...Schiller Datum der Abgabe: 16.04.2011 Female Empowerment in Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” Anjana Dhir BA Englisch KF, Geschichte NF 3. Semester Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. The French – Creole society of Louisiana 4 2.1 Cultural background 4 2.2 French-Creole women 5 3. The Role of Women 6 4.1 Edna vs. Madame Ratignolle 7 3.1.1 “A Valuable Piece of Property” 7 3.1.2 Edna – The Unusual Woman 9 3.1.3 Adèle Ratignolle – The Archetype Woman 14 3.2 “Mother Woman” – The Patriarchal Ideology 16 4. Chopin’s Imagery 18 5. Conclusion - Edna’s Suicide 19 6. Bibliography 21 1. Introduction A certain ungovernable dread hung about her when in the water, unless there was a hand nearby that might reach out and reassure her. But that night she was like a little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with over confidence. […] A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before. This scene in Kate Chopin’s novel describes the moment in which the lead character Edna Pontellier...
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... The Birds In Kate Chopin’s book, The Awakening, she expresses the account of a youthful woman who begins to live her life for herself, breaking out of the numerous obstacles set by humanity and her family during the Victorian Era. When Chopin wrote The Awakening in the 1890s, a variety of social differences and tensions, which brought women’s rights into public conversation that prompted Chopin’s narrative. In Louisiana, which is the setting for The Awakening, most women at the time were their husbands' legitimate property. In addition, this was a prominently Catholic state meaning divorce was tremendously uncommon, and women expected to stay loyal and faithful to their husbands. This explains some reactions The Awakening received in after its publication in 1899. Chopin uses symbolism as an excellent device to insert her personal views to the reader giving them a foretaste into the life of this young woman at a time when women had no political rights and many restraints. In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening,” she uses a variety of birds as symbols to illuminate Edna’s journey through life. The essential significance throughout the story is the desire to break away from the traditional views of women during the Victorian Era. However, Edna struggles with the backlash she would receive if she chose to fulfill her own desires, signifying what she actually wants in life. In Chopin’s text, she portrays this struggle vividly by using a caged parrot...
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...“ Common Themes Found in Kate Chopin's Short Stories Kimberley J. Dorsey Stevenson University English 152, Writing About Literature 152-OME1 Charlotte Wulf November 14, 2010 Abstract Many of Kate Chopin’s short stories share the common themes of female oppression. The females in her stories are trying to find a way to escape their oppression and have a sense freedom and individuality. They either commit adultery or fantasize about it as a way to explore their feminine sexuality and obtain a sense of freedom. Common Themes Found in Kate Chopin's Short Stories Kate Chopin, an American novelist and short story writer. Born in 1851 and died in 1904 (cerebral hemorrhage). Chopin lived in Louisiana during her marriage to a Louisiana businessman and began writing after her husband’s death; being left to raise six children alone. Many of her stories are based on her knowledge of Creole and Cajun life during the time she lived there. She is best known for her novel “The Awakening,” considered Chopin’s masterpiece was subject to harsh criticism at the time criticism for its frank approach to sexual themes (Toth, 1988-1999, p. 1). Her attitude seen throughout her writing’s are about a woman’s place as being in the home and her purpose in life is to nurture her husband and children. Being against oppression Chopin chose to write about these issues through fiction, expressing...
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...A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850 in St. Louis Missouri. She began to write after her husband’s death. The Awakening (1899) is a realistic novel about the sexual and artistic awakening of a young mother who abandons her family. Bloom, Harold. "Bloom on Kate Chopin." Novelists and Novels, Bloom's 20th Anniversary Collection. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2005. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Nov. 2015 She attended the St. Louis Academy of Sacred Heart, where she read copiously, learned to play piano, became fluent in French, and passionately supported the confederacy during the Civil War. She became more interested in literature and creative storytelling after the death of her father, great grandmother and her half-brother during these...
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...Unsuccessful Marriages Ultimately Leading to Death in Kate Chopin’s Stories In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening and her short story Desiree’s Baby, they are both led by female characters in the nineteenth century. In both works, it creates an interesting setting considering the fact of societal roles and the way women were treated in this time period. Although in different locations, both women: Edna from The Awakening and Desiree from Desiree’s Baby can relate their struggles in their marriage. In both novels, it is evident to the audience that both couples lack a strong connection and at least one partner has a detachment from the other. In The Awakening and in Desiree’s Baby, Edna and Desiree’s relationship with their husbands negatively...
