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Importance of Female Companions in The Awakening and A Doll's House
Female companions are very important to the development of the main characters in Kate Chopin's The Awakening and in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House. Mademoiselle Reisz and Madame Ratignolle, in The Awakening, and Kristine Linde, in A Doll House, help Edna Pontellier and Nora Helmer discover their inner selves.
Mademoiselle Reisz, Madame Ratignolle, and Kristine Linde all act as role models for the protagonists. Edna deeply admires Mademoiselle Reisz's piano playing. When Edna hears Mademoiselle Reisz's playing, "the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body" (Chopin 35). Mademoiselle Reisz makes Edna see the strong emotions inside herself. Edna admires Madame Ratignolle's "comforting and outgoing nature" (Solomon 118). At the beginning of the novel, Edna wishes she could have Madame Ratignolle's easygoing nature.
Kristine Linde is a role model for Nora because of her independence. Kristine Linde has suppo...
The relationship Edna has with Mademoiselle Reisz guides her transformation from a wife and mother to a single woman. Reisz acts as a role model for her, someone who does not conform to society’s expectations. Mademoiselle Reisz lives how she wants and accepts both positive and negative consequences of her lifestyle. From the first time Edna sees her play, she admires Mademoiselle Reisz. “The woman, by her divine art, seemed to reach Edna’s spirit and set it free” (623). The music she plays helps calm Edna’s spirit. Mademoiselle Reisz allows Edna to read the letters Robert wrote to her and she supports her in her decision to follow her heart and be with Robert. In doing so, she kindles the passionate flame Edna has for Robert. As Edna wishes t...
For Edna, the times that Reisz plays are times when she "take[s] an impress of the abiding truth" and realizes her true desires(p.34). When Edna visits her, Reisz first improvises at the instrument and then plays the Impromptu which itself has original and adventurous themes. Through music Edna realizes the importance of being self-actualized and making choices. She again feels the same as that night when "new voices awoke in her"—when through music, the way to genuine freedom was revealed to her (p.84). However, having freedom comes with responsibility, which like giving birth to art, requires special skill. For Edna, the fantasies of freedom are transformed into reality wholly only in music and possibly the inability to acquire the skill to deal with her new emotions in life explains the dramatic conclusion to the journey and exploration of the passions that begin on the island.
The fact that Edna is an artist is significant, insofar as it allows her to have a sensibility as developed as the author's. Furthermore, Edna is able to find in Mlle. Reisz, who has established herself as a musician, a role model who inspires her in her efforts at independence. Mlle. Reisz, in confiding to Edna that "You are the only one worth playing for," gives evidence of the common bond which the two of them feel as women whose sensibilities are significantly different from those of the common herd. The French heritage which Edna absorbed through her Creole upbringing allowed her, like Kate Chopin herself, to have knowledge or a way of life that represented a challenge to dominant Victorian conventions.
Her awakening begins because of her friend Adéle, who teaches her that it is okay to be open and say what is on her mind, contrary to what Edna previously believed. Adéle also introduces Edna to Robert, who triggers her emotional awakening, as the two fall in love. Edna goes from a woman who settled down in order to ground herself with realistic expectations, to a free, confident women striving for a life outside of her love for Robert. Mademoiselle Reisz, who plays a crucial part in aiding Edna and Robert’s growing love by reading her letters Robert wrote about Edna, kickstarts Edna’s artistic awakening. The music Madame Reisz plays for Edna on the piano moves her and leads to real, raw emotions she has never felt before; the first time she hears Madame Reisz play, she is brought to tears. From then on, Reisz acts as a mentor to Edna, offering her courage and strength, as well as providing a successful example of the type of woman she strives to embody. As Edna grows as a person and begins feeling so many new emotions, she also has a sexual awakening with Alcée, a man with whom she has an affair. This realization differs from her more emotional awakenings, because it is based purely on lust, not feelings. The affair is something she decides to do simply because it satisfies
...they represent concerning women’s roles in society. Adele plays to entertain her husband and friends at parties, whereas Reisz plays for the art of the craft, always striving to be more proficient and more artistic. Mademoiselle Reisz easily sees past Edna's front, welcomes Edna into her life, and helps usher in the biggest change of Edna's life. Mademoiselle Reisz and her personality serve as the catalyst for the changes that Edna makes in her life. Edna strives to be Mademoiselle Reisz concerning her element of independence, while Leonce Pontellier, Edna’s husband, would like her to be more like Adele Ratignolle, and it is Edna who is striving to find the delicate balance in the middle.
...g abortion I am convinced that abortion is not murder. Abortion does not involve killing a person because a fetus is not yet a person it is only a genetic human being. Unfortunately many people overlook the rights of the woman and only take into consideration the rights of the potential person. Once people stop assuming that a fetus is entitled to the same rights as an actual person can people learn that abortion is morally permissible and a woman should have the right to obtain an abortion. Pope John Paul II assumes that one will accept that abortion is immoral because it is the killing of a human. But after reading Thompson and Warren’s arguments I disagree with Pope John Paul II. On a final note I believe that every woman should have the right to obtain an abortion because at the end its will her decision that she will have to live with for the rest of her life.
