Black servants, he might have felt ashamed about himself. It is also possible that Armand might have felt afraid that Desiree will leave him if she learned about his mother and henceforth, he chose to hurt her instead of waiting for her to hurt him.

Perhaps he was too