Women characters in realist writer Kate Chopin's short stories and representation of gender roles

Kate Chopin (1850-1904), regarded as one of the most important woman writers in the second half of the nineteenth century, wrote about universal subjects such as gender roles and woman, race, society and class in the changing system after the Civil War. It is highly important that Kate Chopin and her works became the subjects of dispute in the period she wrote because it was a time that limited, repressed women, excluded African- Americans from society. Besides, in South, people from different ethnic roots and cultures were living in the same society and this meant class differences. In such a complex system, having experienced a life full of rises and falls, Kate Chopin succeeded to be a woman ahead of her time and a foresighted, sensible and more importantly, brave writer. This thesis, which is written in the light of academic sources, deals with how Kate Chopin wrote her short stories, determined her characters' way of living, what roles she gave them and while doing these, how she used the economical, cultural and social features of South. In that sense, her realist, regionalist and local colors writer sides gain importance to understand her works. In addition, in this thesis, it is emphasized that Kate Chopin was not a feminist writer but she gave importance to women regardless of their race, ethnic root or class. Finally, through her short stories, it is analyzed that how Chopin reflected some ideals of women such as 'The Cult of True Womanhood' and 'The New Woman' which are explained in this thesis in detail.