Gender Roles In The Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was a religious revivalism that happened in the late 18th century that reconstructed religion in the United States. Before this revivalism there was the idea that we were all sinners and there was no way of receiving salvation. The awakening gained a focus on piety and evangelicalism brought through camps and missionaries. Although the second Great Awakening occurred episodically and under ministers of several denominations, the revivals happened in a uniform way. Religious leader of revivalism shaped the creation of new religions such as the Methodist and the Baptist to later leading to other religious groups like the Seventh Day Adventist and the Mormons.

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States, and it caused a few major changes. One of these major changes were the roles and outlook on gender. The role of the male was very important in the 19th century, they were expected to necessitate no selfishness. Most of them had their set jobs, which were very important duties with God and their families. Women were also being given duties during The Great Awakening, they had new and exciting changes happening to them. Although the roles of men and women were stereotyped

Edna’s awakening occurs during her family’s vacation in Grand Isle. It is here that she learns to freely express herself and be unreserved in her behavior and speech. Through the Creole women, Edna becomes free from the chains that bind her to societal expectations. Adele

The 1890’s were an era of rapid social change in regards to women’s rights. In 1893, Colorado was the first state granting women the right to vote with Utah and Idaho following soon after in 1896. This soon set momentum towards of ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. It was in 1899 the Kate Chopin published The Awakening, a novel telling the tale of a suppressed mother, Edna Pontellier, and her desire for something more in her life. Literary scholars consider Chopin’s The Awakening as a subtle yet effective portrayal of women of the late 19th century and consider it as an important piece of the feminism movement. Throughout the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, women had felt controlled by men and the

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates a protagonist that clearly demonstrates a feminist. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier seeks more from life than what she is living and starts to refuse the standards of the society she lives in. Edna has many moments of awakening resulting in creating a new person for herself. She starts to see the life of freedom and individuality she wants to live. The Awakening encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain freedom and choose individuality over conformity. Chopin creates a feminist story that shows a transformation from an obedient “mother-woman” to a woman who is willing to sacrifice her old life to become independent and make an identity for herself.

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening in the opening chapter provides the argument for women's entrapment in roles that society has forced upon them. Chopin was not just trying to write an entertaining story but trying to convey arguments against these social injustices. Women are like these birds trapped in these cages unable to free themselves from these imposed roles by society.

In the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin the critical approach feminism is a major aspect of the novel. According to dictionary.reference.com the word feminism means, “The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” The Awakening takes place during the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds, in New Orleans. The novel is about Edna Pontellier and her family on a summer vacation. Edna, who is a wife and mother, is inferior to her husband, Leonce, and must live by her husband’s desires. While on vacation Edna becomes close friends with Adele Ratignolle, who helps Edna discover she must be “awakened”. Adele is a character who represents the ideal woman. She is loving,

In their analytical papers on The Awakening by Kate Chopin, both Elaine Showalter and Elizabeth Le Blanc speak to the importance of homosocial relationship to Edna’s awakenings. They also share the viewpoint that Edna’s return to the sea in the final scene of the book represents Edna being one with her female lover and finding the fulfillment she has been seeking. We see evidence of this idea of the sea as a feminine from Showalter when she tells us that “As the female body is prone to wetness, blood, milk, tears and amniotic fluid, so in drowning the woman is immersed in feminine organic element. Drowning thus becomes the traditionally feminine literary death”. (Showalter 219) LeBlanc takes this idea even further. She tells us that “The

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 previously seen in several works by Kate Chopin and other prominent female writers, women had traditionally maintained influence in the home while men had been expected to provide for the well-being of their families. Women, assumed to be feeble minded and incapable of bettering society, were sheltered from the “difficulties” that men had faced in the outside world. Women were expected to raise children and prepare meals for their husbands while men earned the money and provided crucial support for their families. Women were viewed as inferior, being denied prerogatives such as the right to vote. While this may have been true in the past, there has been a notable alteration in the duties that women are expected to fulfill. However, additional work must be undertaken to ensure the further deterioration of the boundary that separates these distinct spheres of influence.

The setting Edna is in directly affects her temperament and awakening: Grand Isle provides her with a sense of freedom; New Orleans, restriction; the “pigeon house”, relief from social constraints. While at Grand Isle, Edna feels more freedom than she does at her conventional home in New Orleans. Instead of “Mrs. Pontellier… remaining in

Though it was uncommon during the 1800’s, some women didn’t want to assume the traditional role of a typical Victorian lady. Such is the case in Kate Chopin 's The Awakening; she introduces us to Edna Pontellier a mother and wife during the said era. Throughout the story, we follow Edna 's journey of self-discovery and self-expression through emotions, art, and sex thanks to the help of people she meets along the way. Chopin decides to end the book with Edna’s suicide in an attempt to convey a sense of liberation from her repressed life, but was the reasoning behind her suicide what everyone else thinks? Consequently, this said journey took me along for the ride, and I had no complaints. As Edna figured out who she was, I felt as if I was

Throughout the book, Edna is almost constantly found going to the beach, at the beach, or thinking about the beach. Early on, the beach is identified to be one of Edna's escapes, and a catalyst to her many awakenings. As she lays leisurely on the beach one day, thinking of the sea, she comes to the realization that "the sea speaks to [her] soul" in a way that aids her in realizing the cage that she has been living in all her life (17). It is no coincidence that the story takes place on an island, and the sea is utilized to symbolize an escape from the isolation that the conventions of being a submissive woman has created for her. Later on, when she goes sailing, she feels freedom from captivity again as she gets farther away from her home and family. As they sail, she feels as if "[her] chains had been loosening" from the tight confines of trying to be the perfect woman for her society, while also maintaining her own happiness (34). Not every symbolic use of the sea is quite so literal, but in this instance, Edna is portrayed as one chained in a jail, which represents her home life. The sea acts as her key to loosen these chains. Of course, this is all pretty ironic, because the only way she can free herself in the end is to kill herself by finally drowning herself in the sea, which is

            The link between Edna's awakening and the ocean becomes even clearer when after several attempts she finally learns to swim.  The first time she ventures out into the ocean alone is the first step toward her independence.  She panics when she realizes    how far she has gone alone and fears drowning.  This incident represents Edna gaining    control over her body and becoming more aware of her full potential.  The ocean helps her recognize that her body is her own and she awakens to her physical, mental, and     emotional capabilities.  "But that night she was like the little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with overconfidence." (Chopin 47).   Edna's sudden terror in the middle of the ocean signifies that she may not be able to venture out as far as she wants to and may have  to turn back. "She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before...A    quick

In Kate Chopin’s novel, “The Awakening”, Edna finds herself in a society where women were socially confined to be mothers and wives. This novel embodies the struggle of women in the society for independence along with the presence of women struggling to live up to the demands that their strict culture has placed upon them. A part of Edna wants to meet the standards of mother and wife that society has set, however her biggest desire is to be a woman free from the oppression of a society that is male dominant. Readers will find that the foundation of “The Awakening” the feminist perspective because of the passion that Edna has for gaining her own identity, and independence,