ipl-logo

My Last Duchess Character Analysis

957 Words4 Pages

In a novel or play, a confidant or confidante is a character whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a listener to confide in. However, the confidant offers much more than emotional support for the protagonist. The most important purpose of any confidant is to reveal the true nature of the protagonist to the reader. In “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning this is accomplished by a formal relationship between the protagonist and confidant, which reveals the main character truthfully from an objective point of view. Quite differently, in The Awakening by Kate Chopin the protagonist and confidante have an intimate relationship, which reveals the main character through her innermost thoughts and desires.
In “My Last Duchess” …show more content…

Instead, their intimate relationship allows Mlle. Reisz to reveal Edna’s deepest desires to herself, and in consequence the reader. She helps Edna grow as an individual so the reader can distinguish the deep passion and individualism in Edna’s character which is otherwise oppressed by societal standards. Without Mlle. Reisz, Edna wouldn’t have had the support she needed to discover herself further after leaving Grand Isle, and her true character would have remained vague and incoherent. Mlle. Reisz’s strength also serves to contrast Edna’s eventual failure to fully achieve her autonomy, informing the reader even further of Edna’s character. Though Edna was strong enough to begin a personal movement toward passion, freedom, and independence, her character wasn’t strong enough to complete it.
Browning’s “The Last Duchess” and Chopin’s The Awakening create two completely different relationships between their protagonist and confidant, the former composed of two near strangers and the latter being an intimate friendship. However, both confidants effectively function to reveal the protagonist’s truest character. With the help of the confidant, the reader is able to see past facades, social conditions, and other disruptions in the protagonist’s surroundings to understand the character with clarity and

Show More
Related

Edna Pontellier's Death In The Awakening

687 Words | 3 Pages

Kate Chopin develops Edna’s character so rigorously, she creates a whole new character by the end of the novel. Edna’s feat of overcoming her fears reveals the powerful message of being brave and finding

Read More

Examples Of Diction In The Awakening

401 Words | 2 Pages

Keaton Anderson Mrs. McClain AP Lang 24 October 2016 The Awakening Diction The author’s use of words generally have a strong contribution towards the story’s purpose. Several diction strategies are used throughout “The Awakening.” Kate Chopin’s purpose in “The Awakening” is to inform the reader about a 19th century woman who defies her role in society.

Read More

Max And Freak The Mighty Rodman Philbrick Character Analysis

635 Words | 3 Pages

Max and freak the quest of friendship (working together) When I was a kid in Sherman Oaks Elementary School, I changed when I became friends with Ethan into a happy person in school. When Ethan came along, I felt happy because he’s being all nice and helping me a lot and he challenged me to a foot race with me too and all of that made me have all the fun In his novel, Freak the Mighty Rodman Philbrick uses the literary devices of characterization and dialogue to reveal the theme of the power of friendship to face one’s problems.

Read More

Outward Conformity In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

825 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Moral Ambiguity In Kate Chopin's The Awa

603 Words | 3 Pages

In addition, the search for self-identity is viewed as important in today’s society. Thus, these confliction attributes lead the reader to identify Edna as morally ambiguous. Categorizing complex characters as purely good or purely evil is not one of the easiest of tasks. As a result, it is best to characterize them as morally ambiguous. In Edna’s case, she is morally ambiguous due to her romantic affiliations and role-defying actions, but both are immensely vital to Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” as a complete whole.

Read More

Edna's Characterization In The Awakening

467 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Edna's Roles In The Awakening

1386 Words | 6 Pages

In Kate Chopin’ s novel, The Awakening, there are three identities inside of the female leading role, Edna Pontellier, being a wife, mother and own self. Edna was born in 19th century at the Vitoria period, a patriarchy society, women have low freedom to achieve personal goal. She married with Léonce Pontellier, a wealthy man with Creole descent. After having a child, her life is still unchangeable and as bored as before. Until she encountered Robert Leburn, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Alcée Arobin, her value of self-cognition has changed.

Read More

Conformity In The Awakening

849 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Their Eyes Were Watching God Comparative Essay

1225 Words | 5 Pages

The Awakening by Kate Chopin explains the story of Edna Pontellier who is a wife with an independent demeanor and seeks to find love outside of her current marriage. During the course of the works Edna has encountered men that have tried control her. The men Edna has encountered didn’t understand Edna’s need for independence. In connection both Edna and Janie share the same ideas but their paths are different. Both women live in a very different society with the similarity of living under a male dominate society.

Read More

What Is Edna's Allegory Of The Cave

1171 Words | 5 Pages

Her frequent vacations to the island, like her frequent dips into the ocean, begin to spark a personal change within the woman. A Creole man, Robert, shows Edna a new dimension of feelings she never knew she lived without, and she begins to look through life through a new lens. Having been awakened for the first time, she sees injustice and mistreatment where she saw none before. Chopin uses Edna’s new observations and reactions to the culture around her to illustrate the myriad ways women were marginalized. In an ironic twist, the white woman from Kentucky proves to be more liberated than her more traditional husband, who grew up

Read More

Kate Chopin Women

1123 Words | 5 Pages

And with The Awakening we get a female author writing about female issues – Chopin offers us deeper understanding of women’s psyche. Furthermore, Linda Wagner-Martin points out that “to describe the novel as a female bildungsroman (…) is to change definitions for a readership that thought it already knew the story Chopin wanted to tell.” A late 1890s reader would probably expect younger, single Edna, however Chopin alternates those notions – Edna is already a wife and a mother at the beginning of the novel, we assume to know her identity, yet we witness Edna’s spiritual and mental search for

Read More

Character Analysis: The Awakening By Kate Chopin

784 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Examples Of Patriarchy In The Awakening

884 Words | 4 Pages

In The Awakening, Edna represents desire, impulse, and rebellion. While Adele represents the socially accepted woman, she is submissive, obedient, and a homemaker. This drastic contrast facilitates Chopin's emphasis on Edna’s rebellion, and how drastic it was for the time period. “Edna's experience of self-discovery, "tangled" and chaotic and therefore "vague" or hard for her to comprehend, touches upon a core issue, of individual variation and the uncertainty involved in its creation, expression, and consequences.” (Glendening).

Read More

Catherine Barkley Character Analysis

918 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning of the novel, Frederic Henry arranges a tour to Italy during the world war one. When he returns to the front, he meets Catherine Barkley; she is a British nurse at the British hospital. However, the recent death of Catherine`s old fiancé affected her deeply that she will settle for the illusion of it. Catherine pretended to love Henry that awakens a desire for emotional interaction in Henry, the war has left coolly detached and numb.

Read More

Existentialism: The Importance Of Choices In Society

777 Words | 4 Pages

Existentialist philosophers understood the importance of choices. They recognized that as individuals, who we are is to a large extent an accumulation of all the choices, large and small, we’ve made through the years of our lives. External events and influences are important, too, but our choices are the most powerful lever we have to affect our lives. So, too for the companies.

Read More

More about My Last Duchess Character Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document