Attempting to escape the conformist standards of society while trying to create an identity for oneself is a struggle faced in both Edna Pontellier’s and Nora Helmer’s lives. The two women find themselves to have very similar situations, an awakening of femininity, as well as a renaissance of independence, however; the two women handle the situation very differently. Nora and Edna both portray a grander pursuit for independence, and self-realization; both give the reader a possible outcome of which direction they may choose to take. Edna feels she has lost herself so inexplicably that there is merely no way out, while Nora has found herself and salvages her body and mind as her own. The women choose to conform to society’s expectations of women in the early twentieth century, however; Edna and Nora struggle with who they truly have become inside, until the conflict either consumes them or sets them free.
In Charlotte Bronte’s, Jane Eyre, Jane goes through numerous self-discoveries, herself-realization and discipline leads her to a life she chooses to make her happy. Jane Eyre has a rough life from the start. Forced to stay with people who despise her, Jane can only help herself. Jane must overcome the odds against her, which add to many. Jane is a woman with no voice, until she changes her destiny.
Sammy and Sister throughout the stories battle with their want of being independent. Sister is jealous of her younger sister Stella-Rondo’s life from the beginning saying “She always had anything in the world she wanted and then she’d throw it away” (Welty 261). Like sister Sammy was always in search for a way to become independent or his own person in life. Sammy though presents his drive to be independent not so openly with the reader. Both characters throughout each story use their own techniques to put themselves closer to the ultimate goal of being independent and on their own.
A Response to Kingston's Woman Warrior Sometimes, I must admit, I look at my mother and wonder where she is coming from, what in the world she is thinking, and why does she act the way she does. I can not possibly be like her because, as I tell myself, if I catch on to her weird behavior now, I will be able to catch it in myself before it is "too late." The funny thing is that I am sure that she did and still does the same thing in regards to her own mother. What is even worse is that I see my mother becoming like her own mother, despite my mother's hopes that she is not like my grandmother. Does this, then, mean that I am going to be like my mother or that I am already like her?
There’s very little honor in that Assignment.” (Lowry 21). The mother’s reaction shows the extremity of hatred for motherhood is present in many novels’ societies. Whether in an unstable or stable society, mothers and births should always be present. Motherhood might make a woman insane, but in time the child makes her sane. In Brave New World ?
This realization is a frightening one to the mother who then quickly dives back into her surreal vision of the daughter now being a new enemy in a world already filled with evils. In this way it is easier for the mother to acknowledge the daughter as a threat rather than a loss. However, this is an issue that Olds has carefully layered beneath images of war, weapons, and haircuts. Overall, “The Possessive” is a story of a mother coming to terms with the inevitable decay of a relationship with her daughter as her baby girl. The daughter will always have a mother, but the mother will some day be forced to lose her child.
Throughout history, society often places women inferior to men, causing women to be predisposed to obeying their husband without a second thought. However, when a woman begins to question the idea of loyalty and obedience, her eyes are often opened to the mold that she is encased in and becomes determined to break through and develop her self-potential. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main female character is put through a revelation that changes her life forever. Through their quest to find their own freedom and individuality, Nora Helmer, from A Doll’s House, and Edna Pontellier, from The Awakening, each uniquely discovers themselves. Since the beginning of the play, Nora was very loyal to her husband and even told him how she would “not think of going against your [his] wishes” (Ibsen 6).
There are a myriad of times when a story’s dramatic and unexpected ending immensely impacts the expression of the story’s theme, as well as alters the thoughts of the audience. A powerful example of this is the unforeseen, stunning departure of Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll House. Leaving a troubling marriage, Nora does not see her departure as wrong because she believes the most sacred duties are the ones to herself. She sees this as a personal awakening because she has to spend time figuring out who she is as an individual or she will never be anything more than someone’s doll. This captures the overall theme of the sacrificial role of women society expects them to inhabit.
Offred reflects on the fact that the training seems to be working and changing the women when she said, “already we were losing the taste for freedom; already we were finding these walls secure” (Attwood 133). The Red center impacted these women’s mindsets so heavily they eventually just conformed to the way the Republic of Gilead expected them to be. They no longer needed to have assistance from the Aunts. Offred is thinking of her former life and says, “These habits of former times appear to me now lavish, decadent almost; immoral, like the orgies of barbarian regimes” (Attwood 113). Offred demonstrates how she is starting to think as the Aunts have instructed her to, and how Gilead expects her to think.
But upon closer examination, we can see that it is really the life in the harem that she is questioning. The truth is that the frontier is one of the main entities that shape her life and being: No one answered her questions. In a harem, you don’t necessarily ask questions to get answers. You ask questions just to understand what is happening to you (Mernissi, 22). It is because she sees how the frontier seems to be changing everything about her and her surroundings that Mernissi decides that she must figure out exactly how it works, before everything she knows slips under her feet.