Masculinity and the representations of men in Kate Chopin's fiction

Throughout her stories, which portray visions of maleness evolving from her Creole and Acadian regional communities, Kate Chopin expresses concerns regarding masculinity and its impact on her heroines’ emancipation. I argue that, in the texts examined in this thesis, Chopin asserts the view that the various dilemmas that her fictional characters, either male or female, face arise from their passive submission to conventionality and morality. By drawing on historical ideas of a “crisis of American masculinity” as a tool with which to deconstruct the conventional and stereotypical configurations of masculinity and cultural practices that promulgate derogatory views of manliness, I provide a detailed study of masculinity in Chopin’s representations of husbands, male lovers and male friends in The Awakening, At Fault and selected short stories. In doing so, I explore the question of husbands in marital relationships, male love, friendship, and their roles in Chopin’s representation of female liberation. Following and furthering the work of Miranda Elkins-Livingston and Bernard Koloski, I analyze the depiction of Chopin’s male characters in these selected texts within three key categories: husbands, lovers and friends.