Edna Pontellier's The Awakening

In the late 1800s, nearly all women were viewed as subservient, inferior, second class females that lived their lives in a patriarchal and chauvinist society. Women often had no voice, identity, or independence during that time period. Moreover, women dealt with the horrors of social norms and the gender opposition of societal norms. The primary focus and obligation for a woman to obtain during the 1800s was to serve her husband and to obey to anything he said. Since women were not getting the equality, freedom, or independence that they desired, Kate Chopin, an independent-minded female American novelist of the late 1800s expressed the horrors, oppressions, sadness, and oppositions that women of that time period went through. Her works focused

The Awakening by Kate Chopin ends with the protagonist reliving old memories and eventually entering the ocean to drown herself. However, this ending does not feel like an ending for this character, instead it feels like a new beginning of awakening. This effect happens through the use of indicative diction, symbolic imagery, and alluring sound.

The author’s use of words generally have a strong contribution towards the story’s purpose. Several diction strategies are used throughout “The Awakening.” Kate Chopin’s purpose in “The Awakening” is to inform the reader about a 19th century woman who defies her role in society. She conveys her story by using diction strategies such as concrete, formal,

The Awakening showcases Edna Pontellier, a housewife residing in New Orleans, Louisiana during the early 1900s. Edna Pontellier is married to Leonce Pontellier and they have two sons together. Edna is consumed in internal conflicts throughout the entire novel. She is trying to find herself in a society where she has many duties and responsibilities.

What would your instinct be between a high moral desire and responsibility during the Victorian Era? During the 19th century there seemed to be a “woman code of conduct” per se. All woman were to sacrifice their desires in order to attend more attention towards their children and responsibilities, although in this book Edna Pontellier went more towards her desires rather than face responsibility.

Of husband and wife, brother and sister, friend and friend, or any other relationship that is formed in one's life, the bond between mother and child is the strongest. Throughout The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna's children, by their very existence, serve as chains that keep her from pursuing her own goals and desires, as she is bound to them by her motherly duties. Edna's feelings of bondage by her children force her to remove herself from an innately meaningful relationship, in an attempt to elsewhere find meaning. This backwards mindset leads to Edna's eventual downfall, where, even then, she could not understand what she let go. Her stagnant thinking throughout the book reveals that she never had an "awakening", and she was doomed to

“She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world” (Chopin, p. 57). A novel written by Kate Chopin, The Awakening shares the story of Edna Pontellier’s journey of self-discovery. Readers of the day were shocked by the content of the novel. Published in 1899, Kate Chopin’s controversial novel portrays a woman liberating herself from society’s expectations for a lady. Edna changes from a bored, obedient wife in the beginning of The Awakening to a liberated woman who can freely express her feelings.

In the book the Awakening, the protagonist Edna Pontellier surrendered in the most serious ways, death. From the beginning to the end Edna changed how she acted. When her true character came to the surface Edna decided to surrender.

Edna spends her final moments walking alongside the shore, naked and at her most vulnerable. Chopin personifies the water to emphasize the intimacy of this moment, describing the sea’s voice as “seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (175). Just like her despair, the noise of the ocean surrounds Edna completely, asking her to come closer. It isn’t a surprise as to why the ocean appeals so much to Edna, due to its vastness and its promise of escape from reality, just like when she first discovered her swimming ability and swam as far away from shore as possible. It’s only when she looks back at the shore and remembers her duty to her family that her swimming falters, and

The story gives insight into the true meaning of the phrase “We Live in Water”. The short story we live in water is frame an narrative story. The father begins the story as the narrator in 1958 and the son emerges as a narrator in 1992. “We Live in Water” is told from two different perspective, the father, Oren and his son, Michael. Oren can be characterized as not the perfect father or man, but he still manages to prove to his son there is a way to escape entrapment and it is a choice. The unmoral decisions Oren makes causes him to lose his life. Before Oren is faced with death Michael asks his father the simple question “Do we live in water ?” (18). Oren is clueless about the purpose and meaning behind the question. As the story develops the answers is constructed. Michael in the story is infatuated with an aquarium. The aquarium is symbolic to theme of entrapment. The aquarium represents people are entrapped in their lives like fish are in a fish tank .The narrator states “Michael watched them swim the way … he looked out at the world .And that’s when Oren understood” (38). Michael interpretation of the aquarium represents the way he viewed the world .The description of the fish motion as “invisible and impassible, turn, go around and turn again.. swam in its circles , as if he believed that.. the

Within the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Madame Ratignolle’s character possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast the characteristics and behavior of Edna Pontellier. Despite being close friends within the novel, Adele and Edna have contrasting views and behaviors that illuminate the theme of female freedom and the tradition of female submission and male domination.

In the 1800’s, the societal niche of married women was clearly defined: they were meant to devote every aspect of their lives to their husbands and children. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, struggles to adhere to these standards, and eventually rebels against them. The harsh standards placed on Edna and other women in the novel are like the cages around the metaphorical birds Chopin uses to represent them. Edna's unhappiness in her societal role is realized in the ocean, which symbolizes this awakening and her attempt to escape the gender roles of the nineteenth century. The images of birds and the ocean are used to show the harsh standards placed on Edna and other women in the nineteenth century.

This passage is where Edna’s “awakening” begins in the text as she starts to go against the role of an obedient housewife. She realizes that she does not want to be a meek woman who obeys her husband without question and in light of this change, she starts to cry. Chopin uses similes to capture how empty Edna feels inside due to how her husband treats her. She feels trapped not only by her husband, but by society as Chopin shows that it is her “Fate.” Chopin's attention to water in the background of this scene is meant to be a symbol which shows how Edna strives to be a free like the ocean instead of being hidden by

Over the years, numerous covers of Kate Chopin 's novel, The Awakening, have been created since the novel was originally published in 1899. The covers differ in appearance and each cover reflects its own important symbols and themes that are portrayed in The Awakening. However, some are more effective than others and allow for a deeper insight into the novel. For example, Enriched Classics’ cover with a bird in the cage and Edna gazing out into the wilderness, provides insight into the symbol of the birds and Edna’s desire for freedom and escape. This cover allows for better understanding of the novel than Rafi Romaya’s cover of a seashell. Although a seashell can be connected to the novel in some ways, it does not hint to as many themes and

Title explanation: The Awakening is a phrase which symbolically describes what happens to the main character, Edna Pontellier, as she becomes an aware and conscious human being in the course of this book.