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“Adele Ratignolle: Kate Chopin’s Feminist at Home in the Awakening” was written by Kathleen M. Streater and featured in the famous “The Midwest Quarterly”, a famous peer reviewed periodical. Kathleen Streater has not written many articles, which is suggested by doing a thorough research on her background; however, this paricular article is highly quoated. Furthermore, she does not seem to possess in-depth knowledge on Chopin but the arguments made by her in the article are quite convincing and unique. There are many encouraging quotes used by Kathleen, for instance she once argued that Chopin is only concentrating on the radical feminism of Edna which has limited her assessment of feminism to a great extent. This is a unique argument presented
Being raised by independent women was a factor in Chopin’s early life that contributed to her morals and beliefs, inspiring her feminist works. Chopin attended formal school at Sacred Heart Academy, a catholic, all girls school, in which she was inspired by the women around her because of the encouragement of free thinking and ability to govern oneself. While attending Sacred Heart Academy, Chopin was stressed the importance of education and being proficient in her studies. The nuns at the academy highlighted writing, literature, science, and needwork, holding their students to punctilious standards (Larrabee).
Introduction Kate Chopin wrote numerous poems and short stories. In my essay I will primarily deal with her novel The Awakening and the short story At the Cadian Ball. I will try to address women’s issues in her fiction, such as motherhood, marriage, adultery, sexuality. When it comes to Chopin, there is plentitude of topics to be dealt with; however, I selected only a few to focus on. For her fiction, the concept of ‘mother-woman’ is highly important; nonetheless, before addressing that, I will give a short portrait of the author-woman behind it – Kate Chopin herself.
In the late 1800s, nearly all women were viewed as subservient, inferior, second class females that lived their lives in a patriarchal and chauvinist society. Women often had no voice, identity, or independence during that time period. Moreover, women dealt with the horrors of social norms and the gender opposition of societal norms. The primary focus and obligation for a woman to obtain during the 1800s was to serve her husband and to obey to anything he said. Since women were not getting the equality, freedom, or independence that they desired, Kate Chopin, an independent-minded female American novelist of the late 1800s expressed the horrors, oppressions, sadness, and oppositions that women of that time period went through.
In the 19th century, a group of people launched the suffrage movement, and they cared about women’s political rights, their property and their body liberty. Born in that age, Kate Chopin was aware of the importance of setting an example for those who were taken in by the reality and poor women to be an inspiration. So we call her a forerunner of the feminist author for every effort she put in advocating women’s sexuality, their self-identity and women’s own strength. When people were ashamed of talking about sexuality, Kate Chopin stood out and call for women’s sexual autonomy.
Chopin’s novel and short story provides awareness of the lack of independence and individuality that women are granted in that era. Chopin’s voices how Louise and Enda becomes accustom to living according to what the man of the house desires. “Then would be no power will bending hers in that blind persistence” (The Story of An hour). With Louise husband being gone, he would no longer interfere with her actions or even overrule what she has to say. Louise would be completely free from his authority.
Kate Chopin was a writer in the late nineteenth Century. Some say that she is best known to be the first feminist writer and also a woman who was years ahead of her time. Chopin’s works were taboo in that time period. She focused on women's lives and how they struggled to gain independence and identity in the late nineteenth century. We can safely say that she took women, their freedom and their need for independence very seriously.
In older societies, many women felt trapped in their place in society and marriage, so who was a voice for them? Kate Chopin was one of the many influential voices for women in her time about women. Chopin wrote many stories that were influenced by experiences she has had in her life. Kate Chopin rebelled against the social roles of women and wrote many stories such as “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour” that she used to express her own feminist views. First of all, Kate Chopin rebelled against the social roles of women.
Searching for a feminist voice in Chopin’s work is much easier now because of all the groundwork that feminist activist have done over the years. Chopin’s stories often depict women as silent, passive and incapable of expressing themselves or their desires in her earlier work but as she grew as a person and author women changed into being more vocal and active (Cutter). Her work as a whole usually shows a pattern of women’s voices being repressed, such as in Desirée. Women today can take away from Chopin the relationship between men and women in her stories and how little women had any say in their lives. It also shows the reader how far the evolution of feminism as
Kate Chopin, one of the most important and influential writers of her time, uses sensory language, symbolism, and themes to closely relate her short stories, A Respectable Woman, and The Story of an Hour, to her personal life. Chopin grew up in a house of all women, her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother who were very opinionated and down-to-earth people, and taught her to always think and act for herself. Kate quickly became curious about standards in society and the “norms” of women, all of which result in her success in the works of American feminist literature. As a young child, Chopin experienced two horrible deaths, one being her father, and the other her half brother.
Kate Chopin has been referred to as a pioneering feminist writer. Feminism is the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way (dictionary.cambridge.org). Stemming from Feminism, is Feminist Criticism, a literary lens that “examines the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppressions of women” (Tyson 83). Patriarchal attitudes dominated the minds of American people in the nineteenth century and Chopin’s work, “Desiree’s Baby”, encouraged women to look at their situations from a critical point of view, one in which women were unfairly treated because of their status as female. This essay takes a closer look at La Blanche and Desiree, two women with vastly different racial and class backgrounds who, in their own ways, are supressed by the traditional gender of the society in which they live and as a result, inadvertently conform to it.
Kate Chopin reveals how language, institutions, and expected behavior restrain the natural desires and aspirations of women in patriarchal societies. In 1894, when this story was formed, culture had its own structure on marriage and the conduct towards women. Gender roles play a major role throughout our history. They would decide whether a woman in colonial times would be allowed to join the labor
The topic I chose to conduct my research on is the short story “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin. While reading this story the deeper meaning may not be initially apparent, but after some careful analyzation it is clear what led to Mrs. Mallard’s demise. I have chosen to conduct my research on “The Story of an Hour” because I previously studied it in my Intro to Fiction course last semester and it’s impactful message stood out. The deeper message being communicated through “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is how oppression by patriarchal forces hinders female independence.
Universidad de Costa Rica Carlos Contreras Flores B01884 Literary Criticism The Story of an Hour Divided in Two Millenniums Throughout human history, literature has giving people an insight of what the role of women were in different time periods. In most scenarios, literature has served to establish or spot the role of women as secondary, where they were mere subjects or objects of chauvinism. Although the role changes from time to time, it has one particular characteristic, which is the restraining of their liberty or right to choose. In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin illustrates throughout the character’s fate the only way to escape from the gender role that women were meant to have at 19th century. She achieves
Kate Chopin was an independent woman even while being married to her husband she walked alone through the city of New Orleans, and she argued with others about politics and social problems which were also not normal for a woman to do around the 1880’s. Her husband later died and though she mourned his death she embraced this independence even more. Chopin wrote about the life and the people of Louisiana (since she moved there after her husband 's death) and focused most of her writings on love, marriage, women, and independence. In the short story “The Story of an Hour” Chopin introduces the themes of freedom/Independence, the oppressiveness of marriage, and mortality through these three themes Chopin depicts the struggle of women during the 1880’s.
