I’m writing to you because I wish to articulate my opinions about your novel as well as express my disappointment in how you chose to end The Awakening. Throughout the narrative Edna Pontellier, your main character, strives to free herself from societal constraints after “awakening” and becoming aware of how oppressed she is by Victorian society. For the majority of the novel I enjoyed Edna and the complex character you created to attack the expectations Victorian society had for women. As someone who believes in gender equality, I appreciated the overtly feminist themes and I cheered Edna on as she moved into her own house and fostered her freedom. Edna’s struggle to discover her own sexuality and individualism was perfectly crafted. You
Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier, ventures through a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mrs.Pontellier is a mother and wife who begins to crave more from life, than her assigned societal roles. She encounters two opposite versions of herself, that leads her to question who she is and who she aims to be. Mrs. Pontellier’s journey depicts the struggle of overcoming the scrutiny women face, when denying the ideals set for them to abide. Most importantly the end of the novel depicts Mrs.Pontellier as committing suicide, as a result of her ongoing internal
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
Social expectations of women affected Edna and other individuals in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, struggles throughout the novel in order to become independent and avoid her roles as mother and housewife in American Victorian society in 1899. This was because women during the 19th century were limited by what society demanded of them, to be the ideal housewives who would take care of their families. However, Edna tries to overcome these obstacles by exploring other options, such as having secret relationships with Robert and Arobin. Although Edna seeks to be independent throughout the novel, in the end she has been awakened but has not achieved independence.
Fox-Genovese also emphasizes this point, when she says that both the feminist and the psychological aspect of “The Awakening,” “must be read together, for the grounds for choosing one rather than the other do not exist” (262). Other women may have, and do, find a way to exist in such a society and be happy with the little freedom they are allowed. Therefore, Edna Pontellier is portrayed a prisoner of her own upper-class society. Her surroundings demand of herself that she conforms to certain feminine ideals, which she however, is not willing to do. This final episode with Edna naked for the first time stresses the idea of rebirth in Edna; she is now "some new-born creature" (113) at the end of her life. Expression becomes a symbol of freedom for Edna. Fox-Genovese’s conclusion about “The Awakening” is that the novel tells the story of the progress in the Edna Pontellier’s character, as well as her mental regression. As Edna discovers the injustice of her male dominated society, rejecting its values, and managing to break away from society’s traditional gender roles, her stories furthermore depict her “psychological regression,” as Fox-Genovese has stated about Edna’s journey in “The Awakening” (262). Edna can only be herself when she is alone, without the
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.
The Second Great Awakening started the was a religious revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States, it sparked the building and reform of the education system, women's rights and the mental health system. It was also the start of many different denominations of churches such as the, Churches of Christ, Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Evangelical Christian.
The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin seems to fit neatly into twentieth century ideals. Chopin addresses psychological issues that must have been difficult for people of the late nineteenth century to grasp. Just as Edna died a premature death, Chopin's book died too. The rejection of this book, at the time, ironically demonstrates the pressure many women must have felt to conform to society. Chopin shows the reader, through Edna Pontellier, that society restricts women the right to individuality. This restriction by society can be seen in the clothing Victorian women wore during the time.
“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both” (Roosevelt). The goal of America’s legal system as we know it is that everyone is given an equal opportunity to stick up for what they may or may not have done, as described by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Also this is what officials strive for, it is not always the case. Facts can be skewed, distorted, or misrepresented to make one side seem to be guilty without a doubt and to make the other side seem as if they have done nothing wrong. The Crucible by Arthur Miller begins and ends with one-sided accusations of witchcraft. It all results from a group of girls who had been dancing in the woods. After two fall sick, the accusations begin. The girls who were dancing, especially Abigail Williams begin blaming others to look less guilty themselves. Accusations are flying left and right so that soon, hundreds are in jail and over a dozen are executed. Abby’s main goal is to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor, so she can be with John Proctor, a man she previously had an affair with. However, John is not interested in Abby and his
Kate Chopin’s short novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, five years before her death. The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier as she navigates through the summer and fall of her twenty-eighth year. She learns to swim, engages in two extramarital affairs, moves out of her husband’s house, and, upon hearing of her lover, Robert’s rejection, she drowns herself. For over fifty years, The Awakening has been heralded as a deeply feminist text. Chopin destabilizes traditional family values and puts a woman in a position of sexual power and quasi-liberation. The feminism of this text is complicated by Edna’s final action. Edna’s inability to continue living after being rejected by Robert would indicate a feminine dependence on a masculine figure,
This book is telling a story about two African American boys (Wes A and Wes P) who have the same name and grew up at same community, but they have a very different life. The author, Wes A, begins his life in a tough Baltimore neighborhood and end up as a Rhodes Scholar, Wall Streeter, and a white house fellow; The other Wes Moore begins at the same place in Baltimore , but ends up in prison for the rest of his life. Then why do they have the same experience, but still have a totally different life? I will agree here that environment (family environment, school education environment and society environment) is one of the biggest reasons for their different.
...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.
The Awakening is the title of a novel written by Kate Chopin and published in 1899. The novel was met with much controversy upon its release due to the feminist sentiments present throughout the novel; sentiments which were antithetical to those that were ubiquitous in American society at the time. The Awakening; however, proved itself as a landmark piece of writing overtime, garnering the title of the first novel of the feminist movement in the U.S. The Awakening, set primarily in New Orleans and Grand Isle, Louisiana, envelops the story of Edna Pontellier and her quest for individuality. The name of the novel is indicative of the awakening which Edna undergoes throughout the novel. Edna’s awakening begins with her time with Robert Lebrun
Critics of Kate Chopin's The Awakening tend to read the novel as the dramatization of a woman's struggle to achieve selfhood--a struggle doomed failure either because the patriarchal conventions of her society restrict freedom, or because the ideal of selfhood that she pursue is a masculine defined one that allows for none of the physical and undeniable claims which maternity makes upon women. Ultimately. in both views, Edna Pontellier ends her life because she cannot have it both ways: given her time, place, and notion of self, she cannot be a mother and have a self. (Simons)