The Awakening Kate Chopin Essay
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The Awakening by Kate Chopin Essay
The Awakening by Kate Chopin Kate Chopin is one of the first female writers to address female
issues, primarily sexuality. Chopin declares that women are capable of overt sexuality in which they
explore and enjoy their sexuality. Chopin shows that her women are capable of loving more than
one man at a time. They are not only attractive but sexually attracted (Ziff 148). Two of Chopin's
stories that reflect this attitude of sexuality are The Awakening and one of her short stories "The
Storm". Although critics now acclaim these two stories as great accomplishments, Chopin has been
condemned during her life for writing such vulgar and risqué pieces. In 1899 Chopin publishes The
Awakening. She is censured for its "positively unseemly"
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The first way in which Chopin is able to portray an awakening by Edna is through her relationship
with her husband, Leonce. Chopin describes Leonce as a likable guy. He is a successful
businessman, popular with his friends, and devotes himself to Edna and the children (Spangler 154).
Although Edna's marriage to Leonce is "purely and accident", he "pleases her" and his "absolute
devotion flattered her" (Chopin 506). However, it is clearly obvious to the reader the Leonce acts as
the oppressor of Edna (Allen 72). When the reader first sees them together, Leonce is looking at his
wife as "a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage" (Chopin 494). The
most important aspect to Leonce is making money and showing off his wealth. He believes his
wife's role to be caring for him and his children. Therefore, the first step toward her freedom is to be
free of his rule. Edna is able to accomplish this first by denying Leonce the submissiveness which he
is accustomed to. She does this by abandoning her Tuesday visitors, she makes no attempt to keep
an organized household, and she comes and goes as she pleases (Chopin 536). The next big step in
gaining her freedom from her husband is when she moves into a house of her own while Leonce is
away taking of business. She does not even wait to see what his opinion of the matter is (Chopin
558). It is quite evident the only thing Leonce worries about is what people are going to
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Essay The Awakening
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, tells one woman's story of her attempt to awaken to her true wants
and desires for her life. When Edna Pontellier spends the summer on Grand Isle, she begins to think
beyond the role of wife and mother that she has played so far. She begins to think of herself as a
separate person with independent thoughts and feelings. Her transformation is difficult and she has
great trouble deciding what she really wants in life. Edna attempts to discard all of the traditional
values of her life to find her independence. Confused by the new feelings these experiences bring,
Edna's awakening is a failure because she does not have the necessary skills to become independent.
Despite her attempts to change and embrace a new
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Edna blindly struggles to leave behind the conventions of society and her own life. She first begins
her transformation while at the beach. The water shows her desire to change and flow with her life
instead of being stuck in the life that she has. Each time she becomes unsure of her new path, she
returns to the water to reconnect with the flow that she wants to create. Ultimately, however, the
requirements of change become too great for her, and Edna is defeated by the process. When she
realizes that she cannot make the necessary changes in her life she returns to the water to end her
life. The water and her drowning show how Edna is in over her head and cannot tread any longer to
stay afloat. A third symbolization of defeat for Edna can be
found in her relationships with men. As she develops more relationships with men besides her
husband, Edna believes that she is growing and becoming more self aware. She confuses her
relationship with Robert for developing awareness and liberation. However, she is only trading one
dependence for another. Her desire for Robert makes her leave her family, but what she needs is to
be more self reliant, not just reliant on another man. When Robert realizes that the relationship is
becoming serious for Edna, he backs off and leaves her. She thinks she is becoming more
independent, but she is still consumed by the need to be
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Essay on The Awakening
Critical Views of The Awakening
The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In
Chopin's time, writing a story with such great attention to sensual details in both men and women
caused skepticism among readers and critics. However, many critics have different views with
deeper thought given to The Awakening. Symbolism, the interpretation of Edna
's suicide, and
awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics.
Symbolism in The Awakening is interpreted in many ways
. It is important to understand the
meaning of each explanation of symbolism given by every critic to fully appreciate the novel. Art,
for example, becomes a symbol of both freedom and
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However, Edna's suicide leaves many readers unsatisfied and disappointed. Almost everyone has
their own interpretation of the ending
. Edna's suicide represents her final attempt to fully escape.
