Pessimism In Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'

Decent Essays
The Name of the Game Looking through life with lense of pessimism, and negativity will show you how cruel the world is. The Awakening by Kate Chopin is an example of looking through life with the lense of a naturalist. Edna Pontellier is the woman of the book, she shows that life can be difficult and harsh. Mrs. Pontellier proves that life is what you make it. The Awakening is from the naturalist point of view because the general idea is that Edna makes other people suffer, therefore she suffers and ultimately dies.
Three loves and one woman creates a nasty love polygon that Edna is the star of. While Enda is in a relatively good relationship, to the times standards, she has two children to call her own. She does marry very young and she

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    While it certainly is “strange and fantastic” to be living in a feminist movement and simultaneously be reading a novella about female liberation, there is definitely more to say in regards to the feminist agenda of this novella. Showalter does an interesting job in trying to tie in history with her-story provide background to the context of the novella. However, in trying to provide history, she veers away from the text itself and also veers away from conclusive close-ended explanations and parallels. Showalter’s feminist criticism approach is well-suited, however, I think she could have done more to better justify and cohere her argument. First of all, I have an issue with the structure and how Showalter goes about exemplifying various points…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For Edna, her development toward individualism is more personal and is not highly associated with any other figure except herself. During her stay at Grand Isle, where her “awakening” began, the experiences that substantially contribute to her discovery of her own desires and passions are observed in isolation. For instance, when Edna swims for the first time, Chopin describes how Enda “swam out alone…” and “turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude… .” (31) As seen when she is swimming alone, Edna is essentially exploring her identity and testing the limits of her freedom and independence without significant direction from anyone. Although Robert, Madame Reisz, and Alceé do have some roles in her maturation, she is the one who actually initiates and has sovereign control over her search for identity.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Awakening by Kate Chopin is an 1899 short story set at a time when society discriminated women. The story introduces a nineteenth-century way of living in New Orleans. The experiences the author Chopin underwent during this period and time encouraged her to come up with this piece of work the awakening. The author narrates the life of a woman by the name of Edna Pontellier who underwent the oppression in life but later decided to change the traditions and disobey the beliefs that oppressed women. Edna disconnects herself from the social life and adopts her own life and view of the woman she wanted and admired to be.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, “If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.” It has been proven time and time again that humans are social creatures at heart; without meaningful connections to others, they will wither and perish. Despite this, many are unable to forge such connections, and instead place boundaries around themselves, like many characters do in The Awakening. In life and literature, these barricades often have physical manifestations. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, clothes and fabric are symbols for distance and disconnect in order to reflect an inability to express emotion and have worthwhile…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Symbols In The Awakening

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Awakening Essay “The takeaway is that only you know who you were born to be, and you need to be free to be that person,” Ruby Rose. In other words, Ruby Rose believes that you should be free to be whoever you want to be. Society should not have to decide who you are supposed to be. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening describes how society has certain expectations for females, taking care of their children or doing housework. Chopin uses symbols to describe the character’s , Edna, awakening to being independent and breaking the expectations.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The desire to belong is integral to human nature, but so is curiosity. The Awakening is a Victorian era novel by Kate Chopin following Edna Pontellier’s untimely search for social, financial, and emotional independence. Her character is highly reflective in nature. At one point she notes that while she may conform to appease those watching, she secretly questions the behaviour she witnesses in herself and others. Chopin examines the disparity between outward conformity and inner doubt through Edna’s affair with Arobin.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Awakening should be kept in high school curriculum because it teaches woman independence, even through the breaks of morality. Women then, were given the responsibility to be the wife and as the caretaker of the children after marriage, but is that all women are allowed to do? Edna defies the role of an average woman and accomplishes…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Awakening Final Essay The novel titled The Awakening tells the story of a woman struggling to find herself during a time where society placed restrictions on women’s freedom of expression. The novel, written by Kate Chopin, takes place in the nineteenth century. The main character, Edna Pontellier, is a mother and a wife who is not content with the life she lives. Throughout the novel Edna goes through different stages and deals with many different people that contribute to her “awakening”.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    AW LAP TOPIC 4 A butterfly to come out of its cocoon it has to fully grown and finally be free from it. Freedom is the key to the door, once the key goes into the keyhole the door opens and sets one to be open to everything. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is seen as a woman who is trapped and can’t get out of her comfort zone. Two women, Adele Ratignolle and Madame Reisz, came into her life and influenced her to become more open about herself and express who she really is.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I really enjoyed the way Kate Chopin start the story. The style of introducing the characters and giving a brief descriptions of them made the characters that much alive. It made me visualize them, which grasped my attention. The detail she used to illustrate Adele Ratignolle captured the issuance of a real lady. I liked the fashion she used the term ‘stout’, which added realism to a woman who bore four children.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Setting Grand Isle/New Orleans; late 1800s Genre Literary Fiction - Tragedy Historical Information Kate Chopin, born Katherine O’Flaherty, proved through her writings the difficulties of defining female identity in America. Two of her most famous works, The Awakening and The Story of An Hour, portray women trying to find their desires, struggling to realize what their desires actually are, and dying.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the theme of motherhood and the idea of the “mother-woman,” are both very prominent. Two of the novel’s main characters are mothers, although their views on motherhood are not alike at all. Throughout the novel, Adele and Edna are compared to show how Adele surpasses the societal ideals of what a mother and wife should be, and how Edna defies those standards and refuses to let motherhood consume her life. One of the ways that this is achieved is by the use of the term “mother-woman” and applying it to both of the mentioned female characters.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Life in Sight but Out of Reach The 19th century was a strange and highly structured time for women and Kate Chopin highlights many of these social controversies in her novel, “The Awakening.” The book revolves around a character named Edna, who felt constantly tied down by her husband and children. Despite her commitment to them, Edna still manages to discover a sense of freedom that she has been searching for her entire life. Although Edna’s freedom was in sight throughout the novel, it remained out of reach which led to the ambiguous ending where Edna goes into the ocean to drown herself and commit suicide.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin and first published in 1899, is a story about a nineteenth-century wife and mother who is discontent with her life, and therefore undertakes a journey of self-exploration in search of independence, happiness, and self-fulfillment. A Room With A View, written in 1908 by E. M. Forster, is a novel about the transformation of a traditional medieval young lady into an enlightened and open-minded woman. Although they share many similarities, Edna Pontellier, the main character of The Awakening, and Lucy Honeychurch, the main character of A Room With A View, are different in numerous ways. Their obsession with music and disregard for social norms are two examples of how they are similar. One of the ways…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” provides readers with a dynamic perspective of challenging traditional gender norms in a provocative and controversial novel that advocates life from the perspective of the main protagonist, Edna Pontellier. The activities and events that Edna partakes in challenges orthodox thoughts regarding the role a woman plays in regards to her children, spouse, and society as a whole. These diversions from norms accurately reflect the unspoken rise of feminist thought actively occurring in society throughout the late-nineteenth century. In most American households, gender roles are ‘assigned’ in that the wife must be sure to take care of her children while the husband spends his time out of the house earning income and…

    • 1286 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays