Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay - 1350 Words

Kate Chopins The Awakening Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening expresses the difficulty of finding a woman’s place in society. Edna learns of new ideas such as freedom and independence while vacationing in Grand Isle. Faced with a choice to conform to society’s expectations or to obey personal desires for independence, Edna Pontellier realizes that either option will result in dissatisfaction. Thus, Edna’s awakening in Grand Isle leads to her suicide. Edna’s awakening occurs during her family’s vacation in Grand Isle. It is here that she learns to freely express herself and be unreserved in her behavior and speech. Through the Creole women, Edna becomes free from the chains that bind her to societal expectations. Adele†¦show more content†¦The two main women in Edna’s life serve as foils of each other and static characters to which Edna can compare. Adele Ratignole presents the ideal, socially-accepted woman figure. She exemplifies all that is perfect: devoted wife seeking only to please her spouse, loving mother, knowledgeable, conventional, â€Å"mother-woman,† elegant, charming, simple, and servant to both her family and society. Completely opposite of the dependent woman is Mademoiselle Reisz who personifies all that Adele would disgust. Reisz remains isolated from society, shunned as a recluse for her passion of music. She is unpopular, solitary, unmarried, childless, but also coura geous, passionate, independent, inspired, and free. The two figures rest on polar ends of a societal spectrum. This distance creates a horrific gap within which Edna finds herself. Edna identifies with both women, having qualities and tendencies of each. This dual connection complicates Edna’s identity; she cannot fully embody either woman type while she possesses qualities of the other. Edna remains in a situation in which success cannot be achieved. Edna’s awakening allows the two distinct female models of society to become clear, and her awakening causes her to feel unable to conform to either model. Edna’s arousal is that which opens her eyes to see her potential apart from her current life. Spending time in Grand Isle unveils a newShow MoreRelatedThe Awakening on Kate Chopins The Awakening1745 Words   |  7 Pages The time period of the 1880s that Kate Chopin lived in influenced her to write The Awakening, a very controversial book because of many new depictions of women introduced in the book. The Awakening is a book about a woman, Edna Pontellier. In the beginning, she is a happy woman with her husband and 2 kids vacationing at Grand Isle. While there, Edna realizes she is in love with Robert Lebrun and that she was just forced into an unloving/dissatisfying marriage with Mr. Pontellier. Robert howeverRead MoreKate Chopins The Awakening1767 Words   |  8 Pageswith experimentation and exploration, followed by personal acceptance, and finally, although not always, societal acceptance. Although we have come a long way on the path of acceptance of different sexual transgressions, the stories of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Tennessee Williams’ â€Å"Vieux Carre,† and Lyle Saxon’s â€Å"The Centaur Plays Croquet† show that this type of acceptance has not alwa ys been the case. Each story plays an integral role when looking at the steps on the path to societal acceptanceRead MoreKate Chopins The Awakening1871 Words   |  8 Pagesworshipping her children and submitting to her husband. Kate Chopins novel, The Awakening, encompasses the frustrations and the triumphs in a womans life as she attempts to cope with these strict cultural demands. Defying the stereotype of a mother-woman, Edna battles the pressures of 1899 that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. 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In the 1800’s the main role in society for a female was to be a wife and mother, women at this time were the property of their husbands and had little say in anything. Which for Edna was the opposite of what she wanted, she wanted to be free from these responsibilit ies and to live her own life. Although Edna is not a victim in theRead More Kate Chopins Awakening Essay1448 Words   |  6 PagesKate Chopins Awakening Kate Chopins depiction of â€Å"The Awakening† is realistic as she develops Edna Pontellier’s character from a socially and morally respectable individual to an individual that turns her back on everything closest to her as she births her new self-being. Edna Pontellier struggles between her subconscious and conscious thoughts as unusual feelings stir unfounded emotions and senses. Some of Chopin’s characters lend themselves in Edna’s â€Å"awakening†. Through examination of LeonceRead MoreEssay on Kate Chopins The Awakening1246 Words   |  5 PagesKate Chopins The Awakening In Kate Chopins, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier came in contact with many different people during a summer at Grand Isle. Some had little influence on her life while others had everything to do with the way she lived the rest of her life. The influences and actions of Robert Lebrun on Edna led to her realization that she could never get what she wanted, which in turn caused her to take her own life. In the Creole culture, outward affection and expressionRead More Kate Chopin’s The Awakening - The Feminist Awakening Essay2094 Words   |  9 PagesThe Feminist Awakening    Women’s rights have evolved over time; beginning with being homemakers and evolving to obtaining professions, acquiring an education, and gaining the right to vote. The movement that created all these revolutionary changes was called the feminist movement. The feminist movement occurred in the twentieth century. Many people are not aware of the purpose of the feminist movement. The movement was political and social and it sought to set up equality for women. Women’s groupsRead MoreFemale Empowerment in Kate Chopins The Awakening7915 Words   |  32 PagesHeinrich-Heine-Università ¤t Wintersemester 2010/11 Vertiefungsmodul Kurs: American Realism and Naturalism - Short Stories Seminarleiter: Georg Schiller Datum der Abgabe: 16.04.2011 Female Empowerment in Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Awakening† Anjana Dhir BA Englisch KF, Geschichte NF 3. Semester Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. The FrenchRead More The Shocking Ideas of Kate Chopins The Awakening1864 Words   |  8 PagesIdeas of The Awakening Ideas that resist existing social boundaries commonly are rejected at first, because people don’t want to wake up from their reliable lives. Kate Chopin, however, believed that an awakening was in order, and she attempted to open the eyes of society through her novel The Awakening. The public’s reaction to Chopin’s novel was not one of acceptance. Too strong a drink for moral babies, and should be labeled ‘poison,’ was the how the Republic described Chopins work (Seyersted