In Kate Chopins Desirees Baby the main character is forced to forget her dreams, gives up her fight for acceptance, and finally defies her husband by taking her own life. The author starts this story by giving the account of an orphaned young girl who is brought up by a loving couple as their own. Desiree wins the heart of, Armand, the son of a local plantation owner, and a man who owns many slaves. Desiree is a part of the times, which believes that even though someone may be white with blond hair and blue eyes could be black because they had a drop of black blood in their lineage. These people were considered slaves just as every other African American in the country. It was because of the uncertainty of the heritage that the efforts of Armand were continually thwarted, but eventually the young man wins out and marries Desiree. All is well until the child is born and Desiree discovers that the child is the same color of the mulatto slave that is the son of a white slave named La Blanche (Chopin 245). The name of the slave means white, which adds to the reality that black blood and not just black skin made the slave. Desiree not understanding the reason for this similar coloring of the children asks her husband what it means and he replies It meansthat the child is not white it means that you are not white (Chopin 245). The illusion of a life of harmony is gone, and never once does Armand believe that the black blood could be in him. She has no fight left in her at all when her own mother will not stand for her as being white. However, she does have defiance. Once she is rebuked by her husband and told to go, she leaves him and walks with her son into the Bayou, leaving the question of her survival open. The likelihood of her survival is slim and is therefore assumed to be a moot point. The mistreatment of this woman only becomes apparent at the end when Armand discovers that it was not Desiree who had the drop of black blood, but it was him through his mother, who died when he was but a child. In the letter, his mother wrote, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery (Chopin 247). At this last sentence of the story, the life and death of Desiree becomes not only tragic, but a cry for all women who are thought to be the blame of most of the curses that men fear.
In Sherwood Andersons Death in the Woods, there is no life of illusion for the female character of this story, there is only pain, suffering, fighting for survival and the final defiance against the world ruled by men. The old woman is not given a name of her own, even when her story flashes back to her youth. This namelessness accentuates the fact that she is property. She is initially a bound girl to a German family, which means she is an orphaned slave to them. Her mistress hates her and her master tries to defile her. She has to act to survive. Upon her marriage, the German family no longer owns her, but she is still not her own person. She then becomes the property of Mr. Grimes, her husband. She just moves from one bad situation to another, however, one can assume that in the beginning the times were better. In latter years, there never seems to be any love or happiness for this woman, as she is often left to her own devices to survive. The author describes her as the one destined to feed animal life (Anderson 23) for that was all she had ever done, wait on and feed animals, including those humans around her. She fought every day of her life to continue and survive through abuse and assault. Her only thought was to make sure the animals and the men in her life were fed and had what they needed. She never seemed to think of herself, which becomes a major part of this story. From the responsibility of caring for the men and animals she set out to town for food. During this trek from town her defiance takes shape, and while it is not was not as blatant as Desirees it harbors the same emotions. The fact is the old woman just sat down in the woods and died. She was tired and she did not want the responsibility of life any longer. Even as she sat down she wondered how she would get back up, She worried about that getting up for a moment and then quietly closed her eyes (Anderson 14). She defied everyone in her actions. She had lived for everyone else around her and on their time, but when she died she wanted to create the largest defiance of her life, and a defiance that could not be stolen from her ever, the act of death on her time and at her only moment of independence.
The story Daisy Miller by Henry James looks at the life of a young American woman roaming around Europe with her mother, brother, and courier, who refuses to cater to the refined world around her that is influenced by old women and men who do not want to be bothered. This time frame is well after the Civil War, but the expectations of modest, young women were set by etiquette and through chaperones, the young women of any worth were courted. However, for Daisy this etiquette was old-time thought and she refused to settle in and listen to anyone around her. She lived for herself and her beliefs of independence. She prattles about the wonders of life, and seemed to live life to the fullest. Even at the beginning of the book, Mrs. Costello tells young Mr. Winterbourne, that Daisy and her family are the sort of Americans that one does ones duty by not not accepting (James 19) thereby showing that the family itself is unworthy of most people in the elite and refined society. This does not stop Daisy and she continues on with her frivolous actions even going so far at to continually be in company of a Mr. Giovanelli. She continually fights the system of acceptable behavior of a modest young lady, but in an unknown sort of way, for when someone mentions to her that her actions are making people talk, she is not sure what that means, but refuses to listen to any more such babble (James 55). Her defiance continues until her death of a fever, and it is only then after her reputation is destroyed by her own actions that her true feelings are discovered. Unfortunately had she lived through the illness, the defiance with which she lived had destroyed any chance of her true feelings having any bearing on her life or her future.
The three stories are very different. Each main female character is very different in age, and while two are well-off, the other is just as poor. Their situations may be different, but they all act in similar fashion. The illusions are only the illusions that the women want to acknowledge, and are told not necessarily from the third party narrator, for the women only allow the narrator to see what they want him to see. Their fights were all about survival or the survival of their own independence. Their defiance was their final step to being the independent person they truly were in the face of the patriarchic society in which they each lived. The story of Desiree gave the best moment of defiance She disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou and she did not come back again (Chopin 247). This is similar for each heroine in the stories. They leave to their deaths with the continued belief in their right as an individual and not on the property of any man. They knew who they were and were proud, even in their suffering they were true to themselves and only defied when there was no other way to continue being an individual.
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