(Rosowski 46) She escapes her children, her lovers, and most important, time and change (Rosowski
47). As she swims out to sea and death, Edna's mind returns to her childhood dreams of
limitlessness. In this sense, the sea symbolizes her dreams to have her youth back because "it had no
beginning and no end."(Rosowski 58). Edna imagines herself walking through the Kentucky
meadows that she remembered from many years ago. Edna died, but in a way she had created her
own limitless awakening.
As the title of the novel reveals, awakenings are the most important as well as the most emotional
parts of the story. Edna slowly awakens to her true self. She begins "daily casting aside that
fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world." She creates
her own awakenings with dreams and paintings (Gilbert 104). It is as if she tried to begin again,
making a life that she could control and to become a new woman and be herself rather than what she
was expected to be. Edna's awakenings were all a part of her defining her own self(Rosowski 44).
She feared to have the conventional life that so many women had become trapped in. As she
awakens, Edna becomes less and less traditional by stripping
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The Awakening Essay
In The Awakening, which was written by Kate Chopin, the boundaries and limitations placed on
Edna Pontellier by society will guide her struggle for freedom and her ultimate demise. Her husband
Leonce Pontellier, the women of the creole society, and the Grand Isle made it clear that Edna is
stuck in a male ran society. Despite these individuals, Edna has a human desire to be independent
and is successfully able to free herself from having to conform to society. The sea, Robert Lebrun,
and Mademoiselle Reisz serve as Edna's outlets from conforming to society. "Edna's journey for
personal independence involves finding words to descover herself. She commits suicide rather than
sacrificing her independent, individual existence as social conventions demand of her" (153).
There are constant boundaries and limitations given to Edna that create Ednas desire for personal
freedom. Edna is a young wife who married into the creole society and mother in a high–class
society. The story shows the life of a girl
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Pontellier should consider his wife to be. He was completely selfish in his desires. His personal
gains were always his top priority. Since he was trapped by his business all the other home duties
were assigned to Edna "He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his
existence, evinced so little interest in the things which concerned him and valued so little his
conversation" Leonce never wore his heart on his sleeve, never asked her how she felt, what she
wanted, yet he expects her to remain completely fascinated in him. If Edna doesn't cooperate with
Mr. Pontellier's duties it could ruin the image of his built–up ego. If the community was aware of
how Edna was feeling it would be looked down upon. The community would shame her if they
knew she did not take care of her children. Her being the opposite of a "normal" wife would most
definitely ruin Mr. Pontellier's
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Kate Chopin The Awakening Essay
Kate Chopin The Awakening To what extent does Edna Pontellier, in Kate Chopin's The Awakening,
mark a departure from the female characters of earlier nineteenth–century American novels The
Awakening was published in 1899, and it immediately created a controversy. Contemporaries of
Kate Chopin (1851–1904) were shocked by her depiction of a woman with active sexual desires,
who dares to leave her husband and have an affair. Instead of condemning her protagonist, Chopin
maintains a neutral, non–judgmental tone throughout and appears to even condone her character's
unconventional actions. Kate Chopin was socially ostracised after the publication of her novel,
which was almost forgotten until the second half of the twentieth century.
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Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper capture, in
their respective works, two women who have turned down these expected roles, and, consequently,
suffer because of it. The husbands of these women, entirely because they stand to represent
patriarchal society, are a great deal to blame for the "condition" of their wives. In the first scene of
The Awakening, after being scolded by her husband about not being a good mother, Edna responds
by crying, and later with defiance, refusing to come in to sleep, according to her husband's wishes.
This behaviour, as well as the journey into the sea at the end of the novel suggests that she has
become awakened to the oppressive nature of her husband, and that of the institution of marriage in
general. The very act of Edna's struggle, her resistance, suggests her awareness that there is a way of
speaking and thinking that will accurately reflect her desires, her worldview and her 'self'. She
muses on the gap between what she feels and what society decrees must be: By all the codes which I
am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince
myself that I am. [2] The Yellow Wallpaper is a story which shows the anatomy of an oppressive
marriage. Simply because the narrator does not cherish the joys of married life and motherhood, and
therefore, is in
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