Kate Chopin Group

Question:

rascal
rascal
Student
Community / Jr. College

In the story, "the storm" and "the wall paper", how does the author view love/hate relationships according to their stories?

how author feels about love/hate

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Posted by rascal on Monday November 2, 2009 at 1:31 PM and tagged with characters/ examples, kate chopin.


Answers:


  1. akannan Teacher
    Middle School

    eNotes Editor

    In terms of "The Yellow Wallpaper," there is a definite presence of love/ hate relationship.  The relationship between the husband and wife is one where there can be definite perceptions of love and hate presence.  The husband's desire to want to take care of his wife in the wake of her "delicate condition" can represent a sense of love.  On the other side of this coin, the oppressive control shown by the husband in his attempts to control the wife, not to let her read or write, or go outside and partake in the world can all be seen as examples of a type of hatred.  In the wife's case, her willingness to acquiesce to her husband's wishes might represent love.  She does exactly what her husband asks of her.  Yet, at the end, when the husband enters the room and sees what has happened, the wife's dancing around the corpse of her husband could represent a dance of hate.

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    Posted by akannan on Monday November 2, 2009 at 3:25 PM

  2. herappleness
    herappleness Teacher
    Graduate School

    eNotes Editor

    In "The Storm", Kate Chopin's main character Calixta lacks the understanding of what marriage is in terms of sexuality. She lives life as it is expected of her, and the relationship in her marital life is obviously one of coldness, but it is due to the imposed role of women as carriers of children rather than hot blooded women what leads to this problem. When she finally has an affair she understands the naturality of being feminine, and sexual. In fact, it came to be so natural to her that she did not even feel shame.

    In "The Yellow Wallpaper", as it was said in the previous response, we have another uncaring husband who does not even bother tending to the real needs of the wife (another baby-making machine) who is in real need of attention, but (maybe due to her role in society) gets none. They both feel the need to rid of the other for their own personal reasons, and in the end she finally gave in to what she felt was the right thing to do, just like Calixta did in "The Storm"

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    Posted by herappleness on Monday November 2, 2009 at 5:07 PM