"The Doctor was a semi-retired physician, resting, as the saying is, upon his laurels. He bore a reputation for wisdom rather than skill.. .and was much sought for in matters of consultation."(64-65) Although this description defines the role of the Doctor throughout the novel, it does not do him justice regarding the depths of his intuitive abilities. Doctor Mandelet was a healer indeed-not of the body but of the mind. In spite of being a male, he does not fit into the stereotype, and seems to understand, though not fully, the identity conflicts tormenting Edna Pontellier. In the beginning he is portrayed as the common man with hardly any comprehension of a woman's emotions. By the end, he realizes that the society in which they live is full of stereotypes and can discern the adverse effects which the demanded gender roles can incur upon less-than-complacent individuals. He perceives Edna's awakening, yet his character symbolizes an anesthetic, not a cure, for her pains of bondage.
When a frustrated Mr. Pontellier, Chopin's stereotypical male, visits the Doctor regar...
Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman who throughout the novella tries to find herself. Edna begins the story in the role of the typical mother-woman distinctive of Creole society but as the novelette furthers so does the distance she puts between herself and society. Edna's search for independence and a way to stray from society's rules and ways of life is depicted through symbolism with birds, clothing, and Edna's process of learning to swim.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.
Even in the medical field, male doctors were dominate to the hundreds of well educated midwives. “Male physicians are easily identified in town records and even in Martha’s diary, by the title “Doctor.” No local woman can be discovered that way” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.61). Martha was a part of this demoralized group of laborers. Unfortunately for her, “in twentieth-century terms, the ability to prescribe and dispense medicine made Martha a physician, while practical knowledge of gargles, bandages, poultices and clisters, as well as willingness to give extended care, defined her as a nurse” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.58). In her diary she even portrays doctors, not midwives, as inconsequential in a few medical
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life before her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT WAS love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision TO MARRY Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS APPARENT in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.
The most prevalent and obvious gender issue present in the novella was that Edna challenged cultural norms and broke societal expectations in an attempt to define herself. Editors agree, “Edna Pontellier flouts social convention on almost every page…Edna consistently disregards her ‘duties’ to her husband, her children, and her ‘station’ in life” (Culley 120). Due to this, she did not uphold what was expected of her because she was trying to be superior, and women were expected to be subordinate to men. During that time, the women were viewed as possessions that men controlled. It was the woman’s job to clean the house, cook the meals, and take care of the children, yet Edna did none of these things. Her lifestyle was much different. She refused to listen to her husband as time progressed and continually pushed the boundaries of her role. For example, during that time period “the wife was bound to live with her husban...
In Chopin's Awakening, the reader meets Edna Pontellier, a married woman who attempts to overcome her "fate", to avoid the stereotypical role of a woman in her era, and in doing so she reveals the surrounding. society's assumptions and moral values about women of Edna's time. Edna helps to reveal the assumptions of her society. The people surrounding her each day, particularly women, assume their roles as "housewives"; while the men are free to leave the house, go out at night, gamble, drink and work. Edna surprises her associates when she takes up painting, which represents a working job and independence for Edna.
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
Past the political satire and laughable motifs in the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, the purpose of this story is to show everything ignoble and tactless of the human species in general and that humans are truly disgusting. Also exploring the idea of a utopia. Swift uses the literary device of political satire to show how childish and ignorant human acts were. This is because during Swift's time in the eighteenth century, Britain was modernizing at this time. The reader follows the four narrative travels of the main character, Lemuel Gulliver. Each of the four voyages Gulliver has traveled to, is a different society that portrays one of the main ideals of the eighteenth century in Britain. The four places Gulliver has traveled to were Lilliput; being Gulliver's first voyage, Brobdingnag; his second voyage, Laputa; the third voyage, and lastly to the land of the Houyhnhms; being his last voyage and afterwards traveling back home to England. The experience from being exposed to these four societies has had a huge impact on how Gulliver now sees humans.
In The Awakening, Kate Chopin tells a story during the upbringing of the feminist movement, the movement was masked by the social attitudes entering into the 1900’s. She tells this story in the form of a novel, in which is told in a third person view, that is very sympathetic for Edna Pontellier, the protagonist. This is a review of the journey Edna takes in her awakening and evaluate the effectiveness this novel takes in introducing, continuing, and ending Edna’s awakening.
Mark Twain had a typical childhood for his time, but his older years were quite different. He was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri to Jane Clemens and John Clemens (“Mark Twain Biography”). Growing up on the Missouri River, he faced poverty, cruelty, and boredom as a child. He wanted to be relieved from his boredom so he asked Horace Bixby, a pilot, to teach him riverboat piloting. Piloting is where Twain adopted his pen name. The term twain means “two fathoms deep,” which is the depth needed for a riverboat to pass through safely. Twain served in the Civil War for a few weeks in 1861, but then dropped out. After that, he went on ...
Gulliver's Travels reflects characters to the reader in numerous inventively nauseating ways. Quick uses his imaginative revamping of every day life to make the meanest, most clever, dirtiest tirade of the whole eighteenth century. Throughout this novel, Swift utilizes amazing misrepresentation and parody to make a figurative association between the distinctive societies experienced on Lemuel Gulliver's excursions and about his own particular society, reprimanding his general public's traditions.
On November 30, 1835, the small town of Florida, Missouri had witnessed the birth of it’s most famous son Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. What makes Samuel L. Clemens (Mark twain) is that he was born and died in the same years that Halley’s Comet flew by the earth. Approximately, four years after Samuel’s birth in 1839, the Clemens family moved to the town of Hannibal and his father had built a two-story frame house at 206 Hill Street in 1844, Samuel’s father was a judge,storekeeper, lawyer, and land speculator. Samuel was kept inside his house in Hannibal due to poor health but the age of nine, Samuel had recovered from his ailments. Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was considered America’s most famous literary icon (symbol) during his era. (http://www.cmgww.com)
In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift uses multiple examples of political, religious, intellectual, economic, and social satire to exhibit the faults of Europe during the eighteenth century. This story, however, also has contemporary connections. The high and low heels of Lilliput, for example, can represent Democrats and Republicans in the United States. Swift’s use of satire allowed him to criticize what was happening in Europe at the time without being too obvious about it. Whereas many other novels were being burned for criticizing governments, Swift was able to mask his criticisms through satire. He was still able to inform the readers of the faults of Europe without angering any leaders. Ultimately, Swift is able to use satire to comment to serious societal issues of the eighteenth century while still providing an entertaining novel.
Jonathan Swift's story, Gulliver's Travels, is a very clever story. It recounts the fictitious journey of a fictitious man named Lemuel Gulliver, and his travels to the fantasy lands of Lilliput, Brobdinag, Laputa, and Houyhnhmn land. When one first reads his accounts in each of these lands, one may believe that they are reading humorous accounts of fairy-tale-like lands that are intended to amuse children. When one reads this story in the light of it being a satire, the stories are still humorous, but one realizes that Swift was making a public statement about the affairs of England and of the human race as a whole.
Traveling around the world can open your eyes to many new discoveries. Jonathan Swift was a well-known author during the 1600 and 1700’s. Many of Swift’s pieces were based on his experiences during his travels. “For most general readers, the name Jonathan Swift is associated only with his satiric masterpiece Gulliver's Travels. They are not aware that, in addition to it and hundreds of poems, he wrote a great deal of nonfictional prose, much of it of considerable interest, significance, and excellence” (Schakel).