Kate Chopin & Mary Cassatt: Women Who Touched Lives - Essay Sample

Introduction

Kate Chopin was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana While Mary Cassatt was also an American but a painter and printmaker, Mary was born in 1844 six years older than Kate who was born in 1850. Unlike Kate, who spent her life in Lousiana, Mary spent most of her life in France. Although the work of the two was different, it touched women and children. Kate's major work was short stories like Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. She was a great writer who was recognized as leading writers of her time. However, her stories were considered immoral by her critics because of how she approached them. Mary, on the other hand, created images of the private social lives of women, which emphasized on the attachment of mothers and children. With her work, she was able to conquer Paris and America.

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Kate focused her work on the myth about marriages and female sexuality during her time. With her story The Storm. Kate sets the feeling of her reproductive potential. Through the story, she redefines the role of marriage contrary to the nature of patriarchal standards of that time. The story showed her affair with a married man. The story provoked the theme of woman sexuality and the problems related to marriage in the state.

The technique and style used by Kate were unique. She creatively expressed the life of women and their struggle to be identified in society. The technique is evident in her story The Story of an Hour, through a character by the name Mrs. Mallard, who decided to stumble ahead rather than suffering from loneliness after the death of her husband. The story tries to relate the challenges faced by women to what is accepted by society. Kate use imagery in the story to how good outside what someone thinks is. Mrs Mallard finally realizes her freedom and independence. She realized that she could live by herself. However, she dies after realizing that her husband was alive. This story showed the controversy between freedom in women's lives.

One of the best stories of Kate was the story of a woman who was trapped by the oppressive society. The story showed how women are oppressed in society, and she reflects what a woman deserves in society. The story was reprinted severally, and it was considered with its quality.

However, her novel The Awakening did not perform. The book received a lot of critics from the audience. The novel's characters behaved immorally. People considered the behavior of female sexuality as unacceptable as portrayed in the story. The questions about the qualities of motherhood were considered too far from that time and could not be embraced.

Her work majorly spoke about women who departed from their traditional work and embraced change. She described women dramatization trying to be free and make their own decisions. The struggle was always doomed by the by patriarchs. Her work appealed to women. She sought out how women tried to come out of societal constraints.

Kate liked to use her own life to get the inspiration to write. She raised her work using her family and individual growth. With stories like The Storm and The Story of An Hour in the 19th century, she was able to symbolize her own life and experiences to feminist view.

In general Kate interests in her work was the voice of the feminist. She used her surrounding, having experience of different feminist life. She grew up in a time where there was the influence of freedom, education, and rights. She wrote about her observations. She undermined patriarchy in her writing, and she liked selfhood. Kate expressed her belief in the power of women. Through her stories, she wrote an autobiography and described her community. The ideas she wrote were not about the past or fiction, and she wrote what she saw.

Marry, on the other hand, used the unspoken art to advocate for women. Her work mainly was painting and printmaking. She campaigned for her friends to get equal chances of scholarship having enjoyed the wave of feminism and access to education. Mary has depicted many arts that reflected the 19th century. Her art did not use political perspective to create the need for women to have equal right. It portrayed the inner life of women, their daily chores, and responsibilities. She did not want to be a feminist artist, although she supported women in her art. Like other Impressionists, paintings described her family life in everyday life.

Through her, art Marry has inspired many, especially women. She was the first woman in America to exhibit in the salon. Her paintings were accepted in Paris salon. The picture showed two women throwing flowers during carnival. She attracted much favor in Parma. The art community very much supported it.

After moving to Paris, she was asked to exhibit with the impressionists. The impressionists were considered inferior in their work, but Mary decided to exhibit in there. Afterwards,11 of her arts appeared in an exhibition. The artwork was very successful and most profitable that day. Therefore, she became the only American to exhibit with the impressionists in Paris.

Mary was very instrumental in contributing collections to the big An American museum. Her work was collected from the impressionists since her work was the bestselling; it developed collections of the museum. She also served as an advisor to many other art collections who donated their art to the American museum.

Before Mary joined the impressionists, she was working with Degas. Degas taught her to pant using the pastels while she helped him sell his art in America. In most cases during her collaboration with Degas, Degas produced prints showing her looking at artwork, she posed for Degas, and she became the best buds with Degas.

Though Mary retired so early due to eyesight problem, she continued to use her art to support the suffrage movement. The movement was fighting the restrictions which sabotaged women with art. Whe she could not paint anymore, she still had the inspiration of helping women who wanted to do art. She did this to stop being stereotyped as a woman artist. She contributed some of her paintings to support the course.

Through her career, she has made a legacy. Despite her work taking time to be recognized, she worked hard, and she made history. Among the legacies that she left was that she inspired many Canadian women. She also won the award with her art. She used her work to inspire female artists everywhere.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Kate Chopin and Mary Cassatt are women who defied odds in the 19th century to becoming the best artist of their time. The faced challenges with the patriarchs and the ideology of the community, which did not give much freedom to women. In spite of these challenges, they sailed through and ended up inspiring many with their artistic work.

References

Abdullah, N. A. (2019). Black Feminism in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening". Journal of Surra Man Raa, 15(58), 519-3. Retrieved from https://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=article&aId=160654

Nur, D. R. (2017). An Analysis of The Feminist Characters in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening". JEES (Journal of English Educators Society), 2(1), 1-20. Retrieved from http://ojs.umsida.ac.id/index.php/jees/article/view/687