Désirée’s Baby Summary & Analysis

The historical setting of Chopin’s story develops the themes and the characters. The Valmondés, who are described as plantation owners, are established as wealthy and white. Their adoption of Désirée emphasizes their kindness, despite their economic prosperity.

Her adoptive father finds Désirée in the shadow of the stone pillar. This shadow symbolizes the uncertainty of her origins. The pillar is also an indication of the wealth and property of the Valmondés, and Désirée’s appearance there introduces her into a world of privilege. Madame Valmondé’s attribution of the girl’s appearance to Providence introduces the theme of Fate into the story, while also suggesting that one’s interpretation also helps to determine one’s fate. Madame Valmondé could have responded to this abandoned baby of mysterious origin as a nuisance or curse rather than a blessing.

Désirée’s physical appearance mirrors her inner character: she is kind-hearted, although naïve, as the story reveals. Her appearance is what draws the attention of Armand, which reveals the extent of his love for her to be surface-level, as the story will demonstrate. His sudden and dramatic passion for Désirée reveals his expectation that he will get what he wants, as he always has.

Monsieur Valmondé’s caution foreshadows the concerns and questions that will be raised about Désirée’s unknown past. Armand appears not to care about his wife’s past, but does when problems arise. His gifts symbolize his wealth and his “purchase” of Désirée as a woman and wife.

Madame Valmondé’s visit brings the reader to L’Abri through the older woman’s observations and judgments of the place. These observations reveal the dark nature of the place through its dark appearance. Just as Désirée’s beauty suggest her inner nature, the appearance of the house mirrors the internal characteristics of Armand. Armand’s personality is established by comparing him, unfavorably, to his father. His father’s open-mindedness becomes key late in the story.

Désirée and her baby appear in the story with physical indications of wealth. Désirée is not working, but resting. Even maternal work is handed off to the waiting nurse, who is a slave. Madame Valmondé’s exclamation about the baby represents her recognition of that the baby’s features indicate it has a mixed racial heritage, but Désirée in her innocence thinks her mother is just exclaiming about how the child has grown. La Blanche never appears in the story and yet is an important figure. Here the reference to Armand being at La Blanche’s cabin implies that he has or had a sexual relationship with La Blanche, who is a slave and his “property.” Note how, in a sense, Désirée is also his “property” as a wife whom he “bought” with gifts and wealth, though of course slavery is even more pernicious and awful than the “traditional” gender norms of the time.

Madame Valmondé looks closely at the baby because she observes something that she chooses not to reveal to her daughter. Her silence is may be guided by shame about the truth or a desire to protect her daughter in her innocence. Désirée is oblivious and blissful. Her praise of Armand shows her love for him, as well as how emotionally dependent she is on her husband. Because he is proud and happy, she is happy.

The change in Armand that Désirée describes further reveals Armand’s natural character: he is cruel toward those within his power. His generosity of spirit, inspired by the joys of fatherhood, therefore is foreshadowed to be short-lived. Désirée’s love for Armand is unconditional: she loves him in any of his moods. Armand’s love for Désirée, on the other hand, is soon revealed to be entirely conditional.

Désirée senses the problem before she consciously acknowledges it. This speaks to the theme of Love and Blindness in the story. Because Désirée loves her son, it takes her longer than everyone else to acknowledge the truth. Armand does not confront her, but reverts to his cruel nature. This shows Armand’s immediate decision to blame his wife for their child’s appearance, as well as the way that racial issues were connected with such shame—because of the institution of slavery—that no one among the white plantation slave owners could even discuss it.

Désirée and her baby again appear in attitudes of extravagance and leisure. A slave boy does the work of fanning the baby. The irony of this moment—and the condemnation of the ridiculousness and tragedy of slavery—comes with Désirée’s realization that her child looks similar to a boy whose life will be one of slavery and not comfort (the similarity of the two boys also, again, suggests that Armand has had a sexual relationship with La Blanche and that this slave child might in fact be his son, and suggests that for Armand fatherhood is less important than race). The two boys, despite their similarities, are already playing their roles. Désirée’s reaction shows that she is afraid of having a child who appears black.

Armand’s treatment of Désirée shows that he is ashamed, on the one hand, and no longer sees her as a person worthy of respect on the other. He does not lash out at her, but ignores her, as if she has lost her right to sympathy and care. Désirée’s beauty made him not care about her “mysterious past” when he thought that past was one of poor parents; but when he believes it is in fact a poverty of mixed racial heritage it becomes overwhelmingly important and shameful to him.

Désirée, while the victim of Armand’s sexist assumption and unkind treatment, is equally ashamed of being grouped with the “lesser” black race. Her act of contrasting her skin color to Armand’s foreshadows the twist at the end of the short story. That Désirée and La Blanche are also equally “white” in color forwards the story’s critique of slavery and racism as nonsensical: La Blanche, the slave, is as white as her masters (and likely has had a sexual relationship with Armand just as Désirée has had), and yet because her racial heritage is known she is forced to be a slave. But as the story is showing, racial heritage in the South isn’t clear at all and so the foundation of slavery (to say nothing of the abhorrence of the practice) makes no sense.

Désirée is the same person she always was, but the idea that she might have black heritage fills her with shame. She wants “everyone” to know she cannot possibly be black. Madame Valmondé’s response can provide no such assurance—she doesn’t know Désirée’s past. But her response also shows a true love missing in the other characters of the story: she accepts her daughter regardless of her lineage.

Désirée confronts Armand with the letter because she hopes that he will tell her to stay and show as much love and support as her mother has shown. Armand’s willingness to blame God, a higher power, indicates that he never considers the possibility of his responsibility, either for the child’s appearance or his cruel actions. His love for Désirée is conditional because it can be wiped away by shame. He wanted her for what she brought him, not for who she is.

Armand wants to strike out against what he sees as his cruel “fate “of having a black child, and he does this by striking out at his wife. Yet just as Madame Valmondé interpreted her “fate” of finding Désirée as a blessing, Armand’s “fate” is defined by his acceptance of racist and sexist ideas. Désirée is exactly the same person she was before—she has done absolutely nothing wrong or cruel. So Armand seals his own fate as cruel by refusing to see beyond race. Meanwhile, Désirée’s shame at being black is so great, meanwhile, that she chooses to throw away her and her child’s life rather than return to her loving mother.

The bonfire symbolizes Armand’s wealth as well as the intersection of classism, racism, and sexism. Armand can afford to destroy Désirée’s possessions, which are the marks of feminine beauty. He himself doesn’t do this work, but directs his slaves to do it. Both the gifts he gave Désirée and the idea that he can eliminate her from his life by burning them indicate how Armand always viewed Désirée as a possession rather than as a person.

The twist ending! Armand is part of the race that he has treated as inferior; in rejecting his son and Désirée it was really himself he was rejecting. Armand’s behavior stands in stark contrast to that of his father, who loved his mother regardless of her race. And yet it was his parent’s choice to never reveals Armand’s past to him—to protect him from that “shame”—that led him to accept racist beliefs and destroy Désirée’s and his son’s life. Put another way: in trying to protect Armand from that curse, his parent’s ended up forcing him to experience it dead on. The story reveals the “curse” of slavery to not solely be a curse for the slaves (though of course it is that) but to be a curse upon everyone, a curse upon the land.