Gender Stereotypes In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

The American Women were voiceless, they had no say in society, however the reform movement would change that. Married women had very little rights compared to husband. One major human right violation was women 's lack of property rights.. Even if the property belonged to their family, once they were married that land became their husbands. In divorce and custody battles, mostly favored the husband.

To illustrate history, women have not always had an specific place in society, but the views that society has held for women is far from how women see themselves in this day in time. With regards as time has come and gone women have evolved just like technology. Women have overcome many milestones in life, speaking from historically standpoint. We all know that our great grandmothers’ only took care of the home, the children and their husband. In those days’ women were seen as caregivers and women were told that they had to be submissive to their husbands.

While her reasons for courage are based on the time period this story takes place, there are still woman today who receive scrutiny for not having children or not wanting to get married.It is the ideal that has been passed on from generation to generation that a women must have a family in order to be perceived as successful, yet Mademoiselle Reisz "found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested" (80). Mademoiselle Reisz's character represents woman who feel as though they are meant for much more than the title wife and mother.

She did not mean her husband; she was thinking of Robert Lebrun” (Chopin 102). Thus, as she was not devoted to her husband she did not fill her role as a wife and mother. It was not in Edna’s nature to be attentive or loving towards her husband and their children. This was looked down upon by society because the belief was that the mother is supposed to give up her life for them. Léonce, her husband, was also very disapproving in Edna’s lack of motherly care for their

Mallard is described as having wrinkles that “bespoke repression” to show that her voice and free will has been repressed in marriage. When Chopin wrote The Story of an Hour females had few career opportunities, and lacked the ability to vote, so Mrs. Mallard is used as an archetype of the voiceless women in marriage and society. The argument put forward shows that it is wrong that females must be without the “possession of self assertion” in marriage and life instead they should be on equal footing with males. Chopin uses the setting in the Story of an Hour to further display the power dynamics because the housewife is merely a guest in her husband’s

Friedan then stayed to care for her family. She was not satisfied as a housewife and wondered if other women felt the same. So, she surveyed her peers from Smith College What she concluded became the Feminine Mystique. Women’s personal identity as mothers and housewife was not fulfilling enough. Women suffered frustration because their only responsibility was the children and husband without exploring their intelligence and abilities.

The Bonte Sisters was a great book that talked about how these three sisters had to work many jobs and suffer to get money to help their families, This book shows us the importance of women and how they always work hard and try to achieve all their goals although sometimes the community makes it impossible because they never provide things that women need , for example education or jobs they were always rarely found in a community that never understood the meaning of women.The famous read book was by a women Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin. The book talked about how slavery impacted a lot of people’s lives. Factories in Northeast Massachusetts hired women to work in those factories in producing cotton or making shoes. Many other types of women like african americans worked in jobs that belonged to houses for example cooking, cleaning and even taking care of

In Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s short story “The New England Nun” The protagonist Louisa is faced with being pressured by society to play the role of a women. Women in this particular century had a certain role in life . They were either wives or mothers who cooked and cleaned. Louisa conformed to this role even without the pressures of a family. Although many women at the time we're starting to reject house work as a way to free themselves .

Her thoughts take precedence over images, Instead of being given lovely images of her children, the reader is left to imagine the fleeting moments of mother-child interaction. Unlike with the idealized relationships of Madame Ratignolle, much of Edna’s raising of her children is out of necessity and they are simply a force that keeps Edna from having her own individuality. In the society represented in The Awakening, it is clear that mothers who err from the patterns of married female behavior are frowned upon by their husbands. Chopin also makes it clear that the husbands in the book, especially Edna’s husband Leonce, feel that it is necessary to intervene in their wives lives, in order to make judgments of their profession as a mother and wife. In her husband’s relationship with Edna there is no question of his devotion to her, but the reader cannot ignore the issue of economics that continually comes up anytime he finds himself dissatisfied with his wife.

The symbols of life In the past women were expected by society to stay home and do the house work,take care of the kids and stay devoted to their husbands but then someone comes along and completely goes against those standards. This is exactly what Kate Chopins is trying to explain in the book The Awakening because she didn't like the expectations/standards that were put on women and when she wrote a book about it everyone thought that it was scandalous to the point to where it was banned. It was banned because during those times people didn't really think or even knew about what would happen in some marriages like cheating, or standards that were put on women. Through the book The Awakening there are many symbols that take a big part in the book in which they all goes a bigger meaning in the story