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Major Themes In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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Kate Chopin 's career went downhill shortly after The Awakening ("The Awakening"). It was widely criticized, but Kate did not give up on her writing. Themes are important to a story 's plot line because it gives a reason to why the story is being told. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, freedom, the search for oneself, and loneliness are themes that are portrayed throughout the novel (Chopin). One theme that has played throughout the novel is freedom ("The Awakening"). Edna wants to find freedom because she feels trapped in her life. Edna Pontellier wants to know what it is like to live outside of being a wife and a mother. Edna tasted a little bit of freedom from her children whenever they went to Iberville. To gain freedom from her husband, she refuses to have sexual relations with him, and she abruptly stopped her Tuesday obligations of meeting people at the house which made him furious. Edna wants to rent her own place instead of living at home. She wants to be free from all duties that come with her husband 's house. Edna earns her own income to pay for her house so …show more content…

The last theme throughout The Awakening is Edna 's alienation and loneliness ("The Awakening"). Edna Pontellier is unconnected by her own thoughts. She thinks that if she could make a difference in her life then she would be able to hang around with people more like her and not the people who judge her. Mademoiselle Reisz is a good example of how society judges her because she is not like most. She is unmarried and lives alone, and she 's talented at playing the piano. No one really knows that she is because she does not play publicity for the reason being she is judged. Edna begins to feel lonely, and she alienates herself from most of society (Chopin). When she took herself away from society, she found things out about the city that she never would have found. Because she took herself away from people, the loneliness sets in, and it causes her to go make herself drown in the ocean ("The

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This means she has to move into a much smaller house, where she is alone. While this may seem like a huge sacrifice for most people, she doesn’t view it in this way. The oppression of her values that was inflicted upon in both that house and by her relationship her relationship with her husband meant that to Edna, leaving that house and situation was liberating and as if she had busted out of a

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family and from pursuing her own interests. Unhappy with her conditions, Edna rebels against them, however this results in her not being accepted in society. Thus, Edna deliberately sacrifices her freedom in a way which Edna’s value of free nonconformity. The sacrifice goes hand-in-hand with the meaning of the work as a whole that there is no place in society for those who do not conform to its expectations. A misogynistic and sexist time, the Victorian Era envisage and encloses women into a certain image that they are meant to be devoted, subordinate and more-or-less obsessed with their husband and family.

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Edna fully understands that society would brand her as a terrible woman, but she does not view herself as a bad person. There is an external and internal difference that Edna hopes to one day reconcile. Chopin, instead of creating tension within Edna, created tension within the society and Edna with her newfound independence does not mind how society classifies her. Decisively, it can be concluded that the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning builds the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period.

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Acting out and being with Robert makes her feel more independent.by feeling more independent she started neglecting her job at the house. When Edna wasn 't there on a Tuesday afternoon Mr pontellier was confused. “Why, my dear, I should think you 'd understand by this time that people don 't do such things.” (Chopin 55) Frustration is what Mr. Pontellier is feeling at this point in the novella.

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Edna’s characterization throughout The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, describes Edna as someone with burning passion who desires to improve not only her life, but the lives of future generations. However Edna’s actions make her often seem weak to the oppressive people around her; sometimes, and in this case unfortunately, good ideas and beliefs are stopped cold by one’s surrounding influences. Edna’s feminist attitude, though formidable, is no match for the individuals who accept the current society’s customs. I find Edna to be a weak person from a general standpoint. However the story masks this obviousness fact by illustrating some of Edna’s questionable actions.

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Morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable are just a few descriptors used by critics to describe Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Chopin is amongst the first feminist writers of the twentieth century writing two novels and about a hundred short stories, most of which the protagonist is a woman. Although Chopin wrote other short stories that were considered controversial none of them received as much criticism as The Awakening. Set in the late nineteenth century the story follows Edna Portellier who has been awakened to her own desires and even though she has a husband and children she decides to pursue those yearnings.

