Bildungsroman In The Awakening

The Awakening by Chopin contains many aesthetic elements of the modern bildungsroman. The main character of this novel is in fact a women; and this is an important twist on the modern bildungsroman because normally the protagonist would be male.By getting the other perspective Chopin allows herself space to critque a patriarchal Victorian society incapable of giving female artists not only the kind of respct they desrve but a livlihood as well. The Awakening breaks from the tradition of the modern bildungsroman, as well, by having a female character start with “experience,” and move through a series of episodes, slowly ‘awakening,’ in each one until her ‘experience,’ matches the unrealistic expectations of society. The normal operus modi of …show more content…
Mademoiselle Reisz instructs Edna that she must have strong wings in order to survive the difficulties she will face if she plans to act on her love for Robert. She warns, “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.” And as we already know Edna’s ‘wings’ are prematurely damaged and broken from her captivity as a mother-women. and as a result she cannot ‘fly above the plain of tradition,’ and forge a new path, previously unseen with her potential lover Robert. Chopin complicates the bildungsroman by breaking tradition and having the protagonist not integrate back into society because this allows a specific kind of space for the reader to not only take note of what her society is doing wrong (caging female artists) but to look at Edna as a sympathetic creature capable of her own destiny even if society is unwilling or not ready to accept it. She takes her future into her own hands, even if she doesn't know, but suspects her wings are not strong enough she still takes the