A COMPARATIVE LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN FEMALE CHARACTERs IN hå xu©n h­¬ng’s POEMsAND KATE CHOPIN’s SHORT STORIES

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
FACULTY OF ENGLISH

A COMPARATIVE LITERARY ANALYSIS
OF THE MAIN FEMALE CHARACTERs IN hå
xu©n h¬ng’s POEMs AND KATE CHOPIN’s
SHORT STORIES

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
of the degree of bachelor of arts in tefl

Student

: Doan Minh Thuy

Class

: K63B

Supervisor

: Do Thi Phuong Mai, M.A


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Hanoi, April 2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I wish to manifest my extreme sincere gratitude to Mrs. Do Thi
Phuong Mai, M.A at Faculty of English, Hanoi University of Education for her
persistent guidance, comprehensive advice and endless encouragement during
my process of producing this graduation thesis.
Secondly, I also profess my deepest thank to my literature teachers at
Luong The Vinh high school, Hanoi who have informed me a lot with
Vietnamese and American literary background knowledge.
Finally, I would like to present my acknowledgements to my
understanding family due to their great support to me in this challenging time.

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ABSTRACT
Of all female Vietnamese and American authors, who shared the same
interest on women, Hồ Xuân Hương and Kate Chopin were considered the most
magnificent in their literary period. By utilizing qualitative method, this study
aimed at comparing the female images in Hồ Xuân Hương’s poems “Bánh trôi
nước,” “Cảnh làm lẽ” and Kate Chopin’s short stories “The Story of an Hour,”
“Désirée’s Baby” in order to explore the similarities and differences among
those images in terms of appearances, faithfulness, marriage, responsibilities,

unfulfillment, social position, hidden resentments and dreams. Based on the
analysis of the aspects above, the cultural stereotype of Vietnamese and
American women reflected in the four selected works would be discussed.

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ABBREVIATION
F.O.E

: Faculty of English

H.N.U.E

: Hanoi National University of Education

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Rationale
Literature is always considered a tool covering not only the works but
also the real life reflected in those ones, as literature itself cannot be separated
from reality. On the first hand, literature is greatly inspired by human’s lives.
On the other hand, literary works make contribution to the readers’
understanding about life and human values. As C.S. Lewis (1978) stated that:
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It

enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and
provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives
have already become.”
Being a Vietnamese student in Faculty of English, Hanoi National
University of Education studying American literature, the author tried to make
use of what she has learned. The author aimed to hold attraction on both the
beauty of language and of the women’s images, whose lives and desires are
demonstrated via the most delicate language. Via the frankly depicted
portrayals of those women, the writers in the previous time skillfully drew such
an outstanding picture of the whole society.
It is indisputable that Kate Chopin (1851 – 1904) is one of the most
successful writers depicting American women’s portrayal in such vivid and
riveting novels and stories like “Désirée’s Baby” (1982), “A respectable
woman” (1894), “The Story of an Hour” (1894), “The Awakening” (1899). Kate
Chopin’s challenging life had a great impact on her distinctive writing style.
Despite her arduous life, a dream of freedom not only for her but also for all
American common women was harbored. Also being inspired with women’s
images, taking experience from her own up and down life and sharing the
same desire like Kate Chopin, Hồ Xuân Hương, a Vietnamese female poet, was
famous for her trenchant works in the late 18 th and early 19th century, such as
“Bánh trôi nước,” “Cảnh làm lẽ,” “Cái quạt” and so on. Hồ Xuân Hương’s
conception which concerned the women’s rights and desire to escape from the