... who are not ready to take on the challenges and responsibilities of raising children. To have millions of poor, homeless and unhappy children in the world to cope with life’s injustices would be far more heartbreaking than extracting an embryo from a uterus. Abortion is a very complex issue that should remain a personal decision. The bottom line is that each woman should make her own decision based on her own morals and beliefs.
We first meet Edna on her way back from a swim with Robert Lebrun, as Chopin begins to establish Edna’s burgeoning transformation in the context of her relationship with Robert and to the sea. While Robert and Edna’s relationship develops, Edna becomes increasingly dissatisfied with her marriage to Léonce Pontellier and her traditional roles as wife and mother to her two children, Rauol and Etienne. Edna learns to swim, takes up painting, befriends Madame Reisz, an eccentric old woman that plays the piano, and moves into her own house. After Robert leaves for Mexico, she engages in an affair with Alceé Arobin, until Robert returns and they affirm their love for one another. However, Robert, afraid of the social repercussions of their affair, leaves town. As a result of losing Robert, failing to find fulfillment in her life without a man, and failing to reconcile her roles as a good and faithful wife and mother while becoming an artist and falling in love, Edna commits suicide by drowning herself in the sea.
In The Awakening, Kate Chopin depicts the varying definitions of women and their role through her three major female characters, Edna Pontellier, Madamoiselle Reisz and Madame Ratignolle. In the late 1800s, the role of women was strictly being caretakers for both their children and husbands. Edna Pontellier attempts to fit into society’s expectations by marrying Léonce Pontellier and raising two children, yet she struggles with feelings of oppression as she suffers through her unwanted role. Mademoiselle Reisz, a talented musician, is unmarried and childless, rejecting all of society’s ideals. Edna’s friend, Madame Ratignolle, greatly contrasts the two as she represents the model Louisiana women. However, while Edna, Madamoiselle Reisz and Madame Ratignolle each depict a different idea of woman’s role in society, none of these three women reach their full individual potential.
Mademoiselle Reisz is first introduced at a party when she plays the piano for Edna Pontellier. Edna is described as being "very fond of music."(25) Music is described as having a way of "evoking pictures in (Edna’s) mind" and causing her to have visions of naked men, the beach, her children, and many other images, which in turn, she attaches various names to. (25) As Mademoiselle plays, a series of physical changes affect Edna. For example, upon the first chord, Chopin describes it as sending "a keen tremor" (26) down (Edna’s) back, and eventually, the piece moves her to tears. Days later, Mademoiselle Reisz and Edna coincidentally meet, and Mademoiselle invites Edna to visit her in the city. This invitation starts the beginning of a great acquaintanceship.
Luckily, today in society, everyone is allowed to decide for themselves whether something is morally correct or incorrect. Ultimately, everyone is entitled to their own choices. Women should be permitted to resume choosing their personal preferences when it comes down to their bodies and reproductive lives. The advantages of abortion outweigh shortcomings. The case of Roe vs. Wade has assisted development of boundaries to conclude legal rights of the mother and the fetus. Although the pro-life and pro-choice group of persons are found, but there is nothing known as pro-abortion. While no one particularly wishes to end wonders of life, abortion guarantees protection and legal rights of women. Although abortion is opposed by many people, it should remain legal, as it is the woman's right to control her own body.
For many years, the morality of abortion has been questioned by two perspectives: pro-choice and pro-life. While modern culture explains that abortion is a woman’s free choice if she does not want the unborn baby, the Catholic Church teaches the world that from the moment of conception there is a child with a soul within the womb, and to abort it would be to murder an innocent being.
Kate Chopin's work, The Awakening, and Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, were written at a time when men dominated women in every aspect of life. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in The Awakening, and Nora, the protagonist in A Doll's House, are trapped in a world dominated by men. The assumed superiority of their husbands traps them in their households. Edna and Nora share many similarities, yet differ from each other in many ways.
Nora engages in a mutually dependent game with Torvald in that she gains power in the relationship by being perceived as weak, yet paradoxically she has no real power or independence because she is a slave to the social construction of her gender. Her epiphany at the end at the play realises her and her marriage as a product of society, Nora comes to understand that she has been living with a constr...
During the late 1800s, gender inequality was one of the common issues that existed in the society. Men and women were often distinguished among themselves. Men were regularly portrayed as the one who had power and strength, whereas women were supposed to do all the household work and they were seen as weak and trivial. Henrick Ibsen shows a prefect illustration of this example in the play A Doll’s House. Ibsen develops a notion of how the existence of gender roles in society affected one’s lives. The protagonist Nora, whose identity is shaped after seeing her husband’s actions, which depicts his beliefs of gender inequality, demonstrates this idea.