Mademoiselle

During the nineteenth century, a shift known as the women’s suffrage movement swept society off its feet, introducing feminism to change to social construct built upon men and women. This movement allowed many authors to take advantage of the time period and further motivate society with pro-feminist arts. For instance, Kate Chopin 's novel, The Awakening, she prevails feminism and gender justification through the actions of Edna Pontellier 's lifestyle. Expressing the dilemma of women’s life…

Authors throughout history have utilized our senses to connect the reader to the characters in the novel in a symbiotic relationship. Without our connection and relatability, the impact of the struggles a character faces would not be the same on the reader. This is held true for Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Chopin employs auditory allusions to foreshadow the fate of the protagonist Edna Pontellier. These small breadcrumbs of allusions placed throughout the novel lead us down the path of…

A Brief Biography on Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath was one of the few twentieth century poets that had the ability to create verisimilitude in a way that her audience could understand exactly what she was feeling, thinking, and experiencing during the time she was writing her works. Due to the fact that her writing tended to be dark and depressing, focusing mainly on death, alienation, and self-destruction it can be assumed that Plath had a very negative attitude and perspective towards life, which…

The first wave of feminism was the start of what we know as feminism today, in 1926 the first task Suffragettes set out to accomplish was succeed. After 76 years of trying to be women the vote they finally did. Women began to realise that in order to transform society they would need their own organisations to do so. Getting women the vote was not the only issue feminists wanted to change they also campaigned upon a whole range of issues; from guardianship of infants, property rights, divorce,…

Sylvia Plath: A Powerful American Writer In a time where women were to be seen and not heard, to stay in the kitchen, and do everything their husband told them, there was someone different. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932 and died in London in 1963. Her father was a german immigrant and her mother was American born. Sylvia Plath was generally considered one of the most powerful American writers to have emerged since the 1940’s. But she didn’t start out that successful.…

Honore de Balzac’s ending to Peré Goriot is astonishingly effective as it confirms that moving up the social ladder takes priority over all other aspects of life. The author’s effectiveness with this theme is furthered through the use of motifs and descriptive language with the purpose of aiding the readers development as to what the conflict is, why it is inescapable, and how it affects the character’s lives. The first chapter establishes a motif in the form of a metaphor that is the root of…

Louis XIV was the king of France from 1643 until his death September 1st, 1715. Known as the Sun King, he ruled for 72 years, longer than any other European monarch in history (History.com). Although he was a power-driven man who believed in the divine right of kings and established the system of absolute monarchical rule that lasted for 74 years until the French revolution in 1789, he was also an avid purveyor of the arts, especially ballet. It was through his passion of dance amid the…

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 people such as Adele Ratignolle, Alcee Arobin, and Mademoiselle Reisz, who all continued to spark her desire for independence from the restrictions of society such as her husband and children. Consequently, several incidents occur, such as the ring remaining intact, the party being a failure, her…

Essentially, Butler raises the question of does the body truly need to be sexed? And if sexed does a person’s gender truly have to act in accordance to the conventional and hegemonic notions of gender that exist in these fixed states of corporeal permeability and impermeability. In this discourse the body acts as a pre-existing surface which cultural inscription defines a both a person and their gender exclusively. But the act and implication of such a definition, results in creation of a clear…

this way would generally be considered immoral. Similarly, she leaves her home with Leonce in order to sever ties and stop relying on him financially, but in doing so, abandons her children. The author uses two other female characters, Adele and Mademoiselle Reisz, to contrast their independence with Edna’s. They both freely speak their minds and do not feel pressured by society to perform a certain way, and yet are still respected and accepted by others. Edna’s brand of independence, on the…