Desiree and Jig: Similarities and Differences - Essay Example

While Desiree and Jig both love their partners and yearn for the man’s understanding of their positions, they differ in their dependence on their partners. Hemingway’s and Chopin’s heroines both love their partners. It is evident that Jig and her partner share a long-term relationship and have spent substantial time together. The man testifies to their shared happiness when he says that Jig’s pregnancy is “the only thing thats made us unhappy” (Hemingway, 230).

Her partner’s love is so important to her that Jig is willing to have the abortion if it will make him “happy and things will be like they were and youll love me” (Hemingway, 231). She professes to care more for the man than for herself. In the case of Aubigny and Desiree, she readily concedes that “she loved him desperately” and tells her mother, “Oh, mamma, Im so happy; it frightens me” (Chopin, 3). Aubigny is like God to her.  The love which characterizes the relationship of the two women with their partners makes them long for their men’s understanding.

Jig is in favor of having the child, while her partner pushes her towards an abortion. She is aware that her pregnancy is a part of the larger picture of her relationship with her partner, and is linked with the possibility of their future happiness. She makes an impassioned appeal to him, “Doesn’t it mean anything to you? We could get along” (Hemingway, 88). The man remains oblivious to her perspective. Likewise, Desiree also appeals to her husband. She denies his accusation of her black antecedents and reaches out to him for support.

She hopefully asks, “Do you want me to go? (Chopin, 5). Like Jig’s partner, Aubigny remains immune to Desiree’s plea for understanding. Both men reject the women’s stand. The men’s rejection engenders different reactions in the two women. Jig weighs their relationship and is aware that it is breaking apart: “Thats all we do, isnt it—look at things and try new drinks?” (Hemingway, 230). She is not taken in by the man’s glib assurances. She is aware of the irrevocable decision she is to make “And once they take it away, you never get it back” (Hemingway, 231).

Finally, although nothing is explicitly said, she makes her decision: she chooses to have the baby and the relationship is to end. Jig asserts her independence and moves on. On the other hand, Desiree is totally dependent on her husband for her emotional needs. His rejection makes her “miserable enough to die” (Chopin, 3). Desiree is a slave to her relationship. When Aubigby makes her a scapegoat for his racism, she loses her will to live. Jig, in “Hills Like White Mountains,” and Desiree, in “Desiree’s Baby,” are alike in the deep love they feel for their partners.

This love makes both the women willing to submit to their men and long to receive understanding from them. When this understanding is not forthcoming, Jig and Desiree experience the pain of rejection. However, they differ in their reactions to this repudiation of their love. Jig shakes of her relationship with her man makes an independent decision, and determinedly goes on with her life. In contrast, Desiree ends her own life, as she is unable to conceive of a life outside her relationship with her husband.