Comparing Edna of Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Nora of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House
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.
Two main similarities of Edna and Nora are that they both have an awakening and are like caged birds without freedom; one main difference is that Edna lives in reality and Nora lives in a fantasy world. Other similarities are: each protagonist seems happy about her marriage in the beginning, is controlled by her husband, and has a secret. Despite all the similarities, the two protagonists differ in several ways: Edna does what she wants while Nora dreams about what she wants; Edna has a mind of her own while Nora seems to be a scattered brain wife; and Edna stops taking care of her children all together while Nora cares for the children on and off.
An image of a green and yellow parrot in a cage occurs throughout The Awakening; the parrot represents how Edna Pontellier is trapped in her marriage to Leonce Pontellier. During that time period women were expected to stay at home and perform household duties, take care of their husbands, and take care of their children; women were not supposed to be educated and did not hold a career. Edna realizes she does not want to perform the expected duties of a woman because she is not happy just being a wife and mother. In the beginning of ...
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...n reality. Ibsen and Chopin both wrote stories that represent the oppression of women in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century; The Awakening and "A Doll's House' are realistic writings that show society's treatment of women.
Works Cited and Consulted:
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.
Durbach, Errol. A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Literature and Ourselves. 2nd Ed. Ed. by Gloria Henderson, Bill Day, and Sandra Waller. New York: Longman, 1997
Martin, Wendy, ed. "Introduction." New Essays on The (Awakening. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 1988.
Templeton, Joan. "The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen." PMLA (January 1989): 28-40.
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.
She desperately wanted a voice and independence. Edna’s realization of her situation occurred progressively. It was a journey in which she slowly discovered what she was lacking emotionally. Edna’s first major disappointment in the novel was after her husband, Leonce Pontellier, lashed out at her and criticized her as a mother after she insisted her child was not sick. This sparked a realization in Edna that made here realize she was unhappy with her marriage. This was a triggering event in her self discovery. This event sparked a change in her behavior. She began disobeying her husband and she began interacting inappropriately with for a married woman. Edna increasingly flirted with Robert LeBrun and almost instantly became attracted to him. These feelings only grew with each interaction. Moreover, when it was revealed to Edna that Robert would be leaving for Mexico she was deeply hurt not only because he didn’t tell her, but she was also losing his company. Although Edna’s and Robert’s relationship may have only appeared as friendship to others, they both secretly desired a romantic relationship. Edna was not sure why she was feeling the way she was “She could only realize that she herself-her present self-was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored
...ome from different worlds, yet they still share the same type of sadness and pain in their everyday lives. What Nora does is considered courageous in that time in history, where women were not treated as equals and were always looked down on and ignored. Women speaking out and taking matters into their own hands was unheard of and often risky. They want to be independent so they do what they believe is necessary to accomplish and reach their goals, so that they can once again be happy for eternity.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 535-625. Print.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/ST. Martin’s, 2001. 659 – 688.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th Ed. -. W.W. Norton & Co., NY. 1998. The. Chopin, Kate.
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Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." Ibsen : Four Major Plays - Volume 1. Trans. Rolf Fjelde. New York: Signet Classics, 1992. 43-114. Print.