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ruling society was far ahead from that of other same period authors. Her
poems were about 100 years earlier than Kate Chopin’s stories, and even they
came from diverse culture, they both paid special attention to the women who

are usually looked down on and not respected as they actually deserve.
There are a lot of articles and research which share the same interest in
the topic related to the female images in Vietnamese and American literature
respectively, such as Hằng, L.T.T (2013)’s which did emphasize on the women’s
beauty in such various aspects like appearance, characteristics and talent
under the unfair feudal Vietnamese society. Other study is My, N.T (2009)’s,
which mainly aimed at discussing the female images in Vietnamese society
from diverse points of view and explaining for the origin of this images during
this time. Jasdomin Tolentino (2008) assumed that Kate Chopin’s
unconventional and matriarchal family as well as the 19 th century’s society
had a great impact on her works as well as her main female characters in Kate
Chopin's Life and Personal Influence. Nevertheless, there has not been much
absorption paid to comparison between Hồ Xuân Hương and Kate Chopin’s
great writings, especially in assimilating their conducted female images.
Concerning this matter, this research focuses on the women in two
disparate cultures, Vietnamese women via Hồ Xuân Hương’s poem “Bánh trôi
nước” and “Cảnh làm lẽ” in comparison with American ones in “The Story of an
Hour” and “Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, especially on how they suffered and
dealt with their social obstacles.
I.2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
(1) discussing the similarities and differences between four female
characters’ images in four selected works;
(2) identifying the concept of cultural stereotype and how the women’s
images in the works revealed the stereotype of women;
To fulfill these goals above, the research aim to address the following
research questions:

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1. What are the similarities and differences among

four female

characters in “Bánh trôi nước,” “Cảnh làm lẽ” by Hồ Xuân Hương and “The
Story of an Hour,” “Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin?
2. How do cultural stereotype affect female characters in these selected
works?
I.3. Scope of the study
This research focuses mainly on the women in two diverse cultures, the
Eastern women in Hồ Xuân Hương’s poems “Bánh trôi nước,” “Cảnh làm lẽ”
compared with the Western ones in “The Story of an Hour,” “Désirée’s Baby” by
Kate Chopin. Though Hồ Xuân Hương and Kate Chopin were not in the same
period, they shared the same interest in women’s destiny, especially in how
women put up with and overcame their social obstacles to express their strong
wishes. Furthermore, these two authors did leave behind considerably valuable
writings, however, due to time limitation, the researcher chooses two notable
poems or stories of each artist to compare and analyze. Of all their works
whose topic is about women, “Bánh trôi nước,” “Cảnh làm lẽ” by Hồ Xuân
Hương and “The Story of an Hour,” “Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin are
fascinating to readers who have concern about Vietnamese and American
Literature.
I.4. Design of the study
The thesis comprises three main parts as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction – explaining why the author chooses this
topic, the aims, the scope and the design of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature Review – providing an overview of Hồ Xuân
Hương and Kate Chopin’s lives and their writing careers; covering an overview

of “Bánh trôi nước,” “Cảnh làm lẽ,” “The Story of an Hour” and “Désirée’s
Baby” and specifying the women’s images. This dominant background
knowledge is prepared for readers to conciliate the main content in chapter 4:
Findings and Discussion.

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Chapter 3: Methodology – mentioning the research methods
employed in shaping this thesis.
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion – comparing, analyzing and
summarizing data collected to give answers to the research questions.
Chapter 5: Conclusion – synthesizing the study’s main ideas and
concluding what the author has done in this thesis; including implications for
teaching and learning; giving some limitations of the study and proposing
some suggestions for further studies.
Finally, the references and reliable sources which have been used in this
study were also presented.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
II.1. Social and literary background of Hồ Xuân Hương’s and Kate
Chopin’s time
To American Literature and Vietnamese Literature particularly or any
national literature generally, connecting texts to their social, cultural and
historical contexts or literary traditions is so important. That social and

cultural backgrounds have powerful influence on the development of literature
is unquestionable. Any changes in society can bring a correspondence in
literature as literature is a mirror that reflects exactly what is going on in
every community.