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...Sexual Desire The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel about a woman who leads the typical life of a nineteenth century woman. During this era, a woman's role is to be a wife and mother. The main character, Edna Pontellier, begins to struggle with this obligatory role in society. Even though she is an upper woman in society, she has feelings of suffocation and frustration. She begins to neglect her duties such as caring for her children, housekeeping, and social visitations. She is also starting to have feelings for men other than her husband. Through Edna's Creole friends, she learns a great deal about freedom of expression. As a result, Edna Pontellier goes on a journey of self discovery and sexual desires through a series of life awakenings. In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier and her family are vacationing at Grand Isle in southern Louisiana. While there, Edna becomes close to a gentlemen by the name of Robert Lebrun. Robert each summer at Grand Isle had constituted himself the devoted attendant of some fair damsel (Chopin 13). Throughout the summer, Edna spends time with Creole women who liberate her to seek independence from social norms. Their freedom of expression was at first incomprehensible to her (Chopin 12). Edna's character goes on a journey of self discovery and experiences a series of awakenings that lead to her death. Carney 2 The Awakening depicts the lifestyle for...
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...and viciously brutal, or she just does not fit society’s image of the perfect woman. Examples of the negative portrayal can be seen in literature such as Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, in which Edna is a weak and conforming wife having an affair with another man; William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which Lady Macbeth is an evil, conniving woman who degrades her husband by questioning his strength and masculinity; and Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying, in which Vivian Baptiste cannot seem to simultaneously satisfy her family, her ex-husband, her boyfriend, Tante Lou, or Tante Lou’s friends while staying true to her religion, even though Grant has none at all. Through imagery, tone, and figurative...
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...a young girl at the time, the incident might have resulted in serious consequences, but since she was, her act became famous as local legend. While attending a Catholic high school, Kate studied both French and English literature and became an accomplished pianist. She attended numerous social events and became very popular in St. Louis high society. She also became interested in the movement for women's suffrage although she never became very politically active. When she was nineteen, she married Oscar Chopin, a twenty-five-year-old French-Creole businessman. The couple moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and later moved to Cloutierville in north central Louisiana. Kate and Oscar were very happy together and, like the Pontelliers in The Awakening, soon became immersed in aristocratic Louisiana society. A gentle man, Oscar tolerated Kate's...
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...In the novel, The Awakening, by Katie Chopin, main character Edna Pontellier struggles to find her identity between being her outer self and her inner self. Her outer self, as Chopin describes, is the one that conforms based on society’s expectations of her. Edna’s inner self, on the other hand, is the one that questions her outer self and is authentic to who she truly is when free of society’s norms. As the novel progresses, Edna’s desire to identify more with her inner self rather than conforming to her outer self increases; Edna begins to devote more time towards her paintings and furthermore, moves out from her residency with her husband. However, in the process of accepting her inner self, Edna is no longer able to fit in as a functioning member of society. She as a result becomes frustrated and depressed. Furthermore, not even those who are closest to her (for example, Robert) are able to understand her needs and desires. As a result comes the ending: Edna’s ultimate death in a search for independence (her swim out to the sea). Such ending comes as a shock with no real solution for Edna other than death. However, such ending is conclusive because of its realistic parallels to society that Chopin is trying to highlight. Chopin’s ending of the book serves as a commentary of society’s expectations of women. Chopin’s main message, as highlighted through the ending, is the expectations society places onto women is an ultimatum forcing women to either conform to its norms or...
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...Suicide is most commonly viewed as the act of giving up completely or self-destructing, probably for good reason. This decision usually leaves behind broken families and friends with no closure or explanation. This topic is touched on in literature with various opinions. One such is Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening,” where Edna Pontellier, the novel’s protagonist, brings about her own end through her eventual suicide. In her case, the significance of her suicide is ambiguous, and although published over one hundred years ago, still creates a myriad of interpretations. The most accurate of these, however, is that Edna’s suicide demonstrates her growth over the course of the novel because it was Edna’s only viable solution for herself and the protection of her husband and children, and...
