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Discuss the title the awakening.
the evolution of female characters in american literature
the awakening kate chopin characters significance
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Recommended: Discuss the title the awakening.
In the novel, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main character, is married to a Creole named Leonce with whom she lives in New Orleans. As the novel opens, they are vacationing in Grand Isle with many other rich couples. Edna is not originally from the Creole lifestyle, so she is not immediately comfortable with being open. However, she starts talking to Adele, another Creole wife, who starts to show her how to open up. As they talk more, Robert, a very young, good-looking attendant, shows up and begins to take a fancy to Edna. While they are at Grand Isle, Edna seems to find herself. Once they leave, Edna starts to become more independent. We begin to see these types of independent women at the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout the novel, we see Edna turn from a dependent woman and housewife, such as Adele, to the powerful and independent woman of the twentieth century.
In the past women were not thought of highly as individuals. Due to the “domestic sphere”, women were considered little more than domestic slaves. People during those times mostly associated their jobs with cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Women were expected to do this because it was deemed unworthy for men to do such little acts. In the 1900’s, men went to work, brought home the money, and rested when he got home from work. Men loved having wives like Adele. She “idolized their children, worship [her] husband, and esteemed themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin 1258). Adele is the perfect example of how women are confined to the domestic sphere. She always conformed to what her husband said and did what she was told. Although they both have a passion, such as music or painting, Adele h...
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... to become equals with men and succeeded.
Works Cited
"Adele Ratignolle in The Awakening." Shmoop: Study Guides & Teacher Resources. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .
"A Look at Working Women in the Early 20th Century." Utah History to Go. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .
Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: the Traditions in English. Eds. Sandra M Gilbert and Susan Gubar, New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. Print.
Phenix, Cecilia. "Feminism in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Page 2 of 6." Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. .
The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. A Norton Critical Edition: Kate Chopin: The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. 3-109.
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.
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.
Reading carefully, one realizes that Chopin’s true model of feminism lies in Mademoiselle Reisz, who is happy to live alone and unmarried despite what society dictates a woman’s role to be. Mademoiselle Reisz is an accomplished pianist to whom Edna turns for advice as she struggles to find her sense of self. Unlike Mademoiselle Reisz, however, Edna lacks the motivation and willpower necessary to follow her desires from thought to fruition.
Spangler, George M. "Kate Chopin's The Awakening: A Partial Dissent." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 3 (1970): 249-55.
Schweitzer, Ivy. “Maternal Discourse and the Romance of Self-Possession in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.” Boundary 2 (Spring 1990): 17. 158-86.
In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a married woman with children. However many of her actions seem like those of a child. In fact, Edna Pontelliers’ life is an irony, in that her immaturity allows her to mature. Throughout this novel, there are many examples of this because Edna is continuously searching for herself in the novel.
Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.. Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2012. 561-652. Print.
Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
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.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1985.
A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin’s novel’s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin’s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard’s view is correct to a point, but Chopin’s female characters can be viewed as more radically feminist than Howard realizes. Rather than simply being torn between independent and dependant versions of her personality, “The Story of an Hour’s” Mrs. Mallard actually rejoices in her newfound freedom, and, in the culmination of the story, the position of the woman has actually been elevated above that of the man, suggesting a much more radically feminist reading than Howard cares to persue.
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the setting is in the late 1800s on Grand Isle in Louisiana. The main character of the story is Edna Pontellier who is not a Creole. Other important characters are Adele Ratignolle, Mr. Ratgnolle, Robert Lebrun, and Leonce Pontellier who are all Creole's. In the Creole society the men are dominant. Seldom do the Creole's accept outsiders to their social circle, and women are expected to provide well-kept homes and have many children. Edna and Adele are friends who are very different because of their the way they were brought up and they way they treat their husbands. Adele is a loyal wife who always obeys her husband's commands. Edna is a woman who strays from her husband and does not obey her husband's commands. Kate Chopin uses Adele to emphasize the differences between her and Edna.