A Respectable Woman

“A Respectable Woman,” by American author Kate Chopin, is a short story that utilizes literary Realism and an ambiguous ending to tackle themes of The Search for Female Identity, Devotion Versus Desire, The Allure of the Unknown, as well as marriage roles and sexual awakening. These are trademark elements in Chopin’s work. First published on February 15, 1894, the story follows the perspective of Mrs. Baroda, the wife of a Louisiana planter who finds it increasingly difficult to understand her feelings toward her husband’s visiting friend.

Chopin is best known for her groundbreaking novel, The Awakening, which shocked readers upon its 1899 publication. Even though this novel touches on many of the same themes as “A Respectable Woman” and several of Chopin’s other short stories, including “At the ’Cadian Ball” (1892) and “The Storm” (1898), it does so in a way that was scandalous—and even detestable—to readers of the late 1800s. Today, however, many scholars consider The Awakening a seminal work of early feminist literature, and Chopin has earned the reputation of being ahead of her time in many ways. She wrote around 100 short stories and essays, and “A Respectable Woman” was one of 19 of these to be published in Vogue magazine.

This guide refers to the version of the text that is freely available on the Kate Chopin International Society website.

“A Respectable Woman” employs a third-person limited point of view, which primarily follows the thoughts and feelings of Mrs. Baroda. In the opening lines, Mrs. Baroda expresses displeasure that her husband, Gaston Baroda, has invited a friend to stay with them at their sugar plantation. Because they hosted many guests throughout the winter, Mrs. Baroda hoped to spend time alone with her husband at their home.

The visitor’s name is Gouvernail. Though Mrs. Baroda has never met him, she knows that he attended college with her husband and currently works as a journalist, which conjures the idea of an academic, cynical man. She decides that she will not get along with him. However, when Gouvernail arrives, he is not at all how she envisioned; he is understated and quiet, though receptive to her hospitality.

Mrs. Baroda decides that she does like Gouvernail. However, her feelings perplex her, and she cannot “explain satisfactorily to herself” (Paragraph 4) why she has formed this new opinion. While Gouvernail is courteous, he makes “no appeal to her approval or even esteem” (Paragraph 4). Instead of talking, hunting, or fishing, the visitor seems content to sit on the plantation’s portico, listen to the Barodas, and pet the dogs.

Over the next several days, Mrs. Baroda remains puzzled by the visitor’s unreadable demeanor and by her reaction to him. Initially, she stays away and leaves him to her husband, but after realizing that he seems indifferent to her absence, she becomes annoyed and goes out of her way to spend time with him. She joins him on his walks and attempts to “penetrate the reserve in which he had unconsciously enveloped himself” (Paragraph 7).

Yet Mrs. Baroda’s demeanor shifts quickly again. She asks Gaston when their guest will be leaving, saying, “[H]e tires me frightfully” (Paragraph 8). When her affectionate and caring husband does not understand her disposition, she responds that she finds their visitor to be less interesting than expected and that she is going to leave town the next day to stay at her aunt’s house until Gouvernail is gone.

Later that evening, as Mrs. Baroda sits alone outside and attempts to sort through her emotions, she notices Gouvernail walking toward her. He brings her a white scarf from her husband and joins her on the bench. Though she sometimes wraps this scarf across her shoulders or head, she now only holds it in her lap and mumbles her thanks. Gouvernail then talks to her, reflecting on the night air, his college days with Gaston, and his past and present views of life. At one point, almost as though speaking to himself, he mutters a few lines of Walt Whitman: “Night of south winds—night of the large few stars! Still nodding night—” (Paragraph 21).

As Gouvernail sits next to her in the dark and speaks, the tension within Mrs. Baroda builds. She suddenly realizes that she wants to “reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him with the sensitive tips of her fingers upon the face or the lips” and “whisper against his cheek—she did not care what—as she might have done if she was not a respectable woman” (Paragraph 26). Almost immediately upon this urge, however, she disengages and walks back to the house, leaving Gouvernail alone to his musings. Deciding to conceal her newly discovered feelings, she leaves for the city in the morning and does not return until Gouvernail has left the plantation.

In the summer, Mrs. Baroda rejects her husband’s idea to invite Gouvernail to visit again. Several months later, however, she initiates the idea of him coming to stay. When Gaston expresses delight that she has “overcome” her dislike of his old friend, she exclaims, “I have overcome everything! You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him” (Paragraph 33). The story closes on these lines.