The Emerald Isle

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…

Literary Criticism: The Awakening and the Failure of the Psyche It is apparent that one can correlate Greek mythology to The Awakening when reading Franklin’s criticism. Franklin associates the paradigm of Psyche to the pathological, internal struggle of Edna, where the fear of the confrontation of solitude is prevalent. Franklin first explains the irony in the title of The Awakening, given the fact that Edna sleeps, living in a world filled with fantasy rather than being psychologically and…

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…

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 wealthy married women and their husbands. However, one summer while vacationing at the Grand Isle, the reserved manner Edna always enveloped began to loosen a little and her soul began to awaken. That summer, a young man named Robert Lebrun stirred Edna’s…

The pianist stands for the life Edna can pursue: a life that is unconventional but would bring happiness to her. Mademoiselle Reisz was a widow who immersed herself in music; whereas, Madam Ratignolle was “the empress of the ‘mother women’ of Grand Isle.”(Showalter…

Few literary works are so unconventional and ahead of their time that the controversial discussion surrounding them has continued for more than a century after their publication. In order for a book to have this effect, it must present its ideas in an entirely new way, often boldly challenging the preconceived notions of the reader and perhaps even society itself. The Awakening by Kate Chopin does this unlike any other novel of its time. It tells the story of a young woman named Edna as she…

Imagine that you are coming to the realization that you are a nobody. That you are just an average person in an average society. Chopin's story The Awakening in Chopin's story symbolizes the realization that the main character and protagonist comes to. Edna has become awakened by the end of the story because she realizes that the life she left was the life she cherished the most. Her new life was not what as luxurious as she thought it was going to be. This caused her to reconsider all of the…

The Awakening Feminism is one of the broadest and most arguable critical lenses. Edna, along with other female characters, demonstrate the aspects of feminism and the expected way of living in a world controlled by men in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. There are a variety of symbols in this text that demonstrate the struggles of the female characters. Throughout the text, the characters also grow tremendously which is shown in various ways. This included Edna trying to rebel against what was…

The Symbolism of Birds in The Awakening During the Victorian Era, women were forced to conform to unwritten rules created by society. Women were subordinate to men as they were expected to dress, behave, and live their life in the way that society believed to be correct. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin utilizes birds to symbolize Edna’s confined position in society and foreshadow her awakening. In doing so, Chopin conveys that women can transcend from the limitations set by their society and live…