Setting Grand Isle and New Orleans during the late 19th century Genre Tragedy - Edna doesn’t get a happy ending which makes this literary work a tragedy Historical Information The author, Kate Chopin, was born in 1850. Her father was Irish and her mother was french. Kate was bilingual, speaking both English and French. She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Kate’s family owned slaves during the civil war. Kate had a strong passion for music from a young age. She was very skeptical of religion. She had lost many family members. She married Oscar Chopin. Oscar was from New Orleans, Louisiana. They had five sons and a daughter together. Kate became a widow at age 32. She then died in 1904. Themes Individuality - Throughout the novel Edna becomes …show more content…
Women were believed to have to sole purpose of birthing and raising children. Edna was not a motherwoman. She did not enjoy the typical lifestyle of a housewife. Realism and Romanticism - Mr. Pontellier and Madame Ratignolle, who are preoccupied almost exclusively with the appearance of a comfortable home and a happy family exemplify realism. Edna and Mademoiselle Reisz, who seek out emotional and spiritual experience, exemplify romanticism. Freedom and Emptiness - Freedom, for Edna, is release from the binding rules and stereotypes of an upper class woman. Edna’s longing for the freedom to live her life happily the way she wants guides all of her decisions, emotions, and actions. Edna’s desire for freedom from her obligations to her husband and children is the root behind her obsession with the sea, a place of complete solitude and emptiness. Language - Shows class divisions / education. "One of these days," she said, "I'm going to pull myself together for a while and think--try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am. I must think about …show more content…
Edna’s husband who repeatedly goes out of town for long periods of time. He makes up for it by sending Edna and the children bonbons, a treat that Edna usually just hands out to friends. Throughout the novel, Edna struggles with depression based on her longing for freedom from her obligations to her husband and children. She is not truly happy living out the typical lifestyle of an upper class housewife in the late 19th century. She attempts to gain her freedom by pushing herself away from her husband and children, emotionally and literally. She starts seeing other men without even trying to hide it. She even moves out of her big home because she didn’t feel right about living in Leonces home that he bought when she doesn’t love him at all. After isolating herself she continues to be unhappy and feels very empty inside. These feelings of emptiness and freedom from societal norms lead to her suicide at the end of the