It can be assumed that works are the products of

many influences that affect the ways in which writers write and the ways in
which people read and interpret their works. The social and literary
background can consist of a variety of simple factors, such as the historical
period in which a work was written or the ways in which the language used in
the work reflects the time when it was conducted, however, being aware of
the background information not only can help to understand and appreciate
the works but also can support to recognize the similarities as well as
differences between these works.
II.1.1. Social background
II.1.1.1. Vietnamese social background in Hồ Xuân Hương’s time
Hồ Xuân Hương’s period was the time of social turmoil, which lasted
from late 18th century to early 19th century. By the end of Lê dynasty, the
Confucian social order had calcified and was crumbling. Vietnam, at that time,
had to experience continuously both the inner and the outer war, caused by
domestic forces and foreign invaders. After the death of King Quang Trung,
there were a lot of farmers’ revolutions but they all fell in fighting for their
rights. Major of the Vietnamese during this epoch were depending on
agriculture, suffered from strict feudal rules while the barriers between CochiChina and Tokin – two areas of the country were still unbreakable.

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Moreover, Vietnam’s current government followed Feudalism, which led
the country to be back to obsolescence. While the Nguyễn Dynasty was
satisfied with the fogginess learned from China, there were few sages whose
progressive thought urged them to apply Modernism from the Western
countries. However, these progressive ones were not supported by the imperial
court, as it was afraid that the new things learned as well as business coming
from Western countries would push the country to be invaded.
As the backward transformation to the obsolescence together with
draconian ruling that Vietnamese people had to suffer from, Vietnamese
women could not avoid life in which they were dependent and could not
control their own destiny. It was recorded that, because of the war, major of
women in lower class had to deal with much more difficulties in lives, while
some others, despite living in upper class’ families, became tools in political
marriage, in which they were goods to be exchanged for men’s power or the
country’s extension. Vietnamese women were not as respected as men, were
imposed on many social strict regulations and inequality and were just
considered the men’s shadow. However, at that time, there still appeared a few
outstanding women who had done things that often had been done by men
before and got out of the shadow of the men. They served their lives for the
nation such as Princess Ngọc Hân, General Bùi Thị Xuân; they were famous
authors writing excellent works, like Mrs. Huyện Thanh Quan, Đoàn Thị Điểm,
Hồ Xuân Hương. The women’s lives were still harsh, but some of them were
able to be the representatives and raised their little voices to express women’s
wishes via literature.
II.1.1.2. American social background in Kate Chopin’s time
Kate Chopin was born and lived in the late 19 th century and the early
20th century. This period is one of the most pivotal to American society called
“Transformation,” in which the country turned a significant step. These
political, economic and social changes consequently pulled along a lot of
adjustment in all American fields, regardless of literature.

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Moreover, hardly did the American Civil War (1861-1865) between the
industrial North and the agricultural slave – owner South happen when it
turned the U.S. history into Victorian era, a new era with the elimination of
slavery and the promotion in human rights. In this period, the women's
suffrage movement for their rights and equality in both education and other
professional fields were considered most remarkable progresses. These
movements were parts of the development in one of the longest social reform
movement in American history. During this reform period, the foundation of
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the largest organization of women
all over the world, became a great milestone in the international woman’s
rights protest.
On the positive sides, there were lots of respectable changes, whereas, to
be truthful, the concept of women’s social position in the Victorian era
remained really harsh. Many young women worked as servants or in shops and
factories until marriage, then typically became full-time housewives.
Throughout the 19th century, approximately ninety percent of married women
still stayed at home and did the household chores. Most of them were
Southerners, who were brought up in a patriarchal society. In spite of those
positive changes, the journey to seek for women’s equality was still on the long
way at the turning mark in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In short, three main phenomena in Kate Chopin’s period comprising
“Transformation” period, the American Civil War as well as the women’s
movements for equality have urged her to produced prominent works.
II.1.2. Typical features of literature
II.1.2.1. Typical features of literature in Hồ Xuân Hương’s time

To Vietnamese literature, the period of late 18 th century and early 19th
century was the most brilliant time of literary works in feudal society. Because
of its vivid development, many researchers called it “Vietnamese classical
literature stage,” which was inherited many achievements from the
Vietnamese folklore and also was challenged from time to time. However, the

