Like so many of Kate Chopin's stories, "Desiree's Baby" is
set in Creole Louisiana. Old plantations and an old, venerable family name contrast
with the unknown origin of a beautiful girl who is found lying asleep outside Valmonde
plantation. As a young man, Armand Aubigny, from a neighboring plantation "looked into
her eyes and did not care" about Desiree's "obscure origin." Like all Aubignys, secure
in who he is, he falls in love, "as if struck by a pistol shot, not
reasonably.
Considered fortunate to marry a gentleman of
such a fine name, Desiree settles into L'Abri, the plantation of the Aubgnys, and gives
birth to a son. However, surrounded by Zandrine, the mulatto nurse and another mulatto
who fans the baby, it is apparent that Desiree's baby is not white. People come from
neighboring areas to look at the baby, and Armand becomes distant with
Desiree:
And
the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the
slaves. Desiree was miserable enough to
die.
Finally, Desiree sees
what others have already seen. When her husband enters, she asks him despairingly about
the baby: "Tell me what it means!" Armand "answers
lightly":
I
means that the child is not white; it means that you are not
white."
In the Creole
society, one that is male dominated, the question of any problem with Amand Aubigny's
ancestor does not enter his mind. The colored blood must come from his wife, whose
origin is unknown. Familiar with her society and the life at L'Abri, Desiree finds the
nerve to counter this accusation, declaring "I am white!" But, as the female in a
male-dominated society, she is blamed. This result is, of course, tragic, as Armand
discovers the letter from his mother to his father, a letter that reveals her race and
her happiness that it is hidden from her son, whom she adores. Unquestionably, then,
Kate Chopin's story is a tale of despair caused by the conventionalities of a
Creole society in Louisiana.
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