Constructing Fragile Manhood: Manifestations of Male Crisis in Kate Chopin's Selected Short Stories via Connell's Model

Abstract

Kate Chopin’s nineteenth-century local color short fiction has long been celebrated for its pioneering critique of patriarchal structures and its unflinching psychological portraits of female entrapment and liberation. Meanwhile, a critical gap persists concerning how Chopin’s realist canvas simultaneously exposes the structural vulnerability, internal anxieties, and emotional paralysis of her male characters. This paper examines the representation of masculinity in selected short stories by Kate Chopin—specifically "Desirée's Baby" (1893), "Fedora" (1897), and "At the 'Cadian Ball" (1892)—through the sociological lens of R.W. Connell’s groundbreaking theory of multiple masculinities, particularly the concepts of hegemonic masculinity, marginalization, and crisis tendencies. Applying Connell’s framework reveals that Chopin’s male figures do not merely operate as static enforcers of patriarchal oppression; rather, they are trapped within an unforgiving normative architecture that demands absolute authority while rendering them emotionally illiterate and psychologically brittle. When confronted with shifts in racial purity, female autonomy, or unrequited desire, these characters experience acute crises of manhood, exposing the systemic fragility inherent in nineteenth-century American hegemonic ideals.

Keywords: Kate Chopin, R.W. Connell, Hegemonic Masculinity, Male Crisis, Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Gender Studies.