CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF ARMAND IN CHOPINS STORY

DESIREES BABY
A drastic shift of personality occurs in Kate Chopins story, Desirees Baby.  This story, by Kate Chopin is about a child born to Armand and Desiree, the main protagonist in the story.  Later, as the child grows, it turns out to be black.  This seems strange as both Armand and Desiree are white.  Later, after Desiree leaves on Armands request, she kills herself over the issue of the child being black, which meant that she was black or had black parents, which was unacceptable to white couples.  However, later, Armand discovers that it was not Desiree who had black parents, but he himself who had a black mother.  In the story the character of Armand drastically shifts to accommodate the drastic twist at the end of the story as well as heighten the emotional response of the reader.

Armand, as mentioned earlier, is the husband of Desiree with who he has a child.  In the earlier parts of the story, Armand is characterized to be someone who is a hopeless romantic, as implied in the line, the way all the (Armand) Aubignys fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot (Chopin)  Here, the narrator begins to develop Armands character as one who believes in love at first sight, then as the story progresses, Armands character is characterized as someone who is a happy and contented father on the birth of his child with the lines, Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly because it is a boy, to bear his name though he says not - that he would have loved a girl as well (Chopin) and he hasnt punished one of them - not one of them - since baby is born. Even Negrillon, (Chopin) this second quote taken to characterize Armand as someone who has become tolerant of their black slaves because of his happiness at the birth of his son, which is, in addition, validated by the line, Marriage, and later the birth of his son had softened Armand Aubignys imperious and exacting nature greatly (Chopin) This additional line, however, also makes implications as to the past personality of Armand as being imperious and exacting.  This character of Armand is, unfortunately, short lived, because when the child turns out to be black, he begins to ignore his wife (Chopin) as well as he becomes cold and indifferent to the queries of his wife such as when she asks, What does it mean. (Chopin)  This change in character in Armand turns out to be necessary in the end as it is a means of putting him in a position of regret when he later discovers that he made the wrong accusations of his wife and he should have been more lenient with his decision of allowing his wife to leave and kill herself.  This change of character also helps the audience to develop an intense emotional response for the actions of Armand and so heightens the effect of the twist in the end.

Characterization is very important in literature as it is a necessary tool in achieving certain elements in the story as well as in building up the plot.  Here in this story by Kate Chopin, Armands character and the shift in this character serves to accommodate the turn of events as well as heighten emotional response to the ending of the story.