How Does Kate Chopin Use Dramatic Irony In The Awakening

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The Awakening, a well-anticipated novel written by Kate Chopin, had been greatly criticized when it first came out in 1899. During this time, the women’s rights movement was in full swing, and many admired Chopin’s literary genius already, so the author expected her novel to be a great success, as did the people. While a single woman with a loose sense of religious morality could see Chopin’s expressive irony, suggestive symbolism, as an inspiration for women everywhere and a message to remove the bondage of dependency on men, a married Puritan common woman could see it as offensive to the daily life she lives seeing her children as her life and pride. In The Awakening, Chopin demonstrates her expressive irony with the characters surrounding …show more content…

She proves this through her constant use of symbolism in Edna’s eyes. The ocean to Edna seems to be a mysterious abyss calling out to her. And she seems to be attracted to its mystique, at the same time, fearing it. The sea is seen as a “seductive” (Chopin 18) existence, “inviting the soul to wander…” (Chopin 18). Chopin portrays the sea in a manner as enticing to Edna, presenting empowerment through her overcoming her fear of drowning. Throughout the book, Edna feels misery staying by Leonce, being mistreated, yet still lacking the resolve to leave him; in the end, using so as an excuse to remain. An example of her stress and realization of it is when she “[took] off her wedding ring, [flinging] it upon the carpet” (Chopin 70). Her failure to crush the ring resembles her failure in refusing to be with Leonce, building up resentment toward her husband, her life and herself only to revert back to her mindset and “slip [her ring] upon her finger” (Chopin 71), just as she slips her façade back on. To the married Puritan, these representations could only serve to be manifestations of the impure mind of Edna, and the wrong mindset she possessed, as she seemed to be falsely considered a “tragedian” (Chopin 24), even though it was Edna who decided to accept Leonce and the life she lived. In comparison, the single loose moral having woman could visualize Edna unknowingly

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