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Desiree's Baby Study Guide

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by Kate Chopin
About 82 pages (24,559 words)
Desiree's Baby Summary

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Critical Essay #2

In the following essay, Erickson explores how Chopin uses fairytale features in "Désirée's Baby" for "exploration of the theme of appearance versus reality."

The presence of fairytale features in Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby" is virtually unmistakable. What is perhaps less obvious is how they are used in the story as a basis for its exploration of the theme of appearance versus reality, a theme that is omnipresent in the traditional fairytale. The features are put to use for the purposes of the short story, but their presence raises expectations in the reader that are potentially incompatible with those of a realistic short story. The result is a rather complex tension between these expectations and the possibility of their being realized in a non-fairytale world—a tension that contributes substantially to the interest of the story.

This juxtaposition.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 4,059 words. This study guide contains 24,559 words (approx. 82 pages at 300 words per page).

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Desiree's Baby from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.



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