Awakenings

A major motif in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening is the image of a bird, appearing frequently throughout the story. Compared to the image of the bird towards the beginning of the novel, the image at the end of the story signifies a significant characteristic change in the bird: it struggles to fly with a “broken” wing and dies. This transition from an image of a bird that initially succeeds in flying to a bird that struggles to explore the skies serves to demonstrate the parallel change that…

conflicts arise in The Awakening by Kate Chopin as Edna Pontellier struggles with her internal conflicts. Chopin uses foils to demonstrate Edna’s evolution in the novel. In a time where women are expected to be subordinate, Edna defies the standards and her oppressive husband. Two polar characters, Adèle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, exemplify compliance and individualism. These women act as foils and provide references to the reader in understanding Edna’s awakening of herself and society.…

Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel, “The Awakening”, there are numerous usages of imageries and symbols that she incorporates to display and disclose Edna’s fright. Several symbolic items are used to divulge this terror, and the most communal one that Chopin uses in this novel are birds. Numerous other symbols are used and related to such as rings, fountain, and vase(s). In normal life, we may not be able to relate to these symbols, but it is imperative to understand how the representations affected…

Edna Pontellier constitutes the modern day definition of a tragic hero, becoming the pioneer for the freedom of women against the social circumstances in the late Victorian Era. Within The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna stands as a testament for self-expression at the sacrifice of her social status, and as a result, falls as a tragic hero. Edna begins subtly defying her husband through ignoring his requests and denying his desires. She slowly breaks away to gain a measure of independence from…

identity can be a lifelong endeavor. Through both of their literary works, Kate Chopin, author of The Awakening, and Zora Hurston, writer of Their Eyes Were Watching God, each vividly depict what this struggle of finding one’s identity can be through the main characters of each novel, Edna Pontellier and Janie Crawford. Throughout the plot of Chopin’s novel, Edna experiences a progressive “awakening” in which she develops an enlightened knowledge regarding her own desires and interests, even…

Every person has a personal standard that does not always align with the social standards. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is said to have, “ the outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions”. This means that the protagonist lives a life that meets the social standards that have put into place, but she is unsure or doubtful of these ideals that have been set forth. The first female poet, Anne Bradstreet, also possesses this trait. She lives…

The Awakening by Kate Chopin takes place in the late nineteenth century and revolves around a woman named Edna Pontellier who cannot conform to the society in which she lives in. Throughout the novel, Edna slowly breaks free of the reigns in which society holds her to by rebelling against the ideas and morals of motherhood and femininity and chooses love and solitude instead. Early on in the novel, however, Chopin alludes to the existence of Edna's dual life through the following quote, "At a…

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…

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, birds are used as a symbol for Edna to describe how Edna changes against societies standards as she gains independence. The birds are parallel and foreshadow Edna. The Awakening starts with birds to show the current status of Edna and women. At the beginning of the novel, there is a parrot shrieking at Mr. Pontellier in Spanish while stuck in it’s cage. The parrot shows how Edna is locked in to societies standards by her husband and the community because of the…

The Last Resort The Awakening by Kate Chopin was at one time considered to be scandalous by many critics in 1899. Chopin uses the character Edna Pontellier to express ideas, that, at that time, were completely oblivious to American society. Edna, an archetypal woman in society, being that she was married with two children, vacationed at a place named Grand Isle during which she began her awakening period with a man named Robert. Over the course of the book, Edna continued to meet influential…