Essay on Oppression of Women in "The Awakening"

The role of women has been to get married and have children for many years. It is only within recent years that women have begun to break out of this traditional role; however, the traditional, and arguably sexist, role of women can be seen in most literature, such as The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. Chopin critiques the traditional role of women through the characterization of Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier

The Awakening novel by Kate Chopin was first unveiled in 1899, only to gain wide acceptance in the latter half of the twentieth century when feminism transcended to a mode of literary discourse. Due to this, the text is often dubbed as an early feminist writing that thoroughly

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

Kate Chopin's The Awakening is truly a novel that stands out from the rest. From the moment it was published, it has been caused women to examine their beliefs. The fact that The Awakening was shunned when first published, yet now taught in classrooms across the country is proof that The Awakening is full of rebellious and controversial ideas.

The Awakening was a very exciting and motivating story. It contains some of the key motivational themes that launched the women’s movement. It was incredible to see how women were not only oppressed, but how they had become so accustomed to it, that they were nearly oblivious to the oppression. The one woman, Edna Pontellier, who dared to have her own feelings was looked upon as being mentally ill. The pressure was so great, that in the end, the only way that she felt she could be truly free was to take her own life.  In this paper I am going to concentrate on the characters central in Edna’s life and her relationships with them.

No matter how old we are, we have all heard the daunting phrase from our parents in which they respond to our complaint with, ‘life just isn’t fair’. Though it’s true life isn’t fair, for women living in the “dining-room servant” (Chopin 5) and “starched skirt” (Chopin 5) days, life was restricted to societal rules. In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, she demonstrates the impossibilities and hopelessness of women breaking the social norm by unfolding a story of a young married Mrs. Pontellier in which her goals in defiance ultimately costs her her life. Chopin highlights the “struggle over ideologies” (Sprinkle 1) by utilizing parallel incidents where the two outcomes exemplify the unfairness women faced.

Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book.

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.

During the Victorian era, women were restrained by men and society in general. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is an enlightening novel about a young woman searching for herself. Edna Pontellier (the protagonist) wanted to break free from various social expectations. Chopin uses symbols, such as birds, to convey a deeper meaning of Edna’s transformation throughout the story.

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the constant boundaries and restrictions placed on Edna Pontellier by society will lead to her struggle for freedom and her ultimate suicide. Her husband Leonce Pontellier, the current women of society, and the Grand Isle make it evident that Edna is trapped in a patriarchal society. Despite these people, Edna has a need to be free and she is able to escape from the society that she despises. The sea, Robert Lebrun, and Mademoiselle Reisz serve as Edna’s outlets from conformity. “Edna's journey for personal independence involves finding the words to express herself. She commits suicide rather than sacrificing her independent,

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 the TV show Lost, a character presses a button every 108 minutes because he is told that if he does not press the button, something very bad will happen. However, he does not know if something bad will happen, he is only told that something bad will happen. In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, society tells Edna Pontellier what she is supposed to do as a woman, and she does this because society tells her to do so, thinking that women who do not are crazy. But then one day she realizes that there is no reason that she should not be an individual, and she is repressed by society because she goes against society’s expectations. The novel’s title, The Awakening, refers to Edna’s realization of society’s expectations of women and begins to express herself as an individual instead of a woman by society’s standards. Edna’s initial awakening had her start expressing herself as an individual in different ways. Edna’s personal awakening changes the way that she views herself, going from a woman who in the beginning of the book went along with society's expectations, to the end of the book where she was expressing her individuality and realizing how society tries to repress her individuality. Edna’s social awakening changes the way that she acts in society by interacting with people differently, ignoring the responsibilities society gives her, and expressing her individuality by doing things she actually wants to do. Edna’s sexual awakening changed the way that she viewed the men

The stepping stones in Edna’s awakening can be seen through symbols: birds, clothes, and even the ocean. The symbols of caged birds in The Awakening represent Edna’s entrapment as a wife and mother, along with all of the other Victorian women. When Leonce is sitting by the parrots reading his newspaper, the parrot spoke, “a language which nobody understood” (Chopin 5). Edna, just like the parrot, can not be understood. Edna can not communicate her feelings with others, her feelings being the “language” that nobody

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

During the feminist movement many female authors began to write novels about female emancipation. In these novels, the protagonist experiences enlightenment where she discovers that she is living an incomplete life that society has oppressed her into. Before the movement, society forced women into roles that were inferior to men and they were thought of as men’s property. Harold bloom states, “The direction of The Awakening follows what is becoming a pattern in literature by and about women…toward greater self-knowledge that leads in turn to a revelation of the disparity between that self-knowledge and nature of the world” (Bloom, Kate Chopin 43). Moreover, Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal challenge more than a social struggle, which contradicts her literary works. According to Harold Bloom, “Chopin’s novel was not intended to make a broad social statement but rather that it indicates that Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal matter”(Bloom, Bloom’s Notes 58). In the past, the novel was banned because of its connection to the feminist movement.