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Comparing Edna Pontellier's Journey And The Awakening

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The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a feminist story where the protagonist Edna Pontellier begins to fight social norms in order to break free of social norms and become a strong independant woman. This story’s central self conflict feature unique characteristics which make it both similar and different to other romantic and modernist literature in that era. This essay will compare and contrast characteristics of The Awakening and “ A Pair of Silk Stockings” , “ Love is not all” and “ The Journey”. In The Awakening, The protagonist Edna Pontellier starts out as a typical wealthy housewive of a creole. Although her life is comfortable she finds it difficult to find her true inner self as she has to conform to what society wants of her. The start of her awakening is when she gets attracted to a young man named Robert Lebrun and they enjoy each other's company at Cheniere Caminada. After Mass there she falls asleep at Madame Antoine's house and reawaken with a new view on her life. Afterwards Robert goes to Mexico and Edna returns to NEw Orleans. At New Orleans Edna feels imprisoned and does not get along too well with Alcee Arobin who does …show more content…

However, later on she decides to spend the money on herself as she notices Silk Stockings that she likes. The Awakening is similar to the short story “A Pair of Silk Stockings” in that they both feature a central conflict of where the protagonists decide to focus on their own desires before those of their children. There is however a slight difference in that Mrs.Sommers in the short story focuses on materialism while Edna in The Awakening actually gives up some materialism when she decides to live in the pigeon house. In conclusion, The Awakening and “ A Pair of Silk Stockings”both feature the same inner vs outer self conflict however they differ in what some of the respective protagonists goals

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The Awakening took place in the year 1899 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The protagonist of this novel was Mrs. Edna Pontellier, a married woman of twenty-six who was trapped in an unhappy marriage. Due to the expectations of this time, it would have been impossible for Edna to divorce her husband and be fully independent, so instead she was forced to be the model housewife who didn't even know that she should desire freedom; however, as the novel progressed, Edna realized her love for her closest companion, Robert Lebrun, while he was away in Mexico. Edna's love grew in his absence, and as this love helped her dismiss the confines of her marriage, her feeling of independence was kindled, which resulted in her moving into a separate house from

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As the novel concludes, Edna sees how impractical her hopes are for life. She accepts that Robert and she will never be together and that she is not willing to continue living a life she is unfit for. She leaves on her own to go back to the start of all awakening: Grande Isle. Upon her arrival she goes to swim and finds herself far out. Similar to her lack of energy to continue with life, her energy to swim back to shore has disappeared.

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Edna tries to satisfy this desire by taking part in an adulterous affair with Alcee Arobin, a known playboy. However, this relationship doesn’t satisfy Edna’s wish for companionship as she uses Alcee only to satisfy her sexual desires. This all changes once Edna meets Robert Lebrun, who invokes a sense of excitement and love in Edna. Edna sees her relationship with Robert as her only chance to gain freedom from the confines of society; additionally Robert gives Edna the chance to have a fulfilling relationship as opposed to her loveless one with Leonce. Although the two are deeply in love with one another, Robert is unable to reciprocate Edna’s desires to be together.

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During the nineteenth century, possessions, including women, and the home represented status, wealth, and power that only men possessed. In The Awakening, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, becomes highly conscious of herself as an individual who has the potential to be self-sufficient and do as she desires. She begins to defy the standards of woman during the nineteenth century through iconoclastic beliefs that eventually lead Edna to participating in an affair and leaving her husband, Leonce. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses the motif of the home to highlight Edna’s responsibilities as a mother and wife and to also track the progression and evolution of Edna’s state of freedom.

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The Awakening Summary

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Edna is struggling to choose a identity between a mother, wife, lover etc. She seems to not want to be subject as the possession of anybody. She focuses on independence even denying Robert of her love towards him which if she chose to stay with him, she would be associated with him and therefore labeled. She looks up to Madame Reisz as an independent woman, pursuing her passions and doing as she pleases. "I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn 't give

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The true awakening in the novel, and in Edna, is the awakening of self. Throughout the novel, she is on a transcendental journey of self-discovery, a journey that was not smooth sailing for women in the 19th century. Edna’s awakening formulates when she realizes that she wants more out of life and herself than just being a mother and a housewife. Deep inside her, she began to feel a pull toward liberty, freeing her from all the aspects of life which restrain her newfound flourishing identity. Eventually, Edna is able to fully separate herself from her marriage and society, and sets up her own small house, in order to dissociate from society and live the way she wants to.

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Out Of House In The Awakening

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By shifting the novel's setting between nature and house, Chopin implies that Edna's awakening process is an arduous detour rather than a linear progression. This alternation of settings, viewed in the context of composition, accurately reflects the fluctuations in feminine power amid the social upheavals

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Edna’s life is less rough than the women because Kate Chopin the author of the Awakening plays with the connection of reality vs. appearance. This connection highlights the situation of people as she puts on a mask to fit the social expectations. In the novel we can see, Edna lives in a life with two different personalities. We can see this at the beginning of the book in chapter 7, “even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early

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Within the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Madame Ratignolle’s character possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast the characteristics and behavior of Edna Pontellier. Despite being close friends within the novel, Adele and Edna have contrasting views and behaviors that illuminate the theme of female freedom and the tradition of female submission and male domination. Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier are close friends, but their views toward raising children differ fundamentally. Madame Ratignolle would sacrifice her identity to devote herself entirely to her children, household, and husband, whereas Edna would not. Besides their views towards raising children, how they raise their children also differs.

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