The novel, The Awakening, and the short story, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” both stories have women that are not respected by their husbands. Both of the women, Edna Pontellier and Sarah Penn, have husbands who do not respect them, but they fight back in different ways. Their battles shows the differences between these two women from an earlier and less accepting time.
They are both strong willed characters. They both believe strongly enough in themselves that they will go to the extremes. Sarah moves out of her house. As does Edna, and they both do so against their husband’s wills. Neither of their husbands wants to have their wives move out of their houses, but they both do so and even go as far as to move their stuff with them. Edna only brings some of her things with while Sarah moves everything. She empties her and her families home and moves into the barn. The barn shows the wildness of her action because she did not just move her stuff out into another house she moved it to the barn, the barn where animals are supposed to be held. As it is in Sarah’s point of view, “ We’ve got jest as good a tight here as new horses an’ cows.”(Wilkins) This is quite the staement, still Edna’s move could be considered more devastating because when she moved out she moved out into another house with no intention of living with her husband. Whereas Sarah was going to continue living with her husband. Living with him in the barn, but never the less living with him.
Maybe it was their class differences that lead them to their final doings. Edna was of a high class. She had many workers who did her chores for her. The reader would think that she is lazy and thus lacking willpower because she does very little work for herself. She does not even ca...
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...y none the less because Edna was trying to get separation from Leonce. Unlike Sarah moving out was just the start for Edna. Once she had that she wanted more, and she ended up with the most she could possibly obtain.
In the end there were very many similarities between Sarah Penn and Edna Pontellier which lead them both to their goals. However their differences lead them to different goals. Goals that they fight their disrespecting husbands for. But was it the end was it each person’s character that lead them to their actions or was it there husbands?
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Selected Stories. 1899. Ed. Sandra M. Gilbert. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.
Wilkins, Mary. “The Revolt of Mother.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Sept. 1890: 553-561. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. 10 Oct. 2008. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu
Edna’s recognition of herself as an individual as opposed to a submissive housewife is controversial because it’s unorthodox. When she commits suicide, it’s because she cannot satisfy her desire to be an individual while society scorns her for not following the traditional expectations of women. Edna commits suicide because she has no other option. She wouldn’t be fulfilled by continuing to be a wife and a mother and returning to the lifestyle that she led before her self-discovery.
In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is a selfish character. She wishes to live her life the way she wants without anyone interfering. She did not start selfish, but grew selfish as her hidden desires were awakened. Her selfishness comes from her complete disregard for anyone’s happiness besides her own. Edna refuses to attend her sister’s wedding, describing the event as lamentable. Even if Edna did not want to attend, a wedding is for the bride and groom’s happiness. She is unable to compromise any of her own desires for the happiness of others. Edna’s own marriage was an act of rebellion for marrying outside of what was expected, and came with the titles of wife and mother. Edna abandoned her relationship without trying to resolve any difficulties with her husband before satisfying her needs. She does not discuss with him her unhappiness or seek his approval before moving to the pigeon house. She develops her relationship with Arobin only to fulfill her own physical needs.
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life before her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT WAS love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision TO MARRY Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS APPARENT in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.
Often in novels, a character faces conflicting directions of ambitions, desires, and influences. In such a novel, like “The Awakening,'; the main character, Edna Pontellier, faces these types of conflicting ideas. In a controversial era for women, Edna faces the conflict of living in oppression but desiring freedom. The patriarchal time period has influenced women to live only under the husband’s thumb but at the same time, break away from such repression. These opposing conflicts illuminated the meaning of “social awakening'; in the novel.
Mary Wilkins Freeman's, "The Revolt of Mother" first appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1890, as a short story. The story is laden with conflict throughout. Sarah Penn's (Mother's) conflict is driven by her strong conviction for fair treatment by her husband. She is in conflict with her husband, the community and the gender role defined by the social conventions of that era.
She desperately wanted a voice and independence. Edna’s realization of her situation occurred progressively. It was a journey in which she slowly discovered what she was lacking emotionally. Edna’s first major disappointment in the novel was after her husband, Leonce Pontellier, lashed out at her and criticized her as a mother after she insisted her child was not sick. This sparked a realization in Edna that made here realize she was unhappy with her marriage. This was a triggering event in her self discovery. This event sparked a change in her behavior. She began disobeying her husband and she began interacting inappropriately with for a married woman. Edna increasingly flirted with Robert LeBrun and almost instantly became attracted to him. These feelings only grew with each interaction. Moreover, when it was revealed to Edna that Robert would be leaving for Mexico she was deeply hurt not only because he didn’t tell her, but she was also losing his company. Although Edna’s and Robert’s relationship may have only appeared as friendship to others, they both secretly desired a romantic relationship. Edna was not sure why she was feeling the way she was “She could only realize that she herself-her present self-was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored
...that take a huge effect on Edna, the reaction being Edna taking her life. These ties in with the main theme that the characters ethical decisions create huge consequences and their actions and decisions are bigger than the plot.
The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin in 1899, tells the story of Edna Pontellier. Throughout the story, Edna questions her marriage and the quality of her marriage. Edna's husband, Leonce, is a successful business man, but this also has consequences, which affect the marriage with negative outcomes. First of all, Edna married when she was young, but Leonce didn’t become a successful husband, or at minimum, didn’t meet Edna’s expectations. Second of all, the marriage is odd and unstable because of Leonce’s lack of interest in Edna, and Edna’s lack of interest in Leonce, as well as the marriage as a whole. To conclude, Edna committed to marriage too early, Leonce and Edna have an unstable marriage, and Edna is not pleased with Leonce as a husband.
As the novel starts out Edna is a housewife to her husband, Mr. Pontellier, and is not necessarily unhappy or depressed but knows something is missing. Her husband does not treat her well. "...looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." She is nothing but a piece of property to him; he has no true feelings for her and wants her for the sole purpose of withholding his reputation. "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" Mr. Pontellier constantly brings her down for his own satisfaction not caring at all how if affects Edna.
...tionship she had until she was left with literally no reason to live. Throughout the novella, she breaks social conventions, which damages her reputation and her relationships with her friends, husband, and children. Through Edna’s thoughts and actions, numerous gender issues and expectations are displayed within The Awakening because she serves as a direct representation of feminist ideals, social changes, and a revolution to come.
In Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, a young mother, Edna Pontellier, breaks from her mundane life of obligations and begins to experience life with a new perspective. In doing this, Edna neglects her family. Adele Ratignolle, a friend of Edna’s, is perfectly content with her married lifestyle, acting as the perfect “Motherwoman”(Chopin 12). By displaying Adele as a foil of Edna, Chopin is able to emphasize the importance of love in a marriage.
Edna needed to be in control of her life. As long as she was married and a mother she would never have total control.
Edna marries her husband, not out of love, but out of expectation of society and her family’s dislike of him. She is a young woman when they marry; she has never had a great romance. The closest thing to passion she
In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening women in the 19th century completely lack any role in society besides wives, mothers, and women actively searching men to marry and procreate with. Societal expectations dictate that women must marry a man and obey his every whim, bear children and shelter and protect them. If not married and or mothers, they must seek a man and remain chaste and pure until they do so. While at first Edna Pontellier complies with society’s standards, her enlightenment allows her to challenge and in a feministic finale, free herself from the overpowering patriarchal influence that controls her society. Edna completely contravenes the societal expectations forced upon her. She disregards her husband and their marriage, neglects her children, and in the end, refuses to accept society’s standards and commits suicide. Edna’s tragic end highlights the female struggle that accompanies an enlightened perspective on gender issues.
Edna throughout the story was very difficult in many parts on she wants to be loved the other part she