Abstract
What a disappointment, what a disgrace, the men in Kate Chopin’s best-known fiction turn out to be: the neglectful Léonce Pontellier, the frightened Robert Lebrun, or the womanizing Alcée Arobin in The Awakening,1 the controlling Brently Mallard in “The Story of an Hour,” or the repulsive Armand Aubigny in “Désirée’s Baby.” These men cannot begin to understand the needs of the women around them. Only Alcée Laballière in “The Storm,” driven by the same desires as Calixta, is attuned to his lover—for the moment at least.
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© 2015 Heather Ostman and Kate O’Donoghue
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Koloski, B. (2015). Chopin’s Enlightened Men. In: Ostman, H., O’Donoghue, K. (eds) Kate Chopin in Context. American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137543967_2
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