The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, was published in 1899 and explored the life of a young married woman named Edna Pontellier. Throughout the novel, Edna attempts to discover her true self and her place in the world by becoming economically independent from her husband and seeking extramarital relationships with young, attractive men. There are multiple opinions about the impact of her awakening and the meaning behind Edna Pontellier’s suicide. Chopin’s goals in the novel were to emphasize the importance of Edna’s rebellion against traditional roles under the prejudice of society; the suicide at the end is the pinnacle of her character and the moment in which she becomes entirely free.…
This excerpt argues that Edna has a “ personal immaturity” that cause her to regress as a character. I’m going to use this excerpt in my essay to supports the essay’s thesis in that Edna’s longing for unreachable loves in her life lead her to a dangerous fantasy which causes a regression as she escapes the institutional context of female life.…
Edna’s husband, Leonce, was seen as being the perfect husband in fact some of the ladies in the novel “declared that Mr. Pontellier was the greatest husband in the world.” Society sees him as being the perfect husband because he was wealthy and could therefore fulfill all the roles that a husband was supposed to. However when Edna met Robert Lebrun she realizes what she has been missing in her marriage. Robert provides her with attention and passionate love that Leonce simply did not. Edna also seeks her physical desires to be filled. She's fulfills them with the seductive man Alcee Arobin. Edna is always in control of this relationship and Robert is always the one that Edna actually cares for on a deeper level. Edna and Robert eventually fall in love, but Robert greatly struggles with the fear of how society would view his relationship with Edna. In the society in which they live in women are the possessions of their husband and it isn’t even viewed as a possibility for a women to go against her husband. Eventually, Robert’s fears win out over his love for Edna and he flees to avoid this forbidden love. He leaves a note that says “I love you. Good-by—because I love you.” Emma has an incredibly similar experience to this. Emma lived a somewhat routine and monotonous life with her husband Charles which leads her to wanting more out of her life. This is explained in the quote…
“Such details and ideas about the sexual feelings of women, as in The Awakening, were essentially taboo subjects” (Caldwell 6). Many critics, as well as the general public, were in opposition toward Chopin’s novel because she included topics not usually spoken about. She was not writing to change the world, but to accurately describe the true interactions between men and women. Historical and cultural influences are apparent in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Because women during the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s were seen as “fragile and lovely girls of pure character,” Chopin was intrigued by those who were independent (Davis…
Novelist Edith Whorton states that a novelist “must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning” of the book. In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the illuminating episode is when Edna has an epiphany after swimming out into the sea. She comes to the realization that she can speak freely and share her emotions openly as she finds it liberating. This moment functions as a casement that reveals the overall meaning of the work as a whole that women should feel free to practice individuality over conformity and sexuality over repression.…
Many individuals believe that we live in a perfect environment, without violence or prejudice. A group of people who call themselves feminists argue that a significant amount of the population, women, are treated as men’s tools. To fight back this ideal, people write stories with female protagonists who challenge the social norms, one example being Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. The novella gives life to the motherly Adele Ratignolle, the unconventional Reisz, and the stubborn protagonist Edna Pontellier. Mrs. Pontellier is a rebellious woman trapped in a strict culture who finds freedom during her vacation in Grand Isle. As a result, she decides to obtain her individuality with radical actions that reflect modern feminist ideals that are essential in a feminist literature.…
This novel began in 1897 and was completed on January 21, 1898 by Kate Chopin. It’s original title was A Solitary Soul but later it was published as The Awakening by Herbert S. Stone & Company in Chicago on April 22, 1899. By writing this novel Chopin developed some important questions regarding intellectual or moral evolution and on how people used to think back in the 1800’s. As she describes the social expectations on the individual, the role of fidelity to marriage, and some traditional sex roles in marriage. However, this novel began a national scandal for its indecency and eventually got banned from libraries. However this book might have been seen as outrageous back then but now it really is not far from the way that people see it…
In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” Kate explores a depressed high class woman’s psychological journey and gender issues towards enlightenment and end up committing suicide as she couldn’t open up herself to anybody who could help her in the situation she was going through. The position of women in society in 19th society was limited to household activities, taking care of children, and work according to the husband to please him all the time. Edna, who is self-aware and she wants to live her life in her own way rather than dancing on tunes of her husband to fulfil his desires. The Awakening supports women to obtain independence physically, emotionally, and financially which was impossible for the women of 19th century.…
