Edna’s Search for Solitude in Kate Chopin's The Awakening
Home from a summer at Grand Isle, separated from the company of an agreeable and, eventually beloved, companion and in the stifling company of a disagreeable, oblivious husband, Edna Pontellier sees her home, her garden, her fashionable neighborhood as "an alien world which had suddenly become antagonistic" (76). When she is left alone in the house, she thrills to the sensation of free time and space, the chance to explore, investigate, to see her house in its own light. To eat in peace without her husband's trifling complaints, to read until sleepy, to rest is a luxury which convention, her husband and her own complicity had denied her. She slept well, "now that her time was her own to do with as she liked" (96). This is but one night in the course of Edna's "awakening," a complicated process that, for better or worse, puts her in control of her own destiny. Ultimately, she will answer to no one but herself.
Her path to this point is a complex struggle to carve out the solitude she craves - companionship when and with whom of her choosing. As Edna grows to recognize her own voice, she suffers alternately euphoria, despair and frustration. Her choices develop from a heightened sense of the world around her, of her own preferences and desires. Her experiences, beginning with Robert Lebrun, open her to these sensations, and the sensations provide her with the power to free herself. Looking at examples of Edna's increasingly acute and outward responses to stimuli and her equally willful behavior, her search for solitude evolves as a woman becoming aware of her choices.
When Edna hears Mademoiselle Reisz play at Grand Isle, she is prepared to see the music, as she ...
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...had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for the rest of her days" (138). The sensations that colored her world and gave her voice also gave her an unquenchable desire for freedom, for choice, for self-determined solitude. Unable to make those whom she loved understand, she makes another choice, and opens herself to another wrap of sensation. Like the man in "Solitude," Edna stands upon the beach naked, surrounded by space and air. But unlike that man, her solitude and exposure are chosen - she is not left behind, she is leaving. The sea holds no boundaries any longer, she is not afraid to leave the shore and she knows she can swim to sea, as far out as it takes to be free. As she swims out, her senses revive in memory of her father and sister's voices and the odor of dianthus; once again she is being lulled, but this time toward a resolution.
...erse with each other, they realize that they are not meant to be foes, but friends. During the novel, they work tirelessly in sustaining the bonds of their friendship, and triumphing over any obstacles that they face (having Rev Saunders approve of their friendship, getting passed the fact that Danny put Reuven in the hospital, or having to put their friendship on hold when the two become too involved with their own lives and activities). As Rev Saunder’s stated, “You think a friend is an easy thing to be? If you are truly his friend, you will discover otherwise” (142). They The Jewish duo balance each other out, and are there to support one another no matter what. They express different viewpoints at times, or get into vigorous quarrels with one another, but their friendship never ceases to exist.
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has plentiful examples of key concepts we have examined in class including: Purity and impurity, magical thinking, strong emotions such as disgust and shame, , formalization, and myth. In this essay I will summarize events that take place within the novel when the protagonists deal with Dracula and then relate these events to the key concepts to demonstrate why the characters view him as dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided completely.
‘Dracula’ is a novel that probes deeply into people’s superstitions, fears and beliefs of the supernatural. The creature Dracula is an evil being with no concern for others, he kills for his own ends and cannot be stopped, and this is what makes ‘Dracula’ truly frightening.
Through different events that occur, or better yet, through an “awakenings,” Edna turns into an upsettingly free woman, who lives separate from her significant other and children. Edna is also liable only to her own impulses and desires. Unfortunately, Edna’s awakening isolates her from others and eventually leads nowhere; she is left in complete loneliness.
The theme of gender roles is shown through the character of Edna Pontellier. From the start of The Awakening it becomes clear that Edna does not fulfill the traditional duties a wife or mother would during this time period, such as supporting her husband and caring for the children. While vacationing in Grand Isle, Louisiana, Léonce speaks of how he is disappointed in his wife. After coming home
t Kate Chopin's story The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story The Yellow Wallpaper draw their power from two truths: First, each work stands as a political cry against injustice and at the socio/political genesis of the modern feminist movement. Second, each text is a gatekeeper of a new literary history. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman seem to initiate a new phase in textual history where literary conventions are revised to serve an ideology representative of the "new" feminine presence. Two conventions in particular seem of central importance: "marriage" and "propriety".
