Kate Chopin and Gustave Flaubert can be considered as naturalistic literary authors from their novels “The Awakening” and “Madame Bovary” respectively. The authorships draw attention to the patriarchal social realities as the subject matter. To maintain objectivity, the writers narrate the lives of their female protagonists, Emma in “Madame Bovary” and Edna in “The Awakening”. Both characters are suppressed by a society that expects them to uphold the traditional niche of a woman. Emma and Edna defy all norms to achieve individualism and non-conformism of the Patriarchal orientated community. Although both have a common pursuit for self-exploration, it is evident that Chopin’s heroine is the better woman compared to Flaubert’s based on the …show more content…
Despite her convent background, Emma is a lavish spendthrift who is more concerned on worldly things and is characterized by selfishness as seen when she says, “But I don’t want anything but my own” (Flaubert 110). She also engages in multiple affairs which are fueled by her romantic ideals and illusions. Contrary to Emma, Edna struggles to live an independent life exhibited with self-control as seen when she denies Roberts marriage wish by saying “I give myself where I chose” (Chopin 19). In addition, Emma engages in prostitution to be able to satisfy her luxurious lifestyle whereas Edna’s affair is based on latent fantasies which had been suppressed by her …show more content…
Both novels are focused at a time, the nineteenth century, when the woman was unquestionably submissive to the man, otherwise, known as the era of the domestic woman. The settings for both novels give the audience insight as to why the protagonists wanted to liberate themselves from the traditional aspect of the woman. The authors also employ a healthy amount of symbolism in their work. For example, the caged birds who understand each other represent Edna and mademoiselle Reisz who are imprisoned by their communal beliefs. The actions of Edna are only understood by mademoiselle Reisz. In “Madam Bovary”, Emma’s appearance has great symbolic significance in the novel. It shows how her soul deteriorates as her focus on physical things increases. Her disgust on the blind man’s image emphasizes how she has lost herself to the
In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s suicide is an assertion of her independence and contributes to Chopin’s message that to be independent one must choose between personal desires and societal expectations. Chopin conveys this message through Edna’s reasons for committing suicide and how doing so leads her to total independence. Unlike the other women of Victorian society, Edna is unwilling to suppress her personal identity and desires for the benefit of her family. She begins “to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relationship as an individual to the world within and about her” (35).
Did you know that 81% of Americans feel they have a book in them? (Epstein par. 1).
In The Awakening, Kate Chopin’s protagonist Edna Pontellier breaks the boundaries of female behavioral norms by using the sea as a metaphor to convey Edna’s strength and empowerment. Edna’s recklessness shows her passion to escape from the restrictive reality of her time. Edna first breaks boundaries when she steps into the water in chapter X, in a “daring and reckless way, overestimating her strength”(Chopin 27). Edna swims out to sea to escape the entrapment of a male dominated society. She does not know how to swim or survive in this male dominated society. Swimming illustrates the alienation Edna feels. She attempts to overcome her fears
Individual will is a force that is significant, and yet can be manipulated by a more powerful source. In the Victorian Age setting within The Awakening by Kate Chopin, men have been manipulated by society. They are forced to reflect their norms on women. These norms have been caused repressive and manipulative behavior within men. Edna Pontellier, protagonist of the novel, confronts several men who confront her yearning for individualism. Each male plays a role ordained by society and as a result they develop characteristics that promote specific, yet conflicting images to the reader.
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin seems to fit neatly into twentieth century ideals. Chopin addresses psychological issues that must have been difficult for people of the late nineteenth century to grasp. Just as Edna died a premature death, Chopin's book died too. The rejection of this book, at the time, ironically demonstrates the pressure many women must have felt to conform to society. Chopin shows the reader, through Edna Pontellier, that society restricts women the right to individuality. This restriction by society can be seen in the clothing Victorian women wore during the time.
Through this prospect, she has internalized the standards in fulfilling the norms. If she does not fulfill it, she creates a sense of futility, an accurate, unvarnished replication of the guilt feelings that she suffers. Emma lives out its real, logical, and bitter conclusion of the emptiness in the traditions of marriage and the masculine customs that go with it. By marriage, a woman, specifically Emma, losses their liberty in all its physical, social, moral and even spiritual consequences. She envies the advantages of a man saying, “...at least is free; he can explore each
after her husband and children, they were treated as second class citizens with few rights.
