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women social status
the awakening kate chopin critical essay
kate chopin the awakening criticism
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Awakening to Freedom
Awakening or to awake means “to wake up; to be or make alert or watchful” (Webster 23). This is what Edna Pontellier experienced in The Awakening.
There has been some discussion over the appropriateness of the ending to this story. Was it appropriate for Edna to commit suicide? Yes, this story of Edna Pontellier, including the ending, is appropriate to what a woman probably would have felt like if she were in that time feeling what Edna was feeling.
Edna committed suicide because there was no other way out. She did not fit into society. Her thoughts and emotions were not the same as the thoughts and emotions of the other women of this time. Edna committed suicide so that she could be reborn in a time that she would be excepted as she was.
Edna was ahead of her time. She wanted a life for herself. She didn’t want her husband or her children to establish it for her. “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin 573). This is not something that a w...
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
Additionally, Edna’s sacrifice helped her established an identity for herself. “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself, I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me” (Chopin 57). She realizes how much she valued herself and how she would handle herself. As well as, this emphasizes on the meaning of The Awakening, of how women are able to define themselves as something more than a
Unlike María Eugenia, Edna in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening chooses not to fill her family’s expectations. As she takes her final steps into the sea she thinks to herself: “they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul” (655). Edna treasures her autonomy and chooses death over familial subjugation. However her transformational journey, alluded to by the title of the novel leads to more than the rejection of her self-sacrificing familial roles as wife and mother and her death.
...lso, Chopin shows the effect that society can have on a woman. While some may be able to handle the pressure, others, such as Edna, cannot. This was evident by her suicide. "Consequently, this ending diminishes Edna's stature and perforce reduces the significance of her rebellion" (Conn 165). Although her suicide defeated the purpose of her awakening, which was to be free, Edna was still successful in showing that women do not want to be restricted by the roles that society has placed on them.
Many attribute this awakening to her realization of how awful her life had been. While this is a factor in her awakening, this was not the main cause. Edna 's awakening is a result of her chronic depression. According to Dr. Judith Orloff, often times in the midst of having chronic depression over the course of several years, many people experience a transforming or an enlightening period of depression. This explains Edna 's awakening. Whilst the awakening may have seemed like a moment of levity for Edna and that her depression is getting better, her depression is actually getting worse. When Edna begins her awakening, it is her final realization that she has been living a lie throughout her life. She has failed to be a mother-woman, which is her role in society. She is a disappointment to her husband, and a failure in the eyes of her father. Edna feels that since everything else up to this point in her life is bad, she has to start anew. Her awakening is her depressive fears taking manifestation. Edna has finally realized that it is now or never for her to change her life. However, following her awakening is not the way to help her
Throughout The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide.
Chopin carefully establishes that Edna does not neglect her children, but only her mother-woman image. Chopin illustrates the idea by telling the reader, "...Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman" (689). Edna tries to explain to Adele how she feels about her children and how she feels about herself, which greatly differs from the mother-woman image. She says, "I would give up the unessential; I would give my money; I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me" (720).
But Edna did just this, she completely went against her cultural boundaries, breaking them throughout the whole book and there are innumerable pieces of evidence that supports this. Including having an affair with Robert. A different type of ‘crime’ was also committed, but this time no one actually knows about it except herself and the readers. Right before Edna ends her life she had just come home after her summer adventure with Robert. She decides to take a swim keep in mind it is the end of summer and it is now getting a bit cold, therefore nearly all readers have an idea about what is about to happen. She changes into her bathing suit leaving her clothes behind another entity that is used to foreshadow her death. She eventually gets to edge of the beach where the beach and water meet and removes her bathing suit. She was now nude on the beach and was headed to her death. Now she had broken two enormous cultural boundaries back then, one was cheating on her husband a man who she was supposed to obey her entire life and now was cƒompletely nude out in public. Something that even looks unacceptable in the eyes of a few people
There are many ways of looking at Edna's Suicide in The Awakening, and each offers a different perspective. It is not necessary for the reader to like the ending of the novel, but the reader should come to understand it in relation to the story it ends. The fact that readers do not like the ending, that they struggle to make sense of it, is reflected in the body of criticism on the novel: almost all scholars attempt to explain the suicide. Some of the explanations make more sense than others. By reading them the reader will come to a fuller understanding of the end of the novel (and in the process the entire novel) and hopefully make the ending less disappointing.
In one’s lifetime, he or she may face an internal struggle. Perhaps the struggle lies in a difficult choice between right and wrong. Perhaps it lies in a decision between want and need. Maybe one must contemplate how much his or her happiness is truly worth. Regardless, every person has internal conflict not easily solved. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier struggles with two conflicting forces, expectations of her and her own desires, illuminating the meaning of the novella: defying societal expectations in order to seek individuality and independence is always just.
Edna’s death represents personal and individual freedom and a release from society’s restraints. Edna lives an unfulfilling and...
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.
...t Lant’s, “The Siren of the Grand Isle: Adele’s Role in The Awakening” explains that, “… she has learned to swim, and master the waves and moves away from the shore to freedom.” Edna’s death was a way for her to become free. She no longer needed to face the harsh reality that women faced daily, and was in charge of her own self. Also, for the first time Edna was able to make a decision for herself.
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.
At the beginning of this novel and for the first several chapters, I saw Edna as a strong woman who wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself. Specifically, the fact that she was unhappy in her marriage. As we know, in the time set in the story it was exceedingly difficult to get a divorce especially when the reason is that the woman is unhappy. As sad as it sounds, that’s the way it was. As time went on, however, it became apparent that Edna always seemed to want something more. When she became infatuated with Robert, I was not necessarily surprised but rather dissapointed. In my opinion, cheating on your spouse behind their back is a horrible, immature action.