At the outset of the 19th century, Romanticism literature was prevalent in society. Romanticism aimed to produce works devoted to emotion and imagination encompassed by its characters, creating fanciful perspectives of life. However, many writers rejected this idea of emotive writing and directed their works towards the harsher realities of society. They tended to focus less on imagination and more on dull aspects of everyday life, in which became known as Realism. Realist literature illustrates the reality and feelings of everyday situations within society, which portrays the actuality of oppression from marital and societal conformity, thus restricting individuality. Ethan Frome, The Awakening, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and “The Story of an …show more content…
A common thread between the Realist works is the theme of marriage and the oppression. In Ethan Frome, The Awakening, and “The Story of an Hour” the main character’s life is effected through the suppression of individuality by societal values. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, follows the depressing life of Ethan Frome, a man married to a woman he doesn’t love, resulting in lustful feelings for another. Wharton writes, “He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone…and even if he had had the heart to desert her he could have done so only by deceiving two kindly people”(Wharton 90). While Ethan may want to be with Mattie Silver, he has a wife and leaving her would be immoral in the eyes of society. Thus, Ethan is illustrated to balance the morality and reality of his situation to his desires. Similarly, the main protagonist, Edna Pontellier from The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, expresses her marriage to be a show for society’s ideals rather for love. Chopin writes, “‘You have been a very, very foolish boy…dreaming of impossible things...I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, …show more content…
This crucial component of Realism can be found in Chopin’s “A Story of an Hour.” Chopin states, “Her husband's friend Richards was there… It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of ‘killed’”(Chopin 1894). Evidence to thesis.Furthermore, this idea of ennui can be found in more dramatic text, such as Ethan Frome, by Wharton through the development of the characters’ relationships and arguments they have with each other. Wharton states,“Ethan Frome walked at a quick pace along the deserted street, past the bank and Michael Eady's new brick store and Lawyer Varnum's house with the two black Norway spruces at the gate. Opposite the Varnum gate...the church reared its slim white steeple”(Wharton 1). Evidence to thesis. Moreover, the use of ennui is essential to Realist writing as it establishes an atmosphere that allows for the reader to feel the actions and emotions as if they are in the story
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie Silver. With Mattie’s presence, Starkfield seems to emerge from its desolateness, and Ethan’s vacant world seems to be awoken from his discontented life and empty marriage. And so begins Ethan’s love adventure – a desperate desire to have Mattie as his own; however, his morals along with his duty to Zeena and his natural streak of honesty hinder him in his ability to realize his own dreams. Throughout this suspenseful and disastrous novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton effectively employs situational irony enabling readers to experience a sudden shock and an unexpected twist of events that ultimately lead to a final tragedy in a living nightmare.
Kate Chopin, author of The Awakening, focused a spotlight on some very dark corners of our society. As a woman, I want to have a voice in my marriage, and I want to make decisions along with my husband, if I decide to marry. In The Awakening, Edna is a married woman who does not want to be a wife or a mother. She is bound to her home and her husband who makes every important decision in their marriage.
Throughout Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main protagonist, experiences multiple awakenings—the process in which Edna becomes aware of her life and the constraints place on it—through her struggles with interior emotional issues regarding her true identity: the confines of marriage vs. her yearning for intense passion and true love. As Edna begins to experience these awakenings she becomes enlightened of who she truly and of what she wants. As a result, Edna breaks away from what society deems acceptable and becomes awakened to the flaws of the many rules and expected behavior that are considered norms of the time. One could argue that Kate Chopin’s purpose in writing about Edna’s inner struggles and enlightenment was to
Marriage is an important theme in the stories Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. When someone hears the word “marriage”, he thinks of love and protection, but Hurston and Chopin see that differently. According to them, women are trapped in their marriage and they don’t know how to get out of it, so they use language devices to prove their points. Chopin uses personification to show Mrs. Mallard's attitudes towards her husband's death. Louise is mournful in her room alone and she is giving a description of the nature as a scene of her enjoying “the new spring life” and “the delicious breath of rain was in the air” (Chopin1).
After World War I, American people and the authors among them were disillusioned by the effects that war had on their society. America required a literature that would expound what had happened and what was happening to their society. The realistic movement of the late 19th century saw authors accurately depict life and its problems. This realistic movement evolved because of many changes and transitions in American culture. In the late 1800's, the United States was experiencing swift growth and change because of a changing economy, society, and culture. The increase of immigrants into America was one of the reasons. Realists endeavored to give a comprehensive picture of modern life by presenting the entire picture. The true definition of literary realism as defined by Encyclopedia Britannica is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one-century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United States. Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications.
In 19th Century, there were a lot of short stories were written about psychology. One of the most demanded stories was “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman which was a short story about a woman named Jane who was having psychological problems about her life. The story is kind of parallel to problems she had in her life too. That’s why the can be examined three main ways: Nineteenth-century psychology, how she used imagery and rhetorical devices, and protagonist-author relationship.
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers of children. Only with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a strong hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension comes from men, society, in general, and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, “The Yellow Wall-paper" and “The Story of an Hour," focus on a woman’s fix near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting
Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) who would not allow anyone to possess her, is an example of how the cult of domesticity, prevalent in the nineteenth century, oppressed women as passionless mothers who worship their husbands. While Edna isolates herself from her husband, Leonce, she also isolates herself from her children and, thus, from motherhood. However, Chopin utilizes the motherhood metaphor to illustrate Edna’s own rebirth as she awakens throughout the novel. Exploring Chopin’s tale through feminist literary theory and the cult of domesticity, the metaphor of motherhood through Edna’s own maternity as well as her metaphorical rebirth becomes apparent.
In Kate Chopin's short story “The Awakening”, the voice of the story portrays a woman with sexual aspirations, and moral female social rules in search for independence and self discovery. The story is based on the 19th century woman. During this time women barely had any freedom, were not recognized within the society and had no choice but to me submissive to their husbands. The main character of the story named Edna is portrayed to be a happy woman because she has everything; a wealthy, attentive husband, and two children. Thoughtout the story the truth about Edna’s unhappiness is revealed. The voice of the story uses symbolism, irony, and figurative language to express Edna Pontellier’s feelings as she found her way to her happiness and freedom.
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
Frank Norris comments that realism is the “smaller details of every-day life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper, small passions, restricted emotions.” (1741). “A Story of an Hour” tells the tale of an unhappy married woman, which is not an unrealistic or extreme occurrence. Chopin conveys in her short story the feeling of marriage as an undesired bondage to some married women in the nineteenth century. Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609).
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.