Kate Chopin Critical Analysis

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With an author ahead of her time, Kate Chopin challenged the ideas of how women should be seen socially. Chopin frankly portrays women as emotional, intelligent and sexual beings. While it might seem that Chopin offers positive examples of female characters, in actuality they are complicated, messy and ultimately negative. All of her main female character seem to experience self-awareness, something very important at that time period because while women had feelings and thoughts, they weren't recognized by society, these feelings of independence and discovery are often temporary, still bound to social limitations. In some cases, it requires the Chopin brings attention to women's internal struggles with themselves and who they are told to be in a society that dismisses female autonomy, she doesn't do anything to solve or change them. It often appears that there is a choice between being independent or being married because identity is often lost in marriage and characters are unable to find a balance, making the characters hopeless.
Another way some characters lose some of their identity is in their name. In many of her works women who were married were often referred to as Mrs. –. This would have been a proper way to address the woman at the time, but it gives the character only one identity. The story is about them and finding identity, but they are defined by their husband's name. The characters are supposedly going through this change, they are still tied to their identity as a married woman, and while they reflect on their younger selves, they aren't tied to that person anymore. This shows that as much as they are going through a discovery of identity, it is fleeting, and they never truly change. It is also often that their ...

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...get bored with what they have, or they just have a different need that is not being met.
She uses marriage as way to place her characters in this state of wandering as far as their identity is concerned, and then finds a way to awaken them in a way where they become unhappy with their lives, but then doesn't let them find a way to change it. It should be recognized that Chopin broke the boundaries as far as writing about female characters in a way that most people didn't even think of them. But, more importantly, Chopin did not break barriers with her characters final actions. Using things like going back home, cheating on a spouse and dying she ultimately abandons the hope she installed that women can be happy and can make change for themselves. It wouldn't be without a struggle, but the characters giving up is the ultimate loss for feminism in Chopin's pieces.

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