Mademoiselle

by her divine art, seemed to reach Edna’s spirit and set it free.” In other words Chopin is explaining how Mademoiselle Reisz makes Edna want to be free, and it makes Edna scared because of how society will see her if she breaks any expectations. Chopin herself writes, “Edna was sobbing, just as she had wept one midnight at Grand Isle when strange, new voices awoke her.” After Mademoiselle Reisz played, Edna started crying because it kind of awoke her to reality. It was one of the many moments…

A true awakening is when someone finds themselves, realizing what they want to accomplish in life and how they want to live their life. In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the protagonist Edna Pontellier becomes aware and conscious of her life and what surrounded it. She finds herself, which makes her see the world around her differently. She realized that her life was held back by the role she stood within her family. Falling in love with a man who was not her husband was one of the many…

At a party Mademoiselle Reisz, an unusual and unpopular aged woman who gives inspiration to Edna throughout her awakening, is offered to play the piano. One piece Mademoiselle Reisz played arouses an emotion of “Solitude”(43) as Edna entitles the piece that. As Edna listens to her piano playing she imagines a “figure of a man standing beside…

She keeps on thinking about Robert, and on a few days she is upbeat and on a few days she is pitiful. Edna finds that Robert has been composing letters to Mademoiselle Reisz about her, and she begins to visit her friend to listen to her playing on the piano and to read the letters. Edna's dad, the Colonel, comes to visit the Pontelliers for a little while. In spite of the fact that Edna is not especially near…

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 solitude, Edna looked to Mademoiselle Reisz and Dr. Mandelet as guardians. Mademoiselle Reisz’s music awakened Edna internally and…

and sowing were often undertake by ladies of the house in their free time. Music evokes a very strong reaction from Edna. During an evening in which the children have an impromptu recital, Mademoiselle Reisz plays a song on the piano for Edna. The narrator states that “the very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier’s spinal column.”(p. 26) The music adheres to and stirs the feeling of an awakening that Edna had recently discovered.…

The Awakening When I was in seventh grade, I quit playing Rebel Football. Rebel Football was a team that offered a unique experience to play football with your friends and receive expert coaching from a former college football player. Almost every boy in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade was on this team. Being on this team was akin to a badge of honor. If you were not on the team, you were ostracized. Although I played in sixth grade and liked being with my friends, football was just not my…

The Awakening by Kate Chopin displays the struggle a woman goes through in order to break her current situations. In this novel, Edna Pontellier releases herself to her deepest yearnings, plunging into a relationship that rekindles her long sexual desires, enflames her heart, and eventually takes over and Enda can see nothing else. As she goes through many changes Edna gets involved in many activities. One of these activities are painting; painting becomes one of her favorite pastimes and her…

and her two younger brothers went to live with her maternal grandmother, Mary Livingston Ludlow Hall. In 1899, at the age of fifteen she was sent to Allenswood Academy in England. Mademoiselle Marie Souvestre started this finishing school. While in attendance at Allenswood, Eleanor was considered one of Mademoiselle Souvestre’s favorite…

Natural Images in The Awakening Symbolism can be a powerful literary device used to convey or better demonstrate themes within stories. They are used in countless famous works by authors to represent everything from freedom and innocence, to suffering and oppression. A prominent example is Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, a novella that explores the restricted and confined lifestyle of a young woman wishing to break free. Chopin reaches readers through using symbolic natural images within her…