Forrest J. Davis
English 212
Review of “A Matter of Behavior: A Semantic Analysis of Five Kate Chopin Stories “, by Gary H. Mayer
In his article, the author has analyzed Kate Chopin’s work using the principles, ideas, concepts and general semantics of how language, thought and action are interrelated. The author has used “The Story of an Hour,” Desiree’s Baby,” “Beyond the Bayou,” “Ma’ame Pelagie,” and “A Matter of Prejudice” in his use of semantics to find a greater understanding of her stories.
Mr. Mayer states that in “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” the use of general semantics that the making of assumptions can lead to a tragic consequence for the characters in the stories. In “The Story of an Hour” we learn that Louise Mallards husband has died. When she hears the news she runs to her room and quickly goes through the stages of grief and realizes that she has been in an unhappy marriage and now is free to live her life as she pleases. She has been unhappy that she is tied to her husband and unable to follow her dreams and desires, but is bound by duty to be “the good wife” to her husband, which was socially expected of wives at the time. Unknown to her, her sister Josephine is watching her grieve through the keyhole in the door. Josephine sees her sister crying and then laughing and mistakenly takes it all for grief. She thinks her sisters laughter is behavior sickness. When Louise goes down the stairs to embrace her new life she sees her husband is alive and well and she drops dead at the shock of her lost new hope.
In “Desiree’s Baby,” the character Armand Aubigny is married to Desiree. Armand is a very arrogant man and is cruel to those around him. He is very proud of his family heritage and thinks he has done his wife a great favor by bestowing his lineage upon her. When the two have a child and the child looks more negro than white he accuses her of deceiving him about her lineage and says she has disgraced him by not disclosing the she had black blood in her veins. She tries to reason with him that his skin is darker than hers and her eyes and hair are not black, that his are, but he is so arrogant and refuses to see the truth that he asks her to leave. It is only later that he learns in a letter that his mother was part negro and that she was ashamed and hoped he would never learn the truth. The author points out that general semantics teach us that we often get into trouble when we assume.
In “Beyond the Bayou,” Chopin tells of La Folle, a woman who because of a frightening childhood experience will not venture past the boundaries of her land that she knows for fear something bad will happen to her. She is forced to confront this fear when a local boy is injured in a hunting accident and she has to take him home. When she reaches the edges of her land and has to cross the bayou she is very afraid but finally breaks through her fear and carries the boy home, then passes out from exhaustion and fear. She awakens back in her cabin but is no longer afraid of the outside world but is joyous about the new world she has finally discovered outside her own. Mayer draws a correlation that the story begins and ends with the word bayou and that the character traveled from mental childhood to adulthood. Today’s counselors would say she suffered from post-traumatic stress and finally had a breakthrough.
Mayer calls “Ma’ame Pelagie,” a frozen evaluation. This means that Ma’ame is frozen in the past by wanting to fix up the old plantation house and thinks if she does her life will be like it was when she was young and the house was in good shape. She refuses to see that she is getting older and life is passing her by. She saves all her money for the house and could have a better quality of life but refuses to let go of her unrealistic dream. She is dragging her sister Pauline with her. When the niece comes and makes the women move into a newer house Pauline thrives and the years seem to come off her, but Ma’me Pelagie will still not let go of the past and lives the rest of her life lost in her memories of what her childhood home used to be.
The opposite evaluation takes place in “a Matter of Prejudice”. Madame Crambeau is a French woman who will not associate with anyone who is not of her same heritage. She has not spoken to her son in ten years because he married an American girl. She does not even now her grandchildren. Mayer calls this a two value orientation. A person who makes this semantic error creates a divide between what their world is and anything that is different. She is forced to take care of a sick American child at a birthday party and makes a lot of prejudiced assumptions about the girl and her family. Later she realized she like the feeling she had taking care of the child and decides to make an effort to break out of her shell. She goes to visit her son and realizes the girl she took care of at the party was her grandchild. She then decides her prejudices have been foolish and become friends with the girl, agreeing to teach her French and learn English from the girl.
When using semantics to study Chopin’s works it helps underscore how forcefully and rich Chopin’s works can be to modern readers.
Works Cited
Mayer, Gary H
A Matter of Behavior: A semantic Analysis of Five Kate Chopin Stories
A Review of General Semantics, Jan2010,Vol 67, Issue 1 p94-100