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most decisive factor was for the influence by remarkable changes in society
this time.
The authors in this literary stage both criticized a society full of crises,
and showed their sympathy to badly-treated people, two of the most brilliant
features of humanitarian inspiration. Via those works, also the strong wills to
be released from draconian yokes was praised, which indirectly encouraged
people to raise their voice to protect their rights. Those draconian yokes, in
spite of being invisible or tangible, all resulted in deadlocking lives, so that
people had to find out any exits in literature. It was supposed that, in the world
of art, there would appear a hero solving all the social problems, and all the
wishes, especially from little women, about a fair and progressive society, in
which they would not suffer from any challenges or difficulties would become
truth.
Until the end of the 18th century, Vietnamese folklore had been
flourishingly developing in variety of literary types, from proverbs to long
story poems, jokes and so on. During that time, literary works written in Nôm
Script reached its peak, respecting Truyện Kiều by Nguyễn Du as one of the
masterpieces. Not only Truyện Kiều, but other works in the same period also
shared the same ideas about social injustice and iniquity under feudal
government system, the miserable fate of typical characters in society,

especially the poor or the women. No longer had the female’s images been
someone mentioned in a general and blur way than in the late 18 th century and
early 19th century, the images become much more detailed, even were the most
focus of this period’s literature. The image of women with many fair qualities
appeared in a lot of works composed by Nguyễn Du, Nguyễn Dữ, Đặng Trần
Côn, Đoàn Thị Điểm, Mrs. Huyện Thanh Quan, Hồ Xuân Hương. They used their
own works as a sharp weapon to deeply satirize the feudal government,
advocate women’s value in the society. Never before were the women in every
class in praise of their beauty and virtue. Even these praises appeared only in
literary works, that was such a great achievement, a big step to alter in

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conventional conception about women and their position in community,
regardless of upper, middle or lower class women.
Vietnamese Literature in the 18th century – 19th century variously and
profoundly reflected the current life of contemporary society along with
changes in minds, emotions and aspirations of Vietnamese people.
II.1.2.2. Typical features of literature in Kate Chopin’s time
Kate Chopin’s time was the literary epoch of Realism, which “is nothing
more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material” (William Dean
Howells, 1891). Writers in this period were considered themselves taking
responsibility for criticizing and interpreting any social changes from various
viewpoints. Thus, what happened in the society was adequately and faithfully
reflected in American Literature 1860 – 1914. As America experienced such a
rapid change in every aspect, literature was not an exception with a shift from
Romanticism to Realism. Rebecca Harding Davis, Sarah Orne Jewett, Ambrose
Bierce, Henry James, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells and Kate Chopin were

the most outstanding authors that supported this movement, made the
realistic works become a sharp weapon.
Realism concerned with the commonplaces in daily life, in which
humans are in control of their own destiny and are superior to their
circumstances. Via those circumstances, the works were produced to
emphasize morality and intrinsic, relativistic value between people and
society. Realists were also accepted to depict and evince rather than tell the
reality in society precisely by focusing on psychological, optimistic tone,
details, pragmatic, practical, slow-moving plot, thus, there was very little
emotion demonstrated in their works. Also in those realistic works,
representative people living in ordinary towns did representative things, as a
result, it was quite fluent for writers to exteriorize the major themes, which
were about people from lower class and their struggle against barrier and
difficulties in life, especially weak people having few rights such as women and
children.

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In addition, almost all of the characters who were extracted from their
full images were apparently the most ordinary and desiccating. Also, there
appeared no heroes or heroines giving any clear solutions to any problems in
those works, despite clear description about social problems or the contrast
among higher and lower class. Consequently, realists often had pessimistic
point of views in life and left their stories’ ending open. Remarque (1939)
believed: “It's not much. You begin by thinking there is something
extraordinary about it. But you'll find out, when you've been out in the world a
while longer, unhappiness is the commonest thing there is.”
Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, from the Civil War

