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Desiree calls to him, "in a voice that must have stabbed him, if he was human. But he did not notice." When asked what the baby's dark physical features mean Aubigny pulls Desiree's clutching fingers from his arm "and thrust the hand away from him"; it means "...that the child is not white," Aubigny answers, adding that by implication Desiree herself is not purely white either.
Rather than embrace the child and reassure one's wife, the way an average man would likely do, Aubigny leaves Desiree and child alone and retreats into his dark world. He was so racist and hateful of any color of skin not his own, he felt that Desiree had brought shame and injury upon his family name. What kind of a man would fall in love so quickly, and then brutally dominate his pretty, soft, feminine wife (taking advantage of her sweetness in order to have a son so his name can be carried on), only to push her away when the child she bore for him did not live up to his expectations? The answer is Aubigny is a man from a culture where patriarchal and bigoted behavior is acceptable. Yes, contemptible to those with grace and loving personalities, but acceptable because for many individuals, that is just how life was in the south prior to the Civil War.
As if it wasn't enough that his wife committed suicide, her heart broken beyond repair, but in the final paragraphs readers are again reminded of the meanness and inhumane personality of Aubigny. The gothic horror that Chopin is capable of creating comes through in Aubigny's act of burning the cradle that the baby was born in. He also burned the lovely gowns that Desiree had owned and worn. "...Silk gowns, and velvet and satin ones added to these; laces, too, and embroideries" along with Desiree's bonnets. Oh Aubigny must have enjoyed seeing all those items go up in flames and smoke, but he wasn't the person to actually...
What goes around comes around, right? In this case, it turns out that among Desiree's letters was a letter from Aubigny's mother to his father, spelling out the most hideous truth that Aubigny could even hope to encounter; he, too, was of mixed blood, and indeed he was part African, "...the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery." Whether or not Chopin meant this tale as a lesson on racial fairness, social justice, or merely a well-told story of karma, is not important. The message comes cross clearly through the dark clouds brooding above the head - and deep in the soul - of Aubigny. The world has its good and bad people, and some of the bad ones end up getting a taste of their own medicine.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "Desiree's Baby." Complete Novels & Stories: Bayou Folk. New York: The Library of America, 2002, pp. 242-247.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "Desiree's Baby." Complete Novels & Stories: Bayou Folk. New York: The Library of America, 2002, pp. 242-247.
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