Love and Self in The Awakening
Kate Chopin's The Awakening is often said to triumph the exploration on the emotional and sexual needs of women, and the novel certainly is about that to a great extent, but even more importantly, it is a quest for individuality and the meaning of love. Through the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, Chopin describes in her novel one woman's journey towards self-consciousness. Several stages of 'awakenings' can be detected on the road, which are discussed in detail, along with the themes of romantic love, possession and an individual self. Darwinian theories are used to some extent to explore the nature of love and the meaning it had for Chopin.
According to Bert Bender, Kate Chopin was very interested in Darwin's theories of the descent of humans. In his article "The Teeth of Desire: The Awakening and The Descent of Man" he argues that Chopin studied Darwin closely and especially his theories of sexual selection. It first seemed to offer a liberating explanation for human behaviour, "sense of animal innocence in the realm of human courtship" (p. 460) in the strict atmosphere of Victorian etiquette and moral codes.
The principle of natural selection and the "survival of the fittest" is well known, and sexual selection is a specified form of that principle. It "depends on the success of certain individuals over others of the same sex in relation to the propagation of the species" (Darwin, p. 638). There are two kinds of sexual struggle which take place between the same sex. In the one individuals, generally of the male sex, try to drive away or kill their rivals in order to win a partner, the females remaining passive. In the other individuals, again generally mal...
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...ad her wings to fly. She broke her wing and fell "down, down to the water" (XXXIX, p. 587). Still, "it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life" (XXXVIII, p. 584).
Works Cited
Bender, Bert. "The Teeth of Desire: The Awakening and The Descent of Man" American Literature Vol. 63, No 3 (1991), 459-473.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. In Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 2. 2nd Ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1985.
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man; and Selection in Relation to Sex. 2nd Ed. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998
Franklin, Rosemary F. "The Awakening and the Failure of Psyche" American Literature Vol. 56, No. 4 (1984), 510-526
Showalter, Elaine. Sister's Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women's Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994
Sullivan, Barbara. "Introduction to The Awakening." In The Awakening, ed. Barbara Sullivan. New York: Signet, 1976.
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.
The novel The Awakening is written by Kate Chopin in 1899 which shocked the readers with its honest treatment of female infidelity. Edna Pontellier is a married woman that is trapped in a stifling marriage. She then seeks to find the love and freedom that she desires with Robert Lebrun and Alcee Arobin. She broke her role of an ideal “mother woman” in her society and discover her true identity as being independent and passionate about what she desires.
Society of the 19th century gave a heightened meaning to what it meant to be a women. According to the commonly known “code of true womanhood” women are supposed to be docile, domestic creations whose main concerns in life were to be raising children and submissiveness to their husbands. In the book The Awakening written by Kate Chopin; introduces the protagonist, Edna Pontellier a rebellious twenty-eight year old woman who is dissatisfied with the role of being a wife and mother, a woman who desires independence and sexual freedom. She soon discovers she doesn’t quite fit into the role that has been given to her. Through the use of symbolism, imagery, and irony. Chopin exposes expectations for women in order to be accepted during the Victorian
Sullivan, Barbara. "Introduction to The Awakening." In The Awakening, ed. Barbara Sullivan. New York: Signet, 1976.
13 Dec. 2004. Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. Kreis, Steven.
Bogard, Carley Rees. “The Awakening: A Refusal to Compromise.” University of Michigan Papers in Women’s Studies 2.3 (1977): 15-31. Gale Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 January 2014.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a story about a well to do young woman, Edna Pontellier, who lives with her family in Louisiana during the late 1890’s. Set in a variety of scenes, it follows Edna as she engages on a personal journey of increasing autonomy, continually seeking both greater happiness and greater personal independence in the hope of leading a more meaningful and fulfilling life. In so doing, the novel portrays societal expectations for women in the post-war South during the late 1800’s, and shows the difficulties they faced if they refused to conform. The place of women in society can be seen in the way that the women in the novel act and speak, particularly in regards to their husbands and children, but also to others in general.
Martin, Wendy, ed. "Introduction." New Essays on The (Awakening. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 1988.
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