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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
The style of "Désirée’s Baby" is primarily affected by how short it is. Chopin introduces a great deal of material within a few pages, but the passage of time and the scope of the events makes the story feel expansive despite its brevity. The narrative also closely follows the actions of its characters, describing in rather straightforward detail what they're doing. In this sense, the narrative style takes on a somewhat dry, declarative aspect, as is the case when—at the beginning of the story—Madame Valmondé arrives at L’Abri plantation to see her daughter:
Madame Valmondé bent her portly figure over Désirée and kissed her, holding her an instant tenderly in her arms. Then she turned to the child.
"This is not the baby!" she exclaimed, in startled tones.
The third-person narrator doesn't provide any insight into what Madame Valmondé is thinking or feeling. Instead, the story simply presents her actions one after another, leaving readers to unpack for themselves what, exactly, is happening. In turn, Madame Valmondé's sudden exclamation that the baby before her must not really belong to Désirée comes as a bit of a surprise, as the sparse narrative style has given no indication that this is the case. In other words, the narrative style forces readers to read between the lines—in this case, the unspoken implication is that Désirée's baby must not belong to her because the baby looks Black, whereas Désirée looks white. By refusing to spell this implication out in clear terms, though, the narrative effectively puts readers in the same position as the characters themselves, ultimately using a detached style to throw readers into the same kind of uncertainty and suspicion that Madame Valmondé and the other figures in the story experience.
Related Themes:
