Feminism and Emotional Liberation in The Awakening
In our time, the idea of feminism is often portrayed as a modern one, dating back no further than the famous bra-burnings of the 1960s. Perhaps this is due to some unconscious tendency to assume that one's own time is the most enlightened in history. But this tendency is unfortunate, because it does not allow readers to see the precursors of modern ideas in older works. A prime example of this is Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, which explores the marital infidelities of a woman stuck in a loveless marriage as she searches for her purpose in life. In it, we see how an institutionalized union such as marriage is, almost by necessity, dispassionate, while forbidden loves are characterized only by passion, either physical or emotional. Because of this, we can observe that The Awakening is a feminist novel; through its unflattering portrayal of the institution of marriage and its positive stance towards feminine liberation, we see Chopin's belief in the equality and independence of the sexes.
But we cannot discuss feminism without a definition of the term. Since this term is one that has been thrown about for many decades and used by various groups to define themselves, it is imperative to pin down precisely what we mean by the word "feminism". The first definition that may come to mind is the belief in female superiority - the belief that, either by accident or design, females are inherently superior to males; or, equivalently, that males are inferior to females. This is just as imbalanced as the traditional European belief in male superiority, and this is not the type of feminism that we observe in Chopin's work. A second, somewhat improved, definitio...
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...ial conventions in general illustrate a belief that females as a whole have the right to independence. While this idea seems almost trivial in our time, it was scandalous when the novel was written. It is with this in mind that we must conclude that The Awakening is, in fact, feminist, and at the same time promotes an emotional independence that many would still not dare to strive for today.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Dover, 1993.
Deyo, C. L. "The Newest Books". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 20, 1899: 4.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance". Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays. Ed. Larzer Ziff. New York: Penguin, 1982: 175-203.
Hofstadter, Douglas R. "Pattern, Poetry, and Power in the Music of Frédéric Chopin". Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. New York: Basic Books, 1985: 173-189.
Like in many feministic works, that struggle constantly to point out the corruptions of a patriarchal society, which subordinates women to men and subconsciously make them accept their inferior position without defending, their opinions, their interests and themselves, Kate Chopin in her short story “The Storm”, does something completely different of what was consider as acceptable in the 18th century´s literature. She creates the character of a woman who breaks the socially accepted conception of how a woman should be and act in a relationship, or in this case in a marriage, to express her sexuality. In this society women were put in an inferior position and were deprived of many privileges and rights given to men, especially in the sexual aspect; but Chopin, with her viewpoints, went ah...
Females in the late 1800s were expected to know their place in society and stay within parameters that were set by the population. These parameters including being a perfect mother figure, and needing a husband to provide a place to live, food, and money for spending. This meant that females were not culturally allowed to be free. This idea was so ingrained in the culture that the influential female writers of the time wrote stories where the wife was wrong and returned to her husband after she sought freedom. These stories came to an end when Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening in 1899. The Awakening attacks the cultural lack of rights and freedoms for females, specifically the sexual freedoms that females do not have. The novella describes
Phenix, Cecilia. "Feminism in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Page 2 of 6." Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. .
Breaking away from society’s “so-called” customs/norms incorporates a large array of valor, inspiration, and most importantly, individuality. Society places normalities upon its people in order to maintain stability and often times, tradition. More specifically, gender roles, such as women raising children; men being the only source of profit, must also be broken in order to establish uniqueness and distinction in a conventional- themed culture, such as Victorian society. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is perhaps the only novel that fully illustrates the struggle that is leaving Victorian ideals and tradition from a woman’s perspective. Although often considered a feminist text, The Awakening can be viewed as a novel that depicts and promotes individuality using symbolism. Instead of plastering readers with dull literalism, Chopin uses symbols, such birds and music, to relay subtle ideas. Within each fictive part, Chopin provides symbolism that readers must comprehend in order to appreciate the novel as a whole.
...furniture which may be locked. They then use the small paint chips and metal as evidence and process them the way that individual piece of evidence should be processed.
Kate Chopin’s The awakening and Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall A Domestic Tale of The Present Time are both written about women’s suffering in a male dominated society. Both authors engrave women who perform the uncommon role in the society. The protagonist of The Awakening, Edna, is a woman who is trying to discover her identity. She shakes the whole system of women’s roles in the nineteen century, and distresses those who expect women to play certain roles. She surprises the patriarchal society by ignoring her role to play as a wife and mother. The idea of motherhood is a very dominant theme of this book. Edna wants to live with her own identity instead oonly identifying through the role of Raoul and Etienne’s mother and as Leonce Pontellier’s wife. Edna started to notice her desire of a life life of freedom and individuality contradicts society’s expectances of whom she should be. She wants to rebel against society’s imposed beliefs. However, she cannot skip her destiny, and cannot free herself from the repression of the society. Therefore she freed herself by suicide.
Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
Patriarchal oppression has changed the way women live their lives, now there are norms within society that these women are expected to follow through with, for example, they cannot have any career other than being a housewife and taking care of the children. This is the issue with these ideas, it makes society “less human” because how can one gender completely look down upon the other and treat them like “slaves”, while like Donald Hall explains that it apparent in literary texts. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, she portrays a woman who is breaking “free” from the expectations of society and revolting against them, but cannot control her actions. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin gives another example of a woman who is looking beyond what
The following is an attempt to analyze AT&T's use of Total Quality Management throughout its organization. Since AT&T is an elaborately enormous corporation I will focus my study to AT&T Power Systems/Lucent Technologies. This division of AT&T has been the industry standard for excellence since TQM was first introduced to the company. AT&T Power Systems has become one the world's most dynamic companies because of its use of TQM. I will provide a brief description of who AT&T Power Systems is, a description of the events that lead up to its use of TQM, AT&T's TQM philosophy, and how this philosophy was implemented. Finally I will discuss the benefits AT&T Power Systems realized through their use of Total Quality Management. Who is AT&T Power Systems?
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TQM is a system of continuous improvement of work processes to enhance the organization’s ability to deliver high-quality products or services in a cost-effective manner [2]. The focus of TQM is to improve customer satisfaction and reduce waste [3]. Customers include ...
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