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Thesis- In The Awakening, Kate Chopin utilizes symbolic imagery to illustrate Edna’s inability to truly break from society, perpetuating her circular growth. 1)Hammock Scene Portraying Edna’s weakening resolve during her first attempts to break from society, the poster illustrates a breaking rope. Constantly limiting by society, she has experienced oppressed her entire life, causing a deep desire to escape to form an identity.

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After swimming successfully, she develops feelings for Robert. After this awakening, Edna starts to step back and rethink her entire life; her marriage, her role, and even herself. She realizes she feels sort of imprisoned in this life she has had for so long. Edna finally starts doing things for her, she is letting herself feel an attraction for another man even though she is married and she also gets into art and has everyone in the house model for her. Rather than doing things to get the house ready for her husband or spending time playing with her children, she is distracted by all her newly found

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In Kate Chopin’s novel “The Awakening” Edna Pontellier - the protagonist - has a rebirth of her own and becoming a independent, sensual, and feeling women in the oppressive society Edna lives in. Throughout the novel Edna fluctuates between two different settings - her home in New Orleans and the summer house in Grand Isle. The Settings in the novel caused both the conflict and the ultimate result of Edna committing suicide, and leaving the reader wondering still if Edna really found her true setting where she could finally be herself. The novel starts in Grand Isle, where Edna and her family summer home is located.

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The Awakening is a novel written by Kate Chopin that follows a woman named Edna Pontellier on her journey to self-awareness. Edna lived a comfortable lifestyle with her husband and two children in Louisiana during the 19th century. Despite obtaining all aspects to a perfect life, Edna became dissatisfied after meeting Robert Lebrun in Grand Isle. Robert sparked a desire for unlawful lust as well as a yearning for independence in a society full of conformed standards. Edna was unable to handle the pressures associated with achieving personal freedom which ultimately led to her death.

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Edna Pontellier was only seen as a “valuable piece of property which [had] suffered some damaged” to her husband Mr. Pontellier (BOOK). One can also see that “The Awakening” also focused on the sexual desires of women, identity, and self-discovery Edna, a character in “The Awakening” experienced her awakening by discovering her identity in her own self. “The Awakening” attempts to tell the story a woman who wants to find herself while lusting. Later, at the end of the story, one discovers that since Edna Pontellier could not fully find her peace, and freedom she ultimately decides to commit suicide. Through this “The Awakening” shows that although women were oppressed, they also had empowerment.

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Throughout the story, Edna does numerous things in order to obtain this freedom she helplessly craves for. The first thing Edna does is neglect all housework; after returning from Grand Isle Edna was a changed woman. She felt that her routine life was no longer interesting to her and she began to ignore all her house chores. Edna also took up painting in her free time. The second thing Edna does is separate herself from the main house.

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Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a piece of fiction written in the nineteenth century. The protagonist Edna is a controversial character, Edna rebels against many nineteenth - century traditions, but her close friend Adele was a perfect example in terms of a role of a woman, mother and wife at that time. Chopin uses contrast characters to highlight the difference between Adele and Edna. Although they are both married women in the nineteenth century, they also exhibit many different views about what a mother role should be.

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The Awakening; a Woman's Fight Women’s rights have drastically improved since the 1800’s. The model of patriarchy was widely accepted as a social norm in America and many other countries until the early to mid 1900’s. Today women are still fighting the belittlement that the patriarchal model deemed acceptable. The character of the rebellious strong women is still one today that many women look up to; especially women in very oppressive middle east countries. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Chopin strives to argue social emancipation for women

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This novel, The Awakening, is about a woman named Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an independent human being. Also, Edna Pontellier refuses to obey against the social norms by leaving her husband Leónce Pontellier and having an affair with Robert Lebrun. Kate Chopin describes societal expectations and the battle of fitting the mold of motherhood in the Awakening by how Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle contribute to their family in different ways. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women. Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women.

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