King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: A Respectable Woman

author: Kate Chopin

genre: short story fiction

published: 1894

first line: Mrs. Baroda was a little provoked to learn that her husband expected his friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation.



In Chopin's short story, A Respectable Woman , Mrs. Baroda's husbands college friend, a man named Gouvernail, comes to visit them at their plantation home in Louisiana. Gouvernail stays at the Barodas home for a short while and Mrs. Baroda can't help but take notice of him.


He talked freely and intimately in a low, hesitating drawl that was not unpleasant to hear.



However, Mrs. Baroda insists she dislikes Gouvernail, she even tells her husband she will be going to stay at her aunts home until he is gone. Something about him really bothers her, mostly his reserve. Mrs. Baroda's husband doesn't understand his wife's dislike for Gouvernail.


One night she is sitting on a bench under an oak tree when she hears Gouvernail approaching. He sits next to her and begins to reminisce about his college years and he quotes Whitman. Mrs. Baroda finds herself wanting to reach out and touch him.


Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying. Her physical being was for the moment predominant. She was not thinking of his words, only drinking in the tones of his voice. She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him with the sensitive tips of her fingers upon the face or the lips. She wanted to draw close to him and whisper against his cheek--she did not care what--as she might have done if she had not been a respectable woman.



She abruptly leaves to go inside her home, and the next morning she goes to her aunts house and does not return until Gouvernail has left.
Almost a year later, Mrs. Baroda actually suggests to her husband that Gouvernail come back to visit. Her husband is happy that she seems to have let go of her dislike for his friend.



The ending however, hints that Mrs. Baroda might actually do something unrespectable next time. She tells her husband, "I have overcome everything! you will see. This time I shall be very nice to him."




I enjoyed this short story. Mrs. Baroda found herself attracted to Gouvernail and this is why she acted like she disliked him so much.
she knew there are some battles in life which a human being must fight alone


Again, here is Kate Chopin writing about topics and feelings that were not openly discussed in her day. This makes her all the more a favorite author of mine.

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was born in St. Louis and, upon marriage, settled in New Orleans. The mother of six, Chopin did not begin writing until her husband’s death left her in debt. The Awakening (1899), Chopin’s best known work, was so far ahead of its time in its portrayal of a dissatisfied wife, that it was overlooked. Today Chopin is considered the forerunner of twentieth-century feminist authors.