The Awakening Feminist Analysis

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The Awakening by Kate Chopin follows the journey of protagonist Edna Pontellier as she "awakens" from a life of obedience and complacency and rebels against the patriarchal ideology that entraps her. Throughout the novel she strives to fee herself form the stifling obligations and expectations that oppress her, but finds that she is unable to live the free life she desires. This realization causes her to seek freedom in death, instead. In Marxist theory, particularly as subscribed to by Louis Althusser, it is the role of the repressive state apparatuses (RSAs) and the ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) to provide willing workers and supplies to the base and enable a system to reproduce itself. It is the ideological state apparatuses, however, …show more content…

The men of the novel, particularly the three male leads Léonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, and Alcée Arobin all worry intensely about maintaining their constructed reputations. Edna Pontellier's husband Léonce, an "antagonist" and of the main sources of Edna's oppression feels the constant scrutiny of societal judgment. He all but panics at the thought of Edna missing the all important "reception day" without so much as an excuse for her absence (49). His immediate thought upon learning his wife has moved out of their house is not worry about her well being, despite the fact he believes her to be emotionally/mentally disturbed. He worries more about it being thought he is having financial difficulties (89). This may seem to be an example of pure narcissism on his part, but it, in fact, illustrates deep-seated insecurity that he is not fitting his mold as a "proper" Creole man -- a successful businessman who is a good provider for his wife and children. He is not alone in his desire to conform to what a proper man should be, however. Robert Lebrun falls in love with Edna but cannot live with the disapproval from society - even in his own fantasies. He informs Edna how he dreamed of Mr. Pontellier "setting her free" and giving her over to his own ownership (102). Edna scoffs at this idea of ownership, but it is the common position a "good" man to have a woman as his wife, a rightful …show more content…

Léonce Pontellier devotes himself to being the high-power businessman and wage earner, to the exclusion of almost everything else, including his wife. Robert Lebrun turns away from love because adherence to the decorum of a gentleman, and Alcée Arobin plays the shallow seducer, but has trouble telling where the act ends. Edna Ponteiller, unlike the others, fully recognizes she has been cast to play a role and decides that she no longer desires it. She would be willing to make her own role, and risk her reputation, but finds that she cannot live the life she wants without making her children's lives into a scandal as well. In The Awakening, Chopin illustrates succesfully how ideology shapes everyone, with or without their

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