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Purpose of the awakening by kate chopin
Purpose of the awakening by kate chopin
Purpose of the awakening by kate chopin
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Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is about the slow awakening of Edna Pontellier, a young married woman who pursues her own happiness of individualism and sexual desires in a Victorian society. As a result, Edna tries to makes changes in her life, such as neglecting her duties as a “mother-woman” and moving into her own home. But she soon realizes that nothing can change for the better. Feeling completely hopeless, Edna chose to die as a final escape from the oppression of the Victorian society she lives in. Back at the beach at Grand Isle, Edna walks along the beach and watches a bird with a broken wing crashing down into the waves right before her eyes. She then removes her clothes before entering the water. Edna swims out and embraces the waves of the ocean while thinking about her husband, Leonce, her two children, Robert, Mademoiselle Reisz, and finally her childhood before surrendering her life to the ocean. In looking at Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s impulsive action to be naked, the image of the bird, and the ocean helped her realize that she is overwhelmed by her new power of the independent life she now leads, which ultimately caused her to commit suicide by drowning in the ocean.
Edna Pontellier’s impulsive action to be naked upon entering the water in the end of novel helped her realize that she cannot handle her new independent life, which caused her to drown herself. By taking off her clothes, she seems to make a statement that wearing clothes are like giving in to the bonds of social conventions. So when she took them off,
“But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the op...
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...to face her fate of her inability to fully embrace her individualism in society as she surrenders her life to the depths of her soul in the ocean. Also, the last thing Edna thinks of before she drowns is the sound and smell of nature. In this prospective, she dies as she embraces the freedom of nature with her soul. These memories of her childhood is a sure sign that Edna has died because most people have flashbacks to when they were the most happiest before they die. In conclusion, Edna Pontellier’s nakedness, the fallen bird, and the ocean helped her commit suicide by helping her to realize and come into terms that there is no space for her individualism and sexual desires in this Creole society and that her vision of an independent life may be more than she can handle.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc
Subsequent, 1994
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.
As her interest in the ocean rises and the fear lowers, Edna begins to feel a sensual connection to the sea and its wonders. As Edna is progressing in her life, her senses begin to come alive out of curiosity and desire to understand this mystery of nature. Edna is first drawn to the ocean and the sight "made a delicious picture that I wanted to just sit and look at." (16) The two combined senses of taste and sight seem to pull Edna in the direction of her fear. As she creeps closer to t...
...he presence of water as the motif in this story facilitates these transformations for Edna. On the Grand Isle, the constant presence of the ocean begins a metamorphosis within Edna that alters her perspective of herself in relation to others. She begins to fulfill her desires and abandon her responsibilities as a wife and mother to her family, in order to pursue a life of independence. Allowing her to fulfill her desires to be a painter and be with Robert. Critical moments of self-reflection for Edna occur in the presence of the ocean. It is at the ocean where she first realizes her desire to be independent. Also the empowering force of the ocean allows Edna to be a dictator of her fate. She ultimately decides to take her life and be free from other’s wants and expectations from her. The water was the catalyst that allowed Edna to be liberated and obtain her desires.
Chopin’s novel is filled with different themes. Her themes are what really gets her message to her readers. one of her themes is identity because becoming the person that you want to be is what The Awakening is all about. Knowing who you are is a big component in becoming free. That is why Chopin created an identity theme in her novel. Edna is constantly trying to find out who is wants to be. Edna knows that she is not the perfect mother and wife like Madame Ratignolle, and she also knows that she would never want to live alone like Mademoiselle Reisz. Who is the true Edna P? That is what Edna is find out, and that is the question most women should ask themselves. Who is the true me? Chopin has another theme that pushes her message even more.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.
Edna Pontellier awakens in the sea, the very place in which she drowns herself, demonstrating her efforts to
Throughout Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main protagonist, experiences multiple awakenings—the process in which Edna becomes aware of her life and the constraints place on it—through her struggles with interior emotional issues regarding her true identity: the confines of marriage vs. her yearning for intense passion and true love. As Edna begins to experience these awakenings she becomes enlightened of who she truly and of what she wants. As a result, Edna breaks away from what society deems acceptable and becomes awakened to the flaws of the many rules and expected behavior that are considered norms of the time. One could argue that Kate Chopin’s purpose in writing about Edna’s inner struggles and enlightenment was to
Individual will is a force that is significant, and yet can be manipulated by a more powerful source. In the Victorian Age setting within The Awakening by Kate Chopin, men have been manipulated by society. They are forced to reflect their norms on women. These norms have been caused repressive and manipulative behavior within men. Edna Pontellier, protagonist of the novel, confronts several men who confront her yearning for individualism. Each male plays a role ordained by society and as a result they develop characteristics that promote specific, yet conflicting images to the reader.
As Edna swims further and further out, the water behind her “assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome.” The vision of a barrier symbolizes Edna’s growing sense of a blockade between herself and the world. She is the only entity on the other side because she feels isolated and alone with herself. Furthermore, the words “her unaided strength would never be able to overcome” foreshadow Edna’s death. Foreshadowing frequently occurs through this passage. When Mrs. Pontellier reaches out for the unlimited “in which to lose herself,” it is hinted that she will bring about her own demise. Perhaps the most obvious indication is in the last paragraph when “a quick vision of death smote her soul.” Edna manages to regain land, but only with a struggle. Perhaps the next time she will not be so lucky.
“A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” implies the tremendous joy that encourages her to shout, as well as underscores the significance of the experience in terms of the greater awakening, for the experience actually does provide Edna with the ability to control her own body and soul for the first time. Her “daring and reckless” behavior, her overestimation of strength, and the desire to “swim far out, where no woman had swum before” all suggest the tragic conclusion that awaits Edna. Whether her awakening leads her to want too much, or her desires are not fully compatible with the society in which she lives, she goes too far in her awakening. Amazed at the ease of her new power, she specifically does not join the other groups of people in the water, but rather goes off to swim alone. Indeed, her own awakening ultimately ends up being solitary, particularly in her refusals to join in social expectations. Here, the water presents her with space and solitude, with the “unlimited in which to lose herself.
With her mind already gone, Edna's body begins to swim out into the sea, not caring about what lies ahead: "She did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end." (109)
Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman who throughout the novella tries to find herself. Edna begins the story in the role of the typical mother-woman distinctive of Creole society but as the novelette furthers so does the distance she puts between herself and society. Edna's search for independence and a way to stray from society's rules and ways of life is depicted through symbolism with birds, clothing, and Edna's process of learning to swim.
Kate Chopin's The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother living in the upper crust of New Orleans in the 1890s. It depicts her journey as her standing shifts from one of entrapment to one of empowerment. As the story begins, Edna is blessed with wealth and the pleasure of an affluent lifestyle. She is a woman of leisure, excepting only in social obligations. This endowment, however, is hindered greatly by her gender.
In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.
Throughout the story the ocean represented Edna's constant struggle for self-realization and independence. From her first flow of emotion on the beach to her last breath of life in the sea, the ocean beckons her. The voice of the sea lures her onward in her journey toward liberation and empowerment.