Kate Chopin "Athénaïse"

From the short story: "People often said that Athénaïse would know her own mind some day, which was equivalent to saying that that she was at present unacquainted with it. If she ever came to such knowledge, it would be by no intellectual research, by no subtle analyses or tracing the motives of action to their source. It would come to her as the song to the bird, the perfume and color to the flower."

When Kate Chopin's "Athénaïse" was written and published

The story was written between April 10 and 28, 1895, and published in the Atlantic Monthly in August and September 1896. It was one of three Kate Chopin stories that the Atlantic Monthly published. You can see how the story looked in the 1896 magazine where it first appeared. "Athénaïse" was reprinted in Chopin's anthology of stories A Night in Acadie in 1897.

Kate Chopin's "Athénaïse" on line and in print

On line you can read the story here.

In print you can find "Athénaïse" in The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, in the Penguin Classics edition of Chopin's Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, and in the Library of American Literature Kate Chopin volume, as well as in other paperback and hardcover books. For publication information about these books, see the section "For students and scholars" near the bottom of this page.

"Athénaïse" characters

• Athénaïse; she is mentioned in Chopin's story "In and Out of Old Natchitoches"
• Cazeau, husband of Athénaïse
• Félicité, house servant of Cazeau
• Montéclin Miché, brother of Athénaïse
• Madame Miché, mother of Athénaïse
• Miché, father of Athénaïse
• Sylvie, owner of the New Orleans boarding house where Athénaïse lives
• Gouvernail, a journalist and long-term residence at Sylvie's; he is also a major character in Chopin's story "A Respectable Woman," and he appears at Edna Potellier's party in Chapter XXX of The Awakening
• Pousette, house servant at Sylvie's

"Athénaïse" time and place

The story takes place at Cazeau's plantation along the Cane River, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, and in New Orleans—probably in the 1880s or early 1890s.

Frequently asked questions about "Athénaïse"

Q: This story seems really out of character with Kate Chopin's other works—with The Awakening and stories like "The Storm," "The Story of an Hour," "A Respectable Woman," or "A Pair of Silk Stockings." What do critics think of it?

A: They fall into two camps. Some ignore the story, in part because, like Athénaïse's brother Montéclin, they are unhappy when the life of this independent, daring woman takes—as Chopin phrases it—"a very disappointing, an ordinary, a most commonplace turn, after all." Others find the story one of Chopin's richest, a dress rehearsal for The Awakening in its treatment of a dissatisfied woman following her instincts, and in its setting that moves from a rural area to New Orleans and back to the rural area again. Susan Lohafer considers it a nineteenth-century classic.

Q: Just what is going on near the end of Section II, as Cazeau rides past the old live-oak?

A: Cazeau remembers a moment when as a little boy he was riding on horseback with his father past that tree. His father was bringing back home a slave who had escaped from the plantation, and they stopped by the tree so the slave could take a breath. Cazeau is now on horseback bringing back his wife who had run away from the plantation, and he sees a parallel between the situation of the slave and that of his wife. He finds the thought "hideous."

Q: Isn't Gouvernail an unusual man for a Kate Chopin story?

A: Yes. Most of Chopin's sensitive, intelligent, insightful characters are women. But there are a few exceptions, and Gouvernail is one of them.

You can read more questions and answers about Kate Chopin and her work, and you can email us your questions.

For students and scholars

Accurate texts of "Athénaïse"

The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969.

Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. Edited by Bernard Koloski. New York: Penguin, 1999.

Kate Chopin: Complete Novels and Short Stories. Edited by Sandra Gilbert. New York: Library of American Literature, 2002.

Recent publications about "Athénaïse"

Some of the articles listed here may be available on line through university or public libraries.

Lippincott, Gail. "Thirty-Nine Weeks: Pregnancy and Birth Imagery in Kate Chopin's The Awakening." This Giving Birth: Pregnancy and Childbirth in American Women's Writing. 55-66. Bowling Green, OH: Popular, 2000.

Lund, Michael. "Kate Chopin and Magazine Publication: Human Birth and Periodical Issue at the End of the Nineteenth Century." Nineteenth-Century Feminisms 1 (1999): 95-117.

Goodspeed, Julie. "The Use of Endogamous Marriage in the Formation of Creole Identity in Cable's The Grandissimes, Chopin's 'Athénaïse,' and King's 'La Grande Demoiselle'." Southern Studies 9 (1998): 45-67.

Thomas, Heather Kirk. "'The House of Style' in Kate Chopin's 'Athénaïse'." Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. 207-217. New York: Hall, 1996.

Koloski, Bernard. "The Anthologized Chopin: Kate Chopin's Short Stories in Yesterday's and Today's Anthologies." Louisiana Literature 11 (1994): 18-30.

Selected books that discuss Chopin's short stories

Arima, Hiroko. Beyond and Alone!: The Theme of Isolation in Selected Short Fiction of Kate Chopin, Katherine Anne Porter, and Eudora Welty Lanham, MD: UP of America, 2006.

Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Stein, Allen F. Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction New York: Peter Lang, 2005.

Walker, Nancy A. Kate Chopin: A Literary Life Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2001.

Koloski, Bernard. "Introduction" Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie by Kate Chopin New York: Penguin, 1999.

Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999.

Koloski, Bernard. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction New York: Twayne, 1996.

Petry, Alice Hall (ed.), Critical Essays on Kate Chopin New York: G. K. Hall, 1996.

Elfenbein, Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1994.

Boren, Lynda S. and Sara deSaussure Davis (eds.), Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1992.

Perspectives on KateChopin: Proceedings from the Kate Chopin International Conference, April 6, 7, 8, 1989 Natchitoches, LA: Northwestern State UP, 1992.

Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton New York: Greenwood, 1990.

Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: Morrow, 1990.

Taylor, Helen. Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1989.

Bonner, Thomas Jr., The Kate Chopin Companion New York: Greenwood, 1988.

Bloom, Harold (ed.), Kate Chopin New York: Chelsea, 1987.

Ewell, Barbara C. Kate Chopin New York: Ungar, 1986.

Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin Boston: Twayne, 1985.

Susan Lohafer. Coming to Terms with the Short Story Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1983

Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969.

Rankin, Daniel, Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1932.