Desiree's baby by kate chopin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Desiree's baby by kate chopin - Essay Example Regarding her as Providence’s most beneficial bestowment, Madam Valmonde, the childless rich woman raises her. The nameless little girl becomes Desiree and grows up to be â€Å"beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere†. At the age eighteen, Armand Aubigny spots her near the stone pillar at the gateway of Valmonde and falls in love with her and eventually marries her and takes her off to L’Abri, his place. The story begins when Madam Valmonde sets out to see Desiree’s baby. It is four weeks after the birth of the baby that she finally drives to L’Abri to Desiree and the child. The reasons behind this, whatever it may be, are not discussed in the story. Obviously it is not on account of any animosity between the two households. It is made clear in the story by the way Madame Valmonde’s thoughts go about the past fondly recollecting how Desiree landed into her lap and grew up to be her idol. On reading L’Abri, the surrogate mother sees the new mother and child. At the very sight of the four weeks’ old child, Madame Valmonde gets startled but Desiree is unaware of the reasons and she quite naively attributes it to the rapid growth of her dear child. She talks nonstop about how the child has exerted a softening impact on the temperament of its father who is basically imperious and exacting in his ways. Desiree senses trouble only much later, after two months, when she feels her husband’s awkward avoidance of her. It coincides with her noticing of the fact that her child was not white. The moment of this realization is marked in the story thus, â€Å"The blood turned like ice in her veins, and the clammy moisture gathered upon her face†. Having understood the cause of the great change in her husband, Desiree confronts him directly seeking reassurance and solace. But he brutally lets her down by declaring that the child is not white because of her black lineage. She resorts to the next thing she had to do. She writes to Madame Valmonde as soon as