These readings implicitly overlook the courage and discipline of women like Edna who did survive and rise above such pressures, including the very authors of The Awakening and "The Yellow Wallpaper"; both women had families and successful writing careers, endured divorce or a spouse's death, and remained active public figures for most of their lives.
Edna, too, succeeds in creating a significant amount of agency for herself after she conies to realize, when she learns to swim, the extent to which identities are fluid and fictitious: she leaves her husband, seems free from a certain amount of childcare, and eventually earns money from her artwork.
Acknowledging that realism and naturalism include, respectively, an exposition of empirical, social and political realities, as well as the belief that fate-biological, social, or institutional-absolutely determines one's destiny, I'm suggesting that Chopin's novel implies that in order for women like Edna to survive, the philosophical boundaries and consequences associated with these literary genres can and must be overcome. …show more content…
As a casualty, Edna compels sympathy, and her actions bespeak the terrific effort and endurance necessary for such a woman to survive in such a time and place.
Her feelings for Robert, like those for the tragedian and cavalry officer before, are ultimately a symptom not of realism but of romance, and one might be inclined to imagine that such romantic tendencies are the real cause of Edna's
Edna, too, succeeds in creating a significant amount of agency for herself after she conies to realize, when she learns to swim, the extent to which identities are fluid and fictitious: she leaves her husband, seems free from a certain amount of childcare, and eventually earns money from her artwork.
Acknowledging that realism and naturalism include, respectively, an exposition of empirical, social and political realities, as well as the belief that fate-biological, social, or institutional-absolutely determines one's destiny, I'm suggesting that Chopin's novel implies that in order for women like Edna to survive, the philosophical boundaries and consequences associated with these literary genres can and must be overcome. …show more content…
As a casualty, Edna compels sympathy, and her actions bespeak the terrific effort and endurance necessary for such a woman to survive in such a time and place.
Her feelings for Robert, like those for the tragedian and cavalry officer before, are ultimately a symptom not of realism but of romance, and one might be inclined to imagine that such romantic tendencies are the real cause of Edna's