1850-1904
Kate
Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850 of an Irish and French
descent in St. Louis, Missouri. Kate was blessed by having many female mentors
throughout her childhood; either the strong and independent widows in her family
or the intellectual nuns of her school, who taught Kate to live a "life of
the mind as well as the life of the home." Kate was a young age of five and
a half when her parents sent her to the Academy
of the Sacred Heart . Her father, Thomas O'Flaherty, was an Irish
immigrant who was very successful in many business ventures. In 1855 on November
1, being one of the founders of the Pacific Railroad, her father was aboard the
train on its inaugural journey over the Gasconade Bridge, which collapsed,
killing many of its passengers. After only two months into her term at Sacred
Heart, Kate came home and was to be educated by her great-grandmother. Eliza
Faris O'Flaherty, Kate's mother, was a member of the prominent French-Creole
community and a member of an exclusive social circle. Eliza was only 27 years
old when she heard of her 50-year-old husbands' death. She may have been
depressed, yet liberated by the news, or so Kate Chopin's "Story of an
Hour" suggests: "a wife, hearing of her husband's death in a train
accident, delights in thoughts of freedom." Her mother was barely 16 years
old when she married Thomas O'Flaherty; six months after his previous wife had
died leaving him with a son, George. Eliza brought a social status to the
marriage, having been the eldest of an "impoverished, but well established
family" of seven children. Thomas, a "self-made man," brought
money. Eliza never remarried after her husband's death. Kate's grandmother and
great-grandmother had also been widowed at a young age and never remarried.
"There were young aunts and uncles, cousins, and four slaves in the
household, but the strongest individuals were the widows." Kate's great
great grandmother and her husband had been the first legal separation ever
granted in St. Louis. She learned to read and write, gave birth to another child
whose father was unnamed, became a keelboat entrepreneur, and ultimately an
eighteenth century tycoon. Kate, having lost two very important male figures at
an early age, developed strong ties to her great-grandmother. Kate's
grandmother, Madame Charleville, gave birth to fifteen children with her
merchant husband, Joseph Charleville. She taught Kate not only about music,
history, and speaking French, she also stressed the need to live life
"clearly and fearlessly."
Two
years after her fathers' death, Kate returned to the Academy of the Sacred Heart
. Kate met a girl named Kitty Garesche. The two girls both loved to write and
read together, but in May of 1861 the Civil War broke out in St. Louis, and
Kitty's family was banished for their Confederate "sympathies." Not
only did Kate lose her best friend, but also her half brother, George, died of
typhoid fever and her grandmother passed away at the age of 83. Kate lost all of
her brothers and sisters, so that by the time Kate was 24 years old, she was an
only child. When she graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart, she was
known as a brilliant storyteller, an honors student, a youthful cynic, and an
accomplished pianist. After the war, Kate almost had a depressed manner and one
of the nuns of the Academy recognized the creativity in this lonely child. The
nun assigned her to write a Commonplace
Book, which is the first document of Kate's writings. This
Commonplace Book became a diary of her intellectual and social life.
At the
age of 19, Kate met Louisiana native Oscar Chopin, a cotton broker, and married
him on June 9, 1870. The last writings in her Commonplace Book are the diary of
her 3-month European honeymoon. As was typical for a woman in her era, she
doesn't mention sexual matters, yet she records the consummation of her marriage
on June 12 in Philadelphia. The couple established their new home in New Orleans
and awaits the birth of their first child, presumably conceived while
honeymooning in France. When Oscar's brokerage business failed in 1879, he
decided to move north to his family's plantations in Natchitoches
Parish, and it was then that Kate became acquainted with the Creole
community that became such an important focus of her writing. In 1882
Oscar contracted swamp fever
and died from complications of the disease in January of 1883, leaving Kate to
return to St. Louis with their six young children. A year later, Kate's mother
also died and Kate, emotionally burnt out from the losses in her life, got
comfort from a family physician, Frederick Kolbenheyer. He suggested that she
start writing as a way of expressing her anger and disappointment with life. She
needed to turn her writing into a way to support herself and her six children.
She never actually was able to live off of her earnings from writing, but she
supported her family with income from real estate she owned in Louisiana and St.
Louis.
Kate
wrote for many years and her popularity was extreme until critical disapproval
of her novel, "The
Awakening," poor health, and concerns about her family slowed
her down. For a little over a decade, Chopin had been a nationally acclaimed
writer. In the early 1890's, Chopin was hosting a literary salon, and her
"Thursday's" were the place to be for anyone with a creative niche.
Kate was also a member of women's groups. She joined the St. Louis Children of
Sodality, and was also a charter member of the prestigious Wednesday Club, which
she left when it became more structured, but it remained loyal to her. In 1899,
when The Awakening had been condemned by most male reviewers, the Wednesday Club
invited Kate to do a reading and over 300 women came to applaud and praise her.
Contrary to rumors, the awakening was never banned, nor was Chopin ever denied
membership in any literary societies. Copies of The Awakening were only taken
off of St. Louis library shelves when they had worn.
On
August 20, 1904, Kate spends a long day at the St. Louis World's Fair and
suffers from a cerebral hemorrhage. On the 22nd, she dies and she is buried on
the 24th of August 1904.
The
Awakening brought
to you by the University of Virginia
This
link to The Story of an Hour by Paul Brians, Department of
English, Washington State University
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Holiday
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Regret
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Reflection
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