Good, better – best?

This month’s story is an enigmatic little piece with an ambiguous ending. A Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin only has three characters, but it has a lot to offer in terms of showing us how to create characters with complexity and depth. As always, you’ll benefit most from the masterclass if you read the story for yourself: http://writ.rs/arespectablewoman

In the story we meet Mrs Baroda, her husband Gaston and his friend Gouvernail. It is significant that Kate Chopin only refers to her main character as Mrs Baroda and doesn’t give us her first name. This underlines that, at least at the start of the story, as a ‘respectable woman’ she is defined in terms of her husband.

The story follows Mrs Baroda as she undergoes a significant period of change in her life. This is triggered by her husband inviting his friend Gouvernail to stay with them. At first, she is reluctant, feeling that she would prefer to spend the