till the end of the 19th century, local color or regionalism marked its stamp in
American literature. Hart' (1941) assumed that,
“In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of
romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away
from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic
scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and
accuracy of description.”
This mode of writing followed the rapid growth of population toward
urbanization and industrialization, as well as the war and the concurrent
diminishing of regional differences. Two authors from different regions of the
country kept their colorists apart from others, particularly via several burning
issues of the society, such as racial injustice, sexual inequality or
discrimination. Together with Sarah Orne Jewet and George Washington Cable,
Kate Chopin was one of the most outstanding writers.
As the turn of the century, in late Victorian society, the traditional “True
Woman” was being challenged by the emerging paradigm of the “New Woman.”
The transition between the two alternative viewpoints was from pious,
submissive and restricted women to the home to sufficiently educated and social
mobilized women. From their original appropriate sphere, women gradually
defined a greater sexual freedom, although in their journey finding their self –

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definition, they still had to encounter the obstacles raised by race, by class, by
social unfair prejudice or by conventional views of women’s proper place. There
was an expanding growth in female writers whose novels, poems and even
humorous pieces were becoming popular, such as Emily Dickinson and Charlotte
Perkins Gilman.

Finally, it can be presumed that literature had a huge business during
1890s. Books and magazines were produced on a national scale with the
popularity of publishing. The foundation of many big publishing houses, the
appearance of many gifted writers and the increase in literacy of American
population at that time have led literature to a remarkably potential and
dynamic period.
For all features mentioned above, American social as well as its
literature had considerable and great influence on Kate Chopin’s literacy
development, which led to the birth of fascinating works.
II.1.3. Vietnamese and American women’s images in literature
It is evident that women are vital half of the world, the unique and vivid
ones not only in reality but also in literature. In fact, the portrayal of women
conducted by male authors completely disparate from female authors’ view of
women, also different women’s portrayal from distinct societies would be
depicted in various ways.
II.1.3.1. Vietnamese women’s images in literature
Vietnamese traditional women in literature were beautiful and
respectable with highly noble virtues from the early time to present,
particularly in the 18th – 19th century.
Under social injustice and iniquity of feudal government system, the
miserable fate of typical characters in society, especially the oppressive and
exploited women. No longer had the female’s images been someone mentioned
generally and faintly than in the late 18 th century and early 19th century, the
images become much more detailed, even were the most focus of this period’s
literature.

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It is evident that in literature, the female ones who came from lower
class, particularly those living in the feudal time as well as in war time, often
lived a life of virtue. In this period, most of the writers like Nguyễn Du, Nguyễn
Dữ, Hồ Xuân Hương had such a forthright view on women’s life, consequently
they could depict them vividly and sensitively. As the whole country was
engulfed completely in the feudal system, most Vietnamese people had to suffer
from a similar miserable fate, especially women who were the subject of
oppression and exploitation. However, Vietnamese women in literature still kept
their great dignity including faithfulness, devoting all of their lives to family in
spite of variety of difficulties they had to cope with. Take the wife in “Chinh phụ
ngâm” by Đặng Trần Côn (1741) as an example, she faithfully and patiently
confronted the hardship when the only family man served the war, leaving her
with the children and the worries of his coming back when the country was in
peace.
In addition, by presenting the ruling class that supported the feudal
system against their own people, Vietnamese writers in the current time
grabbed a good chance to deeply criticize and expose the truth about this
“social ulcer.” Remarkable changes in Vietnamese literature again honored
the female images as the focus of this period’s works. However hard the
difficulties were, Vietnamese women in literature still kept their great
faithfulness and devoted all of their lives to family.
In conclusion, women’s images in Vietnamese literature in the 18 th – 19th
century were depicted in a complex and vivid way as they really were. Most of
female characters were inspired by the author’s own experience, which makes
them real and closer to the current Vietnamese society.
II.1.3.2. American women’s images in literature
Unlike the unified portrayals of women in Vietnamese works one
century earlier, American literature built various images of women in the
period of the 19th – 20th century. As the turn of the century, changes of roles
and positions in American society was represented when American women