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...Kate Chopin Catherine (Kate) O'Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1850, the second child of Thomas O'Flaherty of County Galway, Ireland, and Eliza Faris of St. Louis. Kate's family on her mother's side was of French extraction, and Kate grew up speaking both French and English. She was bilingual and bicultural--feeling at home in different communities with quite different values--and the influence of French life and literature on her thinking is noticeable throughout her fiction. From 1855 to 1868 Kate attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, with one year at the Academy of the Visitation. As a girl, she was mentored by woman--by her mother, her grandmother, and her great grandmother, as well as by the Sacred Heart nuns. Kate formed deep bonds with her family members, with the sisters who taught her at school, and with her life-long friend Kitty Garasché. Much of the fiction Kate wrote as an adult draws on the nurturing she received from women as she was growing up. Her early life had a great deal of trauma. In 1855, her father was killed in a railroad accident. In 1863 her beloved French-speaking great grandmother died. Kate spent the Civil War in St. Louis, a city where residents supported both the Union and the Confederacy and where her family had slaves in the house. Her half brother enlisted in the Confederate army, was captured by Union forces, and died of typhoid fever. From 1867 to 1870 Kate kept a commonplace book in which she recorded...
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...The Awakening was published at a period in time whereby the contents of the book was considered vulgar and terrible. The book was rejected and looked down upon as being some type of scandal. The novel wasn’t recognized until after Kate Chopin dead. After her death readers began to recognize the book as being a feminist because of the fact that people began to understand the contents of the book in the newer era. The novel, “The Awakening” embodies a woman’s creativity, marriage, motherhood, and a woman’s place in society. An important part of the novel that stood out would be when Edna makes an attempt to escape the obligations and constraints of New Orleans social milieu. Every move made by Edna is caused by the tenet of society. Edna is...
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...Her Female Role in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening English C-Uppsats Date/Term: Supervisor: Examiner: Serial Number: Höstterminen 2006 Åke Bergvall Mark Troy X-XX XX XX Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60 Information@kau.se www.kau.se Kate Chopin is known for writing about women and their struggles in patriarchal society. In her three works The Awakening, “A Point at Issue” and “Wiser than a God”, she portrays women who have taken on different types of female roles. Per Seyersted calls these roles the “patriarchal woman”, which I choose too exemplify by Mme. Ratignolle from The Awakening, the “modern woman,” who Seyersted exemplifies by Eleanor from “A Point of Issue,” and the “emancipated woman,” who Seyersted exemplifies by Paula from “Wiser than a God” (Seyersted 102-105). One can say that these women have accepted and internalized a female role in society, by either following the rules of patriarchal society or breaking them. Edna, the protagonist of The Awakening, is a woman in search of her female identity. She is uncomfortable in her role as the “patriarchal woman” and has trouble obtaining either of the other two roles. This essay will focus on Edna’s inability to find her female role. Comparing her to the three other types of women in Chopin’s works, I will show why she cannot conform to any one of these roles, and how the resulting suicide is a conscious choice very much in character with Chopin’s portrayal of her. To understand...
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...The Awakening The Awakening explores different details of a woman living life through the 1800's. The main character that is discussed is Edna Pontellier. She is married to Leonce Pontellier and they have two children together, Etienne and Raoul. The story behind Edna is her desire and struggles to be an independent woman and live fully within her true self. She has struggles learning this about herself and the purpose of a happy life that in turn it causes friction with her friends and family. There are many symbols and perspectives in the story that will help decide whether or not Edna did the right thing in the end. Although Edna's ultimate suicide is a waste of her struggles against an oppressive society, The Awakening supports and encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain sexual freedom, financial independence, and individual identity. A critical analysis consists of choosing a certain lens that would point out certain characteristics of a book and summarize the findings. From the weekly reading “When you analyze a piece of literature or portion of it, it is important to look at various parts of the work—characters, setting, figurative language, and symbolism” (South University, Lecture, wk.2). There are three perspectives that were included in The Awakening, Feminist, Psychoanalytical and Historical. While writing this paper from a feminist perspective there will also be comparisons from the other two. As Sigmund Freud stated “the mind has two parts,...
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...conflict that these stories have. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story with an interesting plot with a dynamic character that has personal conflict, while “Hills Like White Elephants” has no real plot, there is not much information about the characters at all and the conflict is minimal at best. The textbook would be of better service to the students if “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin remained in it. “The Story of an Hour” is a story about a married woman named Louise Mallard who was known to have a heart condition. This is the first sentence in the story so the plot is introduced right away. Immediately the reader knows that she has a heart condition and her husband had died. The story goes on to describe her sadness and then the awakening that she has when she realizes that she is free of her marriage. The author describes the emotions that Mrs. Mallard goes through. For example, she sums up the emotions of Louise Mallard when she says “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday that she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 654). The plot thickens as the front door opens and her presumed dead husband walks through the front door. However, in the story “Hills like White Elephants”, the plot is never clearly defined in the first place. The story begins with a man and a woman sitting in a train station waiting on a train and goes on to describe a conversation between the two that is questionable as to what the topic is...
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