36 pages • 1 hour read
Kate ChopinDesiree's Baby
Fiction | Short Story | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Désirée
Désirée is one of the main characters in “Désirée’s Baby.” Désirée is the new mother of Armand Aubigny’s first child and the adopted daughter of Madame Valmondé. Her birth parents are unknown, as Madame Valmondé discovered her by the gates, either having been abandoned by or having wandered from her parents. Madame Valmondé sees her as a gift from God, considering she could not bear children of her own, and this holy, pure quality remains with Désirée as she grows into adulthood. The story describes her as “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere—the idol of Valmondé” (Paragraph 3) with “long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders” (Paragraph 19). Her loving nature and innocence result in her being the last character to suspect or understand that something is “wrong” with her child.
Désirée is rejected by her husband, but she also feels she can’t live with the truth of her ancestry if it indeed confirms she’s “not white”; she chooses not to save herself by going to live with her adoring parents but rather exiles herself and her child into the wilderness, presumably choosing death instead. This dramatic end mirrors her mysterious and dramatic origins, adding to Désirée’s otherworldly, Biblical, fable-like quality.
The name “Désirée” means “desired” in French, which is ironic because she was seemingly abandoned by her birth parents and is abandoned by her husband at the end of the story. Her desirability is also her main tool of survival: once she becomes undesirable to her husband, her life becomes precarious.
Armand Aubigny
Armand Aubigny is the husband of Désirée, the son of the late Monsieur Aubigny and his French wife, and the father of Désirée’s baby. Whereas Armand’s father was “easy-going and indulgent” (Paragraph 6), Armand has an “imperious and exacting nature” (Paragraph 17). He’s briefly transformed by his love for Désirée: “Armand’s dark, handsome face had not often been disfigured by frowns since the day he fell in love with her” (Paragraph 17), but this changes when his son is born. If Désirée is angelic, Armand is her demonic opposite: “the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves” (Paragraph 18). His inhumanity is highlighted again when Désirée turns to him in distress: “she called to him, in a voice which must have stabbed him, if he was human. But he did not notice” (Paragraph 22). The final image of Armand takes place near a giant fire—an image reiterating his Satan-like quality—as he learns that his own mother was black, making him mixed-race.
Madame Valmondé
Madame Valmondé is Désirée’s adoptive mother and the baby’s grandmother. She has a “portly figure” (Paragraph 8) and a loving, accepting nature. When Armand rejects Désirée and the child, Madame Valmondé tells Désirée, “Come home to Valmondé; back to your mother who loves you” (Paragraph 30). She’s a religious Catholic woman who couldn’t bear children of her own and therefore believes Désirée to be a gift from God. Though she recognizes “non-whiteness” in her grandchild, she doesn’t tell her daughter.
Zandrine and La Blanche
Zandrine and La Blanche are two (presumably) enslaved women who live at L’Abri. They are both depicted as having light skin, and the name “La Blanche” means “the white” in French, but they are presumably mixed-race. Zandrine is Désirée baby’s nurse and is described in queenlike terms: “the woman bowed her turbaned head majestically” (Paragraph 11). Madame Valmondé looks to Zandrine for some sort of reaction when she sees her grandchild, but Zandrine turns away. Zandrine is holding Désirée’s baby when Désirée takes the child and leaves L’Abri. La Blanche doesn’t speak in the story, but Armand compares Désirée's skin to La Blanche’s, and Désirée notices La Blanche’s son’s resemblance to her own son, which cues her epiphany.
Related Titles
By Kate Chopin