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became a new theme for many authors to explore, especially their roles in the
womanhood and motherhood.
Firstly, although American Realism women changed their views about
themselves, they dare not break the social norms. They realized
transformation frankly inside their minds, yet accepted to be in the
background to support their husband and children as well as guarded their
morals. Mrs. Baroda in “A respectable Woman” by Kate Chopin (1894)
illustrated this the most clearly. Mrs. Baroda recognized she had devoted
provisional desire for love with her husband’s friend; however, she controlled
her feeling prosperously and became a respectable woman, who among all
American women was still a conventional and faithful wife and mother.
On the other side, there were also some featured portrays of “New
Women,” which was altered from the images of “True Woman” in the turn of
the century. In American Realism, that those women struggled for the ideal of
freedom in passion, sexuality and marriage was a prevalent and outstanding
theme. They strove for their personal freedom, yet could not control their
passionate desire and then became unconventional women, which were
portrayed in “The Story of an Hour,” “The Awakening” and “The Storm” by
Kate Chopin, “The Yellow Wall-paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Women at this time seemed to have more chances to gradually define a
greater sexual freedom, although in their journey finding their self – definition,
they still encountered the obstacles raised by race, class, social unfair prejudice
or by conventional views of women’s proper place.
II.2. Hồ Xuân Hương and her poems
II.2.1. Hồ Xuân Hương’s biography

There is no doubt that between a writer’s life and his or her later
writings, there is a close relationship. Most writers, especially female ones,
have to experience a sophisticated and miserable life before finding the
passion for writing in order to confide their thoughts as well as feelings. Hồ
Xuân Hương is among those whose life had a great deal of trauma.

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There has been doubt in Hồ Xuân Hương’s biography, as researchers are
having little information about Hồ Xuân Hương’s life. However, it can be
supposed that Hồ Xuân Hương was born Hồ Phi Mai in the late 18th century in
Quỳnh Lưu, Nghệ An. Hồ Xuân Hương, which was her pen name, was such a
famous writer in the same period with Nguyễn Du (1766 -1820), Phạm Đình
Hổ (as known as Chiêu Hổ, 1768-1839). Her father was Mr. Hồ Phi Diễn, an
education got married with Hồ Xuân Hương’s mother, who was just a
concubine. Her father died when she was only 13 years old, Hồ Xuân Hương
then moved to Thăng Long, one of the most prosperous areas in the Tokin at
that time, experienced peaceful childhood years, despite the distempered
society full of political crises in the end of the 18 th century. 3 years after her
father’s death, her mother got married with another man. Though she was
under less strict family rules than other girls in the same period, Hồ Xuân
Hương was brilliantly demonstrated herself as a gifted, intelligent and
studious woman.
It was thought that Hồ Xuân Hương’s life would be kept in peace when
she got married. Hồ Xuân Hương was too romantic, liberal to desire to break
all harsh cultural walls of feudalism, but she could not avoid her miserable
marriages, in which the women always received less happiness. In her two sadending marriages, her husbands were both fond of her talent in writing,
however, she was only concubine, had to share the same husband at the same

time with another women. There might be much unfrank reasons for her
unhappy marriages, but maybe it was for her husband’s premature death or as
she could not stand being a mistress.
During her challenging life, Hồ Xuân Hương kept writing as she
passionately found literature as a friend, in which she could express all her
complicated feelings, especially about the women and their positions in the
unfair society. She lived alone the remainder of her life in a small house near
the West Lake in Hanoi until her death in the early years of the 19 th century,
left Vietnamese literature such respectable and featured pieces of works.

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II.2.2. Hồ Xuân Hương’s writing career
Hồ Xuân Hương was brought up in the fluctuate period of the feudal
society in the end of Lê-sơ Dynasty and in the beginning of Nguyễn Dynasty,
therefore, she had the most valuable experience when observing the inequality
in the community. In her period, the women were not as respected as the men,
however hard they tried to take care of the whole family, particularly when the
men were away from home to serve the war. The ancient feudal concept did
not allow the women to do things as men did, to be educated, or to benefit
what they deserved for, even forced them to bear the most disadvantages in
their lives. These observations played such an essential role in creating Hồ
Xuân Hương’s writing style, her theme or language.
Hồ Xuân Hương was talented and creative enough to build her own
style of using literary language, which could not be replaced or mistaken.
While other authors in the same period try to harmonize Vietnamese and
Chinese, Hồ Xuân Hương only used native Vietnamese language – the Nôm
Script, which made the national color in her style the most distinguished.

