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    Choices

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    Kate Chopin's short story "The Kiss" examines the struggle between practicality and desire. It depicts Miss Nathalie experiencing an urge for a kiss from Harvey that could destroy her relationship with her fiancé Brantain. Chopin illustrates Nathalie's battle between her ideal love and relationship. In the end, Nathalie chooses stability and wealth by marrying Brantain, representing the difficult choices faced by women due to societal expectations and their dependence on men.

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    Kate Chopin's short story "The Kiss" examines the struggle between practicality and desire. It depicts Miss Nathalie experiencing an urge for a kiss from Harvey that could destroy her relationship with her fiancé Brantain. Chopin illustrates Nathalie's battle between her ideal love and relationship. In the end, Nathalie chooses stability and wealth by marrying Brantain, representing the difficult choices faced by women due to societal expectations and their dependence on men.

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    Kate Chopin's short story "The Kiss" examines the struggle between practicality and desire. It depicts Miss Nathalie experiencing an urge for a kiss from Harvey that could destroy her relationship with her fiancé Brantain. Chopin illustrates Nathalie's battle between her ideal love and relationship. In the end, Nathalie chooses stability and wealth by marrying Brantain, representing the difficult choices faced by women due to societal expectations and their dependence on men.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    26 views4 pages

    Choices

    Uploaded by

    Royalty
    Kate Chopin's short story "The Kiss" examines the struggle between practicality and desire. It depicts Miss Nathalie experiencing an urge for a kiss from Harvey that could destroy her relationship with her fiancé Brantain. Chopin illustrates Nathalie's battle between her ideal love and relationship. In the end, Nathalie chooses stability and wealth by marrying Brantain, representing the difficult choices faced by women due to societal expectations and their dependence on men.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    Rhonor 1

    Efeoghene Rhonor
    Professor Pennington 613
    ENGL-1302-405 CRN 21620
    1 April 2022

    Choices
    In the selection “The Kiss” by Kate Chopin, the author describes the struggles of
    the heart and the mind. Chopin explains the practicality of ones’ mentality battling the
    urge prevailing in ones’ desires. She examines the lengths in which an individual will
    stretch to reach a goal.
    Chopin illustrates the symbolic nature of the title in comparison to Miss Nathalie’s
    ideal love against her ideal relationship.

    “A quick blush suffused her face and round polished throat. "I suppose it's natural

    for a man to feel and act generously on an occasion of this kind. He tells me he

    doesn't want his marriage to interrupt wholly that pleasant intimacy which has

    existed between you and me. I don't know what you've been telling him, ‘with an

    insolent smile, ‘but he has sent me here to kiss you.;’” (Chopin)

    She begins the selection with an interaction disturbed by a kiss. Chopin identifies the
    trouble and importance behind a kiss. She examines this action and highlights how it
    nearly destroyed Miss Nathalie’s ideal relationship. Chopin paints the lust behind the
    need for the kiss which depicts the protagonists’ ideal love.

    She incorporates an emotional and physical battle of restraint and persistence in


    Harvey’s permission to kiss and Nathalie’s’ urge to kiss.

    “She felt like a chess player who, by the clever handling of his pieces, sees the

    game taking the course intended. Her eyes were bright and tender with a smile
    Rhonor 2

    as they glanced up into his; and her lips looked hungry for the kiss which they

    invited. ‘But, you know,’ he went on quietly, ‘I didn't tell him so, it would have

    seemed ungrateful, but I can tell you. I've stopped kissing women; it's

    dangerous.’” (Chopin)

    Chopin describes the time period in which the characters reside by use of examining
    situations. In the permission Brantain grants it highlights that in certain times, specific
    actions were only permitted by the husband, displaying the complete loss of
    independence on that of a woman.

    Chopin depicts the control that a woman obtains when extracted with care. “Her
    voice had grown very low and agitated. The misery had all disappeared from Brantain’s
    face.” (Chopin). Miss Nathalie carefully handles a problem erupted after an action
    caused by a relationship, she insighted. In this delicate handling she is able to persuade
    Brantain to not only forgive her, but to wed her. Chopin highlights the power of a woman
    and the presence they pull through this intense and precisely constructed interaction.
    She expresses the tense feeling that lies in the decision Nathalie is ultimately
    faced with in the end. “Well, she had Brantain and his million left. A person can't have
    everything in this world; and it was a little unreasonable of her to expect it.” (Chopin).
    Chopin identifies the time old lesson that lies behind no woman can really have it all.
    Nathalie struggles with her want for love and pure happiness against her inherent need
    for stability and comfort. A choice faced upon the woman of this period, many of times.
    The decision of women when bounding their lives to another only comes from one thing
    when you have a title or do not, stability. The lives they lead and cherish are dependent
    on the need for comfort. “The rather insignificant and unattractive Brantain was
    enormously rich; and she liked and required the entourage which wealth could give her.”
    (Chopin)
    To conclude, Chopin examines the standards and choices placed upon women,
    in reference to the fragility or stability of their lives. She describes these circumstances
    Rhonor 3

    through the story of mind over heart. Chopin explains the unlikely reactions that are
    intended to come from the final outcome of the choice.
    Rhonor 4

    Work Cited

    “Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening - the Kiss.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,


    http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/library/kiss.html.

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