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The awakenings in kate chopin essay
The awakening essay kate chopin
Critical analysis of kate chopin's awakening
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The Awakening Essay Edna Pontellier in The Awakening strives to find her individuality and personal freedom. However, Edna lives in a time when women are expected to live their lives as wives and mothers, not as people with their own volition. When she begins to awaken from her state of submission she finds herself and strays outside the realm of social acceptance in doing so. She does not obey her husband’s will without question, she is not a mother-woman who devotes herself solely to her children. She would rather be wandering the city or painting than taking callers and keeping up the house.
It is common for people in everyday society to conform to society’s expectations while also questioning their true desires. In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess, "That outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions." In other words, Edna outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Kate Chopin, uses this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning to build the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period. Edna outwardly conforms to society’s expectations by marriage.
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.
For these three identities, Edna often struggling in the dilemma, but then, her aspirations on physical or mental are lacking. It can be regard as she is not satisfied with current situation, and, to seek the
Edna Pontellier in the novel, The Awakening, is a self-driven woman determined to become independent and free whilst undergoing a significant change in behavior throughout the novel. She attempts to withstand societal expectations by doing certain things that were not socially acceptable during this time period. While doing so, she experiences many different struggles during her awakening. These struggles that Edna undergoes may be described as internal as well as external. In the awakening, there is a constant conflict between inner and outer Edna.
In The Awakening the main character Edna is going through a life changing event. Edna unfortunately is living in an era where women are supposed to be dependent and devoted to their husbands and a full time mother. Edna doesn’t want to play that role anymore and she wants to become independent. Edna’s want for independence and becoming her own person is finally achieved when she sacrifices her life and kills herself. Edna sacrificing her life shows how her values begin to change from only caring about her family’s needs to now caring about her own needs/wants.
In the Awakening Edna Pontellier was an unstable character, she upsets the expectations of the nineteen century women’s role. Chopin focuses on two females that influence Edna`s life and help her in what we see are her awakenings Both of these characters will represent the role of women’s in the nineteen century. Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz are the examples that the men around Edna contrast her with and who they obtain their expectations for her. Edna begins to see that the life of freedom and individuality that she wants goes against both society and nature. She cannot free herself not even through suicide.
The quote “The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events--a marriage or a last minute rescue from death--but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death” by British novelist Fay Weldon relates to the ending of The Awakening in how Edna’s final views and thoughts of herself and her life have evolved throughout the novel. Edna undergoes a significant change in attitude, behavior, and overall character. Edna’s rebellion against societal norms seems to be more intrinsically motivated rather than by extrinsic forces. Throughout the course of the novel, Edna struggles with her inner thoughts, feelings, and becoming her true self rather than just living the expected lifestyle of a typical upper class housewife.
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.
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
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.
Throughout the novel Edna defies society showing her strength and dedication towards her awakening. Edna experiences an awakening that completely changes her as a person and her view of society. Edna becomes a different person, as a result of her awakening, with a changed view of
Chopin empowers female sexuality by showing an woman who expresses sexual desire and lacks guilt and a legitimate excuse for the society, like men have been
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).
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