Alliterations were actively and cunningly used, which caused such a strong
invisible vitality in her poems. Moreover, that she employed various idioms
resulted in the popularity in her writings. She also made use of the artistic
measures in literature, such as comparison, metaphor, metonymy, satire,
spoonerism and so on.
The way Hồ Xuân Hương chose themes for her works was also unique.
Instead of the great heroic themes or great national images like other writers,
she recklessly wrote about snail, jackfruit, fan, betel, swing, any common
things that surrounded her life could be her topics, which were considered
taboo in current time. She seemed to break the mandatory canon in choosing a
topic of Tang poetry – which originated from China, although Hồ Xuân
Hương’s poems still followed the strict rules in the number of sentences in a
poem and the number of words in a sentence.

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Despite the fact that Hồ Xuân Hương’s poetry has been published and
republished hundreds of time in a wide range of texts, collections, for
education purpose and for the general readers during the last century, her
original poems are still involving scholars in the dark. The most ancient
document that recorded some of Hồ Xuân Hương’s works was “Quốc văn tùng
kí,” collected by Hải Châu Tử Nguyễn Văn San in 1833. Most of her works were
gathered in “Xuân Hương thi tập” and “Lưu Hương Ký” together with other
authors. Of all her works, “Bánh trôi nước,” “Cái quạt giấy,” “Cảnh làm lẽ,”
“Đánh đu,” “Mời trầu,” “Quả mít,” “Tự tình” are the most famous. Since these
poems were not collected until roughly 70 years after her death, her entire
oeuvre, about over 130 works, was circulated orally. Although continuously
beloved by the public, all Hồ Xuân Hương poems were deemed too loutish to be

taught in high schools by the 1960’s, only to be restored to the curriculum in
the 90’s. Today, many Vietnamese still know at least a few Hồ Xuân Hương
lines by heart.
In short, in a Confucian society, Hồ Xuân Hương’s works showed her to
be independent-minded and resistant to societal norms, especially through
her socio-political commentaries and her use of frank sexual humor and
expressions. Her irreverent, full of double entendre, and erudite poems
endlessly inspired next generations and the modern poet Xuân Diệu called
her “The Queen of Nôm poetry.”
II.3. Kate Chopin and her stories
II.3.1. Kate Chopin’s biography
Thomas O’Flaherty, a respectably successful Irish businessman and
Eliza Faris O’Flaherty, a beautiful daughter from a Creole family got married
and borne Catherines O’Flaherty on February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. Kate’s father
and great-grandmother greatly influenced her. They noticed and exhorted her
passion, taught her the language and the freedom of the French that many
Americans disapproved during this time. However, that Mr. O’Flaherty died in
a traffic accident prematurely resulted in Kate’s growth up in a household

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dominated by women: her mother, her grandmother, her great-grandmother.
For her great-grandmother’s related stories including many common themes
about women struggling with molarity, freedom, convention and desire, Kate
consequently believed in women’s strength, independence. She spent a lot of
time reading works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and the Brontë. From
1855 to 1868, she was sent to a St. Louis Catholic girl’s school, Academy of the
Sacred Heart for a formal education.

