Tone In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Author, Kate Chopin, in her novel, The Awakening, composes a story about a woman named Edna who is in a passionless marriage and is realizing her sexuality. Director, Mike Newell, in his film, Mona Lisa Smile, illustrates a story about a woman named Katherine who is an art professor at Wellesley College teaching female students about breaking out of society’s roles. Chopin’s purpose is to bring to light to how some housewives felt trapped in the lives they were supposed to live during the 1890’s. Newell’s purpose is to unveil the standards that women were supposed to fill during the 1950’s. Chopin adopts a serious tone in order to relate to women that being a housewife doesn’t make everyone happy. Newell adopts a dramatic tone in order to convey …show more content…
This is where Chopin and Newell’s characters differ. When Robert leaves her Edna realizes she has no purpose left in this life unless she wants to be a housewife forever. Edna talks about how she felt like she had been reborn into a new person and that her body, mind, and soul had been possessed by being a housewife. Edna felt like no one had understood how she felt so she decides to commit suicide and removes all the courage and strength she had left. Katherine chose a different path to try and make a change in her life. When Katherine left Bill she decided to leave Wellesley and move to England to try and start a new life. Katherine felt broken down and as if she lost but she still had hope that there was a better purpose out there for her. These stories use heartbreak in order to show that some women felt that there was nothing else in their life left living for if they didn’t have a man and they had to decide whether to give up or endure the pain in hope of something eventually getting better. This helps to reach to the viewers that they aren’t the only ones going through the pressure of a being a women and getting