Female Characters in Kate Chopin's Novels and Short Stories

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 2.0, University of Siegen, language: English, abstract: This term paper is about female characters in Kate Chopin´s work. Kate Chopin was a novelist and short story writer who was born in St. Louis Missouri and lived in Louisiana in the 19th century. Her work shows an interesting and intense point of view on female characters at that period of time. Her stories contain descriptions of feelings, inner beliefs and desires of women. The stories broach issues of marriage, motherhood as well as issues of the society in the 19th century and the role of females at that time. The stories are also marked by the topics identity, independence as well as freedom, which embody important features considering the analysis of the stories and their female characters. This leads to the thesis, that the female (main) characters in Kate Chopin´s novels and short stories share characteristic features and create a pattern in Chopin´s work. To properly work on the thesis, the term paper will be based on the analysis and comparison of primary literature by Kate Chopin, while secondary literature will support the statements and analysis. The chosen secondary literature consists mostly of articles, that broach the issues of Chopin´s work, her female characters as well as themes such as identity, society, independence as well as the role of women at that time.