At the age of twenty, Kate Chopin met and got married to Oscar Chopin
on June 9, 1870, which made her life turn to a new stage. Kate merrily confided
in her commonplace book, “I am going to be married, married to the right
man. It does not seem strange as I had thought it would–I feel perfectly calm,
perfectly collected. And how surprised everyone was, for I had kept it so
secret!” The couple settled in New Orleans, in which Oscar founded a business.
After Oscar closed his New Orleans’ business because of hard financial time,
the Chopins moved to Cloutierville, a small French village in northwestern
Louisiana, where Kate selected many useful materials for her writing later. In
1882, Oscar died of malaria, left Kate with a failing business and six small
children needing taking care of. She managed the property, paid off the debt
for two years before moving back to St. Louis to live closer to her mother with
the hope of supplying better educational opportunities for her children.
After one peaceful year coming back to her motherland, Kate was
shocked the most by her mother’s death. Seeing Kate struggling with
depression, her obstetrician and family friend, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer
suggested that she should write as a mean of emotional therapeutic healing
and also as the financial support. Kate continued her writing occupation until
her death at the age of 53.
In conclusion, Kate Chopin’s challenging life was full of ups and downs
and had an intense and special impact on her writing style, particularly her
way to depict her main female characters, which based much on her own
experiences.

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II.3.2. Kate Chopin’s writing career
Kate Chopin’s writing career was assumed to last for fourteen years,

and during that brief time, via her special theme, style, language, she produced
many brilliant works.
In her works, Kate Chopin was succeed in exploring and describing all
types of current literature’s taboo subjects, including race discrimination,
abolition of slavery, or women’s desires of holding their own independence. She
composed a kind of autobiography and described her societies; she had grown
up in a time when her surroundings were the abolitionist movements before
the American Civil War, and their influence on freedmen education and rights
afterward, as well as the emergence of feminism. She concentrated on women's
lives and their continual struggles to create an identity of their own within the
Southern society of the late 19th century. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory
University presumed, “Kate was neither a feminist nor a suffragist, she said so.
She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never
doubted women's ability to be strong.” Not many writers during the mid- to
late 19th century were bold enough to address subjects that Chopin took
on. Her ideas and descriptions were not reporting, but her stories expressed
the reality of her world. All the achievements mentioned above made Kate
Chopin become “a pioneer in her own time.”
According to Le Marquand, Jane (1996), Chopin's writing style was
influenced by her admiration of the contemporary French writer Guy de
Maupassant, known for his short stories as she mentioned:
“I read his stories and marveled at them. Here was life, not
fiction; for where were the plots, the old fashioned mechanism
and stage trapping that in a vague, unthinkable way I had
fancied were essential to the art of story making. Here was a
man who had escaped from tradition and authority, who had
entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own

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being and with his own eyes; and who, in a direct and simple
way, told us what he saw.”
Going beyond Maupassant's technique and style to give her writing its
own flavor, Kate Chopin had a special ability to perceive life and creatively
express it. Her living in a variety of locations, based on disparate economies
and societies were sources of insights and observations from which she
analyzed and expressed her ideas. Chopin took strong interest in her
surroundings and wote about many of her observations. Marquand (1996)
indicated that Chopin undermined patriarchy by endowing the woman with an
individual identity and a sense of self to the lessons she left behind each stories’
voice. Marquand

also supposed that the official version of her life, that

constructed by the men around her, was challenged and overthrown by the
woman of the story. Besides that, in her hundred short stories, twenty poems,
two novels, eight essays of literary criticism and one play, she depicted people
in Louisiana by her use of language of Southern citizens, therefore she was
considered a Southern colorist writer.
In 1889, accepted for publication by Vogue, “Wiser than a God” and “A
point at Issue” were Kate Chopin’s two first stories portraying the resolution of
the woman artist with utter confidence. They contained Chopin’s most
outspoken demonstration of the self-sufficient woman sought to build a
marriage that let them find balance in their lives, which gave them a chance to
bond with a partner while maintain their individuality.
In 1890, Kate’s first novel, “At fault,” was published privately.
Introducing two daring topics: divorce and alcoholism, the book was about a
thirtyish Catholic widow falling in love with a divorced man. “At fault” offered

a compelling glimpse into what Kate was concerning about. Then she
completely shifted to focus on short stories and was well-known for two
collections of her short stories “Bayou Folk” (1894) and “A night in Acadia”
(1897).

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