Louisiana State Capitol

With The Awakening being published in the year 1899, it can be deemed as an early work of feminism several years prior to the successes of the first wave feminist movement which granted women the right to vote in 1920. Chopin’s work could potentially have been inspired by the first wave feminist movement which proposed legislation in 1878. I think Chopin is finding inspiration from the first wave feminist movements and she is reflecting her progressive views onto the main character Edna. Edna…

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is about a woman’s transformation from an obedient traditional housewife and mother into a self-realized, sexually liberate and independent woman. The novel published in 1899 back in a time when women were not thought of as people but as property of their husband’s. Throughout the novel Edna Pontieller expresses her progress, in The Awakening, as a new woman by using the symbolism of the caged birds, art and music, houses, and the sea. From the very beginning of…

solitude, Edna’s infatuation grows for Robert, as she is looking for letters from him; only does she face disappointment, like Psyche, once she is not mentioned. As Edna visits Mademoiselle Reisz, she is introduced to a symbol of individuation as she states, “the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings” (521). This refers to the symbolism used in Chapter 1, where a parrot was confined in a cage, desperate to escape. In order to escape this…

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is an artfully crafted piece of literature in the late nineteenth century. During this time, The Awakening is seen as vulgar and distasteful to many critics, but the book gave a much-needed “eye opener” to the perspective of women’s suffrage. This story is told in the eyes of Edna Pontellier, a wife and mother, who struggles with the ideas of freedom and self-awareness. Society’s expectations of women are to be a “stay-at-home” caretaker of the home and children…

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…

In the book, The Awakening, Kate Chopin addresses a common struggles woman face in society through the main character Edna Pontellier during the 1800s. Edna Pontellier is an American woman infused with charm and grace. Edna’s charm could not escape her. She moved gracefully among the crowds and appeared self-contained. Edna learned to master her feeling by not to showing outward and spoken feelings of affections, either in herself or in others. This common custom seems to be understood among…

Larry Watson and Kate Chopin both identify a conflict an individual experiences with the norms of society, whether it be the family reputation against society or sexism, In Montana 1948 , Wesley Hayden experiences multiple circumstances where he has conflict with his family and society. An example is his wife Gail. Gail wanted Wesley not to live in Montana and be sheriff (Watson 7). Wesley grew up in Montana where his family has been known as Sheriffs of Mercer County. The Hayden Sheriff…

in her life. She wants to experience freedom and escape from the world that is confining her. She reflects in her “imagination” her “hopeless resignation” she feels down on earth, but the bird gives her hope (Chopin 27). Edna is stuck in an unhappy state because she is living in a place that does not understand her, therefore she has lost hope in regaining any happiness if she continues to live the way she does. She knows she must break free of her bindings and try to go somewhere that will make…

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…

Spring Awakening, originally written in 1891 by Frank Wedekind and adapted more recently by Steven Sater, was performed by the theater department of Wake Forest University in the Scales Fine Arts Center on April 8th, as well as several other days that month. A play about the effects of sexual suppression faced by teenagers in a German town in the 19th century, its topics of sex, suicide, abuse, oppression, and corrupt authority are all still very relevant to the youth of today. In order to…