In Chopin’s novel The Awakening, she incorporates the themes mentioned above to illustrate the veracity of life as she understands it. A literary work approached by the feminist critique seeks to raise awareness of the importance and higher qualities of women. Women in literature may uncover their strengths or find their independence, raising their own self-recognition. Several critics deem Chopin as one of the leading feminists of her age because she was willing to publish stories that dealt with women becoming self-governing, who stood up for themselves and novels that explored the difficulties that they faced during the time. Chopin scrutinized sole problems and was not frightened to suggest that women desired something that they were not normally permitted to have: independence.
In Frances Porcher’s response to “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin published in May 1899, she felt as though the book is slightly pathetic. While she believes that one can get absorbed by the principles of the book, she writes that the story makes one feel like “it leaves one sick of human nature and so one feels cui bono!” Furthermore, in Porcher’s analysis, the book “is not a pleasant picture of soul-dissection.” The distress of Edna does not allow one to joyfully engage in the plight that is exhibited. In addition to ugly cross-section, the book makes readers feel, “for the moment, with a little sick feeling, if all women are like the one” that is studied in the book. While it is disheartening to read that women might feel this way about the
Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, is followed by the audience through her voyage of self-realization. As Edna’s journey unfolds, Chopin incorporates a vast variety of symbols in order to express Edna’s relationship with society. One of the most present symbols that Chopin uses is the way she addresses Edna’s clothing or its absence. As Edna’s character develops and her desire to liberate herself swells, she removes clothing that she feels are not only constricting to her body physically but to her soul emotionally. While Edna removes her clothing throughout the novel, she is contravening the social norms and rules that the society she lives in has presented to her. This is one of many ways that Edna
Finally, Flaubert warns that individuals that base their expectations for love on what they have consumed from media, will not only be unsatisfied with their romantic relationships, but also be incapable of establishing a relationship of any kind. This idea is exemplified through Emma’s interactions with Berthe and Felicite. While naturally a mother is expected to be maternal and loving, Emma views Berthe as a reminder of Charles’ failures, and thus, as a result her unrealistic expectation of love, Emma feels little connection to Berthe (such as when she cause Berthe to bleed because she attempts to crawl into Emma’s lap). Likewise, Emma’s failure to achieve success through her marriage leaves her to use Felicite, as an outlet, to create the illusion of her class within her home (as observed through her internal dialogue regarding how she would have Felicite maintain her house). These relationships develop Flaubert’s argument because, though they aren’t directly impacted by Emma’s false ideals, they are far from being healthy as a result her dissatisfaction with
The 19th and 20th centuries were a time period of change. The world saw many changes from gender roles to racial treatment. Many books written during these time periods reflect these changes. Some caused mass outrage while others helped to bring about change. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, gender roles can be seen throughout the novel. Some of the characters follow society’s “rules” on what a gender is suppose to do while others challenge it. Feminist Lens can be used to help infer and interpret the gender roles that the characters follow or rebel against. Madame Ratignolle and Leonce Pontellier follow eaches respective gender, while Alcee Arobin follows and rebels the male gender expectations during the time period.
In America, the 1890s were a decade of tension and social change. A central theme in Kate Chopin’s fiction was the independence of women. In Louisiana, most women were their husband’s property. The codes of Napoleon were still governing the matrimonial contract. Since Louisiana was a Catholic state, divorce was rare and scandalous. In any case, Edna Pontellier of Chopin had no legal rights for divorce, even though Léonce undoubtedly did. When Chopin gave life to a hero that tested freedom’s limits, she touched a nerve of the politic body. However, not Edna’s love, nor her artistic inner world, sex, or friendship can reconcile her personal growth, her creativity, her own sense of self and her expectations. It is a very particular academic fashion that has had Edna transformed into some sort of a feminist heroine. If she could have seen that her awakening in fact was a passion for Edna herself, then perhaps her suicide would have been avoided. Everyone was forced to observe, including the cynics that only because a young
Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s first novel and is considered his masterpiece. It has been studied from various angles by the critics. Some study it as a realistic novel of the nineteenth century rooted in its social milieu. There are other critics who have studied it as a satire of romantic sensibility. It is simply assumed that Emma Bovary, the protagonist, embodied naive dreams and empty cliché that author wishes to ridicule, as excesses and mannerisms of romanticism. She is seen as a romantic idealist trapped in a mundane mercantile world. Innumerable theorists have discovered and analysed extensively a variety of questions raised by its style, themes, and aesthetic innovations. In this research paper an attempt has been made to analyse life of Emma Bovary as a paradigm of Lacanian desire.