In “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the author contrasts the three different men who love Edna with each other, revealing the different types of love that each of them represent, causing Edna to understand the type of love that she relates most too.…
When authors use symbolism effectively, readers can begin to understand a work of literature on both the surface level and in an illustrative context, attributing significance to ideas, actions, or even characters themselves beyond what is initially described. In her novella The Awakening, Kate Chopin employs symbolism through a variety of images to reveal particular details about the protagonist, Edna Pontellier. One such symbol is the sea, an essential figurative element. Ivy Schweitzer’s scholarly essay, entitled Maternal Discourse and the Romance of Self-Possession in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, asserts that the sea is a motherly figure lacking in Edna’s life. Though in her critical analysis of The Awakening Schweitzer asserts that the sea is a “maternal space” (Schweitzer 184), I will argue that the sea represents a metaphorical romantic partner for Edna, and that it really is the symbol of an idealized lover that was an impossible reality in Edna…
It is not new or unique that an individual is looking for one’s purpose and meaning in life. Nor is it unique that men and women imitate the norms of society. In Kate Chopin’s novella, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the antagonist, knocked against the societal norms of the late 1800’s. Houses represent Edna’s search for her inner self. The houses which Chopin uses in The Awakening come in pairs which contrast each other. Chopin uses the bird cage and the bath-house to illustrate imprisonment and freedom. The house on Grand Isle and the small house on the Chénière Island represent restlessness and awareness. The grand house on Esplanade Street in New Orleans and the small house located just around the corner demonstrate confinement and control in contrast with freedom and independence. Each house brings to light different aspects of Edna’s personality as she searches for her inner soul and finds new awakenings along the way.…
Much like other works of literature, The Awakening by Kate Chopin has many different conflicts throughout the novel. There are many areas of conflict such as physical, moral, intellectual and emotional. However, most of the conflict that Edna goes through is the emotional conflict of being involved and part of two completely different worlds. Edna struggles to be in the world of being free and unbound. Throughout the text there are many pieces of evidence that support this emotional conflict that Edna is going through.…
Feminism has consistently been a major theme of literature throughout history. It has been used as a commentary on the status of women in a given time period, or to show how people’s attitudes have changed over time. Feminism in literature can also be used, as in the case of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, as a way to show how individual people, especially women can have a positive effect on the world around them. The actions of Edna and Adele Ratignolle in The Awakening are examples of how women can advance feminist ideals, even if it is not done in the conventional way. Edna does this by becoming her own individual person throughout the story. Adele does it by simply her life the way she wants, even if that means stay home and…
In order to help to get a point or idea across it is not uncommon to provide two stark contrasts to assist in conveying the point. Writers commonly use this technique in their writing especially when dealing with a story that concerns the evolution of a character. An example of such writing can be found in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. The novel deals with Edna Pontellier's "awakening" from the slumber of the stereotypical southern woman, as she discovers her own identity independent of her husband and children. In order to illustrate the woman that Edna can become in The Awakening, Chopin creates two opposing forces Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz for her best friends that not only contrast each other but also represent different genres of women in Creole society.…
Chopin, like Edna was expected to conform to society’s standards of a submissive Creole wife. However, Chopin often “grew tired of domestic life and escaped to smoke cigarettes or take solitary walks” (“The Awakening”). While she was known to be a good wife and mother, she too, escaped the domestic housework duties of her wife role and took horseback rides through town in order to gain the attention and admiration of any man whom she passed. Chopin could be speaking out to contest to the societal expectations of gender roles and moral attitudes, but she could also be using Edna as a voice to her dissatisfaction with her own life. Despite whether she formed Edna based on her own life or she shaped Edna around what society expects, Edna was her escape route to speak out against the gender roles, and social and moral attitudes of this time period. Because women were expected to be submissive and conform to what society expected, the public disapproved and Chopin was bombarded with unfavorable literary criticism due to her depiction of the character Edna. The novel was perceived as “vulgar, unwholesome, unholy and a misappropriation of Chopin's exceptional literary talent” (“Kate”). Ultimately, Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, did not become accepted as a good piece of literary fiction until roughly the 1960’s when the 1960’s to 1970’s feminist movement took…