The dosage of the drug should be used according to the carton instructions. A 10 gram over dose in adults, 140 mg for kids, can cause permanent liver damage. Also if you had just taken some other drugs , The acetaminophen may become more toxic since the drugs are catabolized in the liver. To protect yourself from injury, you should take 1 gram of vitamin C and Cysteine -a bodily antioxidant.
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre;
Edna is awakened to the fact that she has no lasting relationship with anyone in her life. Her friendships with women are surface level and not genuine and her relationship with Robert crumble with a note, “Good-by -- because I love you.” That note acted as the last straw for young Edna who was completely alone in the isolated world she created for herself, a saddening image. “[Her solitary swim] is clearly symbolized by the final episode in the book: her solitary swim far out into the emptiness of the Gulf” (Ringe 587). She stripped down, possibly symbolizing her complete surrender of all facades and schemes and went into the vast ocean. Whether she intended to take her own life or not is still debated, but one thing is for sure, she was trying to escape reality once again, but it cost her
Her awakening takes place in her mind, and because of this, it destroys her. Though she awakens to society’s pressures, no amount of reform or change possible in that time would be freeing enough for her. She is lost in “mazes of inward contemplation” and, instead of being concerned with the situation as a whole, is therefore concentrated on what its effect is on her (14). “The sea speaks to the soul” and is not rational or logical, but emotional and passionate, and her choices throughout the book reflect a general lack of foresight (14). Her subconscious calls on her to free herself, but the price of freedom is the realization of her pain and sorrow. For this reason the sea, or subconscious, is comforting, and it is appealing to be enfolded “in its soft, close embrace” (14). When unaware, there is no struggle against the current social conditions, no agonizing conflict between reality and the newly freed mind. Therefore, Edna gives up her life for the release of her true self, by wading deep into her subconscious and drowning in its
At first, Edna does seem trapped to a drone existence of bourgeois Creole society. But once she was “initiat[ed] into the world of female love and ritual,” (247) she began “seeking fulfillment and selfhood” outside of marriage and motherhood (244). Her gravitation toward a woman-centered existence, outside of culturally defined spaces, is an act of self-reconstruction. For example, at the risk of damaging her reputation, she rejects the obligation of her social class to host ‘callers.’ This is a figurative loosening of the ties that bound her to a tradition of waiting for life to happen. She defies that tradition and, in doing so, restructures her existence as a woman.
As a pain killer, morphine is used in hospitals around the United States for pain management and post-surgery. The main types of consumption is through smoking, snorting, rectal, I.V, orally, and through injection. A pump can also be used to administer the drug to the patient. Most times pumps are used in extreme cases of nerve disorders which usually entail a catheter being microscopically implanted into the spinal cord. The use of a pump is normally for pain management. Pumps are filled with a months or less supply of the drug, which is administered from the abdomen to the spinal area of pain. It basically numbs erratic nerve function and allows a normal life to be had by the patient. Morphine can also be us...
Society displays many rules, written and unwritten, that people are directed to comply with. Different groups of people have different guidelines in which they expect people to behave like. In most cases, there are people who are against and do not agree with the demands to which society suggests. There are two ways that those people choose to react, they either complete disregard and be themselves the rules or they conform to the rules and question them inwardly. In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is said to possess “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions”. Edna conforms in a patrachical Creole society that limited the freedom of women, and internal Edna wants to escape and freedom from this pain.
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
Advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men, Charlotte Perkins Gilman speaks to the “female condition” in her 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by writing about the life of a woman and what caused her to lose her sanity. The narrator goes crazy due partially to her prescribed role as a woman in 1892 being severely limited. One example is her being forbidden by her husband to “work” which includes working and writing. This restricts her from begin able to express how she truly feels. While she is forbidden to work her husband on the other hand is still able to do his job as a physician. This makes the narrator inferior to her husband and males in general. The narrator is unable to be who she wants, do what she wants, and say what she wants without her husband’s permission. This causes the narrator to feel trapped and have no way out, except through the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom.