25 pages • 50 minutes read
Kate ChopinThe Night Came Slowly
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1895A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Personification
The main literary tool that Chopin uses in this story is personification. Chopin personifies the night so that it becomes a character. By giving it human qualities and likening it to a lover, Chopin shows the profound connection between the night and the narrator, which allows the reader to better understand why the narrator is so frustrated with other people. Chopin also gives other natural elements human characteristics. For example, she brings the katydids to life by having them tell the narrator to sleep. She describes them as necromancers, highlighting the divine power of nature.
Ironically, Chopin often takes away human-like characteristics from human characters. For instance, she describes people flitting around the narrator like insects, and she compares them to intangible things. In doing so, she makes the people around her seem like shells deprived of deeper meaning. The juxtaposition between these two tactics makes the night feel more alive.
Symbolism
Chopin uses symbolism to great effect in this short piece, creating multiple layers of meaning in a condensed space. For example, the maple tree is one of the story’s more significant symbols, providing a comforting presence and shelter for the narrator’s musings. Nature is also an important symbol, incorporating the environment more broadly and other natural elements like the wind, the katydids, stars, and the tree. As the night slowly comes, it takes over the narrator’s surroundings and greets her by introducing other natural elements.
The night can also represent the truth. Whereas humans are biased and use information in ways that can be harmful to others, the night is honest. When the narrator listens to the night, it speaks to her. The night has no reason to lie; it is part of nature, and nature is neither moral nor immoral; it just is. While the night is earnest, humans say a lot, but their words are often twisted.
Setting
The setting is one of the most valuable literary elements in this story because the natural setting is juxtaposed with human action to create narrative tension. It is unclear where the exact setting is, but it is a natural setting, and the narrator is sitting under a maple tree. It is also evident that the story is in a location where people commonly gather, which the reader can infer from the Bible class, and there are people looking over at the narrator.
The setting reinforces the theme that nature is being interrupted by various human activities. Dusk turns to night, and the narrator tries to appreciate the wonder and mystery of her setting, but the people around her are distracting. It’s likely that the story would take place somewhere like a park, where human functions and natural ones combine. Such locations show that human life and the natural world are intertwined, which can cause devastating consequences when humans abuse nature.
Diction
The lack of dialogue means that narrative diction is especially important in this work. Diction allows readers to get a better sense of what the characters represent and who the narrator is. The narrator’s voice creates a strong idea of what the story is trying to say, which is especially challenging in a story this short.
Chopin uses her language choices to create the night as a mysterious character and express a distaste for mankind. The wording she uses is careful and supports her overall message. For example, nature is described as stealthy, while human characters are described as coarse and foolish. These descriptions help establish the narrator’s voice and give her personality, even though readers do not know much at all about who she is. The narrator doesn’t even have a name, but the reader feels a connection to her.
Related Titles
By Kate Chopin
