A MATTER OF BEHAVIOR: A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF FIVE KATE CHOPIN STORIES

Though various interpretations of Kate Chopin's short stories have been suggested, no one, to my knowledge, has analyzed her work using the principles, ideas, concepts, etc., of general semantics (GS)-how language, thought, and action are interrelated. Josephine, her sister, also makes the observation-inference confusion when "kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole" (354), she mistakes Louise's ecstatic behavior for sickness. [...] the touch of the caressing baby arms; the pressure of the soft little body in the night; the tones of the voice, and the feeling of the hot lips when the child kissed her, believing herself to be with her mother, were impressions that had sunk through the crust of madame's prejudice and reached her heart.