However, near the end of the play she learns to love and respect Petruchio. It is evident that she honors Petruchio as her husband through her drastic change in attitude towards her family and friends. Before Katherine was married to Petruchio she was stubborn and resentful of her entire family. She believed that her father, Baptista, did not care for her as much as he did for her fairer sister, Bianca. She did not want to hear anybody’s opinions or advice, and she felt as if no one would ever want to marry her.
Madness is subjective, especially so in a time period where women’s emotions and thoughts were brushed off as unimportant. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin explores the inner life of a woman, lost in the patriarchal world and without anyone who truly understands her. Edna Pontellier’s supposed madness plays a large part in her characterization as a woman who has lost her way. However, Edna’s madness is not truly madness; it stems from a neglectful husband, crushing responsibility to society, and a sense of the complete isolation. Edna marries her husband, not out of love, but out of expectation of society and her family’s dislike of him.
Throughout the novel, Hawthorne reveals his character's conflicting emotions and hearts. Hester Prynne masks her shame and attempts to resume her normal life. After being publicly humiliated for committing the transgression of adultery, Hester continues her life with a stronger personality. At first, Hester is ashamed of herself and of the direct proof of her sin, Pearl. However, after coping with her sin and allowing herself time to realize her mistake, she believes the “badge of shame” (Hawthorne 58) will teach her daughter and benefit her.
As Linda, she is worried about her husband's health, but instead of just watching she confronts him, acting behind his back, knowing that she ma... ... middle of paper ... ...who keeps it attached together but she is nothing without her husband. Nora is not of the family; she is more modern and independent, moreover her family is totally broken apart. In conclusion, we can see that nor Linda, nor Nora are happy with their situation. Linda is incapable of expressing herself and confronting her husband therefore her husband ends up dead. And Nora has never had real love and has always been living a lie, but she realises this too late, and now she has to reinvent herself.
Edna was just a normal wife like the other women in the nineteenth century who played the full role of an ideal woman who obeyed her husband, and cared for her kids. Edna now gets an idea that women need to be independent, and she longs for self-actualization and empowerment. Her husband was dictatorial and never gave her the attention she required and never even took care of the children. She fell in love with another man while still married, and this goes against what the society demands from her as a married woman. Edna pursues her desire of being independent but in the end of the novel, she commits suicide to end all her pain of being hurt by her lover who left her.
The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself. Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern.
Mallard immediately reacted with grief and felt abandoned because of the train incident. But as soon as she is alone, she attempts to fight her true emotions because it is not part of the typical grieving process, “she was striving to beat it back with her will – as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been (pg. 157).” Mrs. Mallard felt relief from her husband’s death, “She said it over and over under her breath: “Free, free, free!” This sentence reveals the true feelings of Mrs. Mallard that her marriage made her feel trapped. This seems to be the common perspective for those who married young she felt empowered with the loss of her husband because she could now live for herself, “she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory (pg.158).” This journey gave Louise a moment of redemption that would give her the chance she so long desired, but the moment her husband comes back alive she still redeems her misery with her
Most analyses of the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, explain the newly emerged awareness and struggle against the societal forces that repress her. However, they ignore the weaknesses in Edna that prevented her from achieving the personal autonomy that she glimpsed during her periods of "awakening". Kate Chopin chooses to have Edna take a "final swim" as evidence of her absolute defeat as an insightful study of the limitations that prevent any woman from achieving the ultimate goal of self-actualization. Simply put, Edna's awakening leads to her suicide. Newly aware of the meanings her life could take on, the awakened part of herself presents Edna with a command to take action.
Ibsen used numerous literary elements and techniques to enhance his writing and to help characterize the two protagonists. Nora, characterized as a benevolent and strong person, left her husband to explore the beliefs in society and to interpret ideas herself. Unlike Nora, the belligerent, selfish Hedda destroyed the lives of people around her just to take her own life in the end. Even though it appeared that Nora abandoned all responsibility for her children and hid an insidious secret from her husband, Nora showed greater fortitude than Hedda in the way she faced the obstacles of her life. Although it appeared that Nora abandoned her family, society restrictions provided her no other opti... ... middle of paper ... ...endous amount of courage throughout the play.
With this she chooses death before overcoming her problems. Kate Chopin juxtaposes this fear of living alone with her fear of dying in a way that makes Edna seem triumphant. She revealed her suicide not as a defeat but as a triumph over social pressure and fears. Chopin used Edna’s death symbolizes her final awakening and her ability to overcome her obstacles.