ipl-logo

Patriarchy In The Awakening

1402 Words6 Pages

The Awakening and Selected Short Stories: The Awakening “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin may be a novel regarding feminism as she writes about women and their positions in society. Drawing on her own origins, Chopin utilizes familiar themes and surroundings as she grew up in New Orleans and like the Pontillier family, also vacationed in Grand Isle during the summer. The Awakening touches on the rawness and controversy women experience regarding patriarchy. Edna, the protagonist, reaches a point in her life where she begins to contemplate her fate and tries achieving self-actualization. She rebels against the boring lavish lifestyle her husband has provided her by avoiding the daily responsibilities as a housewife. She longs for sensuality and excitement which her husband could not provide, and experiments with fine arts such as music and painting. As a result, she feels torn and with raw emotions decides to leave her husband Leonce and their two young boys, Etienne and Raoul. We will analyze the role Leonce and …show more content…

He often leaves for the gentlemen’s club called Klein’s. An establishment where the New Orleans men attend to be around their peers to smoke cigars, play billiards, and dine when the food at home was not to their liking (Chopin p.12). He has his own thoughts of what a mother and wife ought to be. Edna comments to Leonce “weddings are the most lamentable spectacles on earth” which he finds bothersome (Chopin p.190). His expectations of her as a wife are a far cry from what she is able to offer him. Leonce feels she constantly defies her motherly and wifely responsibilities as she is not known to be a conventional mother as her believes her to habitually neglect the children (Chopin p.14). He forces motherhood on Edna repeatedly throughout the story as he feels she is not providing them with the required

Show More
Related

  • What Is Edna's Allegory Of The Cave

    1171 Words  | 5 Pages

    Her frequent vacations to the island, like her frequent dips into the ocean, begin to spark a personal change within the woman. A Creole man, Robert, shows Edna a new dimension of feelings she never knew she lived without, and she begins to look through life through a new lens. Having been awakened for the first time, she sees injustice and mistreatment where she saw none before. Chopin uses Edna’s new observations and reactions to the culture around her to illustrate the myriad ways women were marginalized. In an ironic twist, the white woman from Kentucky proves to be more liberated than her more traditional husband, who grew up

    Read More

  • Homosexuality In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    868 Words  | 4 Pages

    For many years, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was considered perhaps one of the most scandalous novels written by a woman about a woman’s sexual and spiritual liberation and independence. Much of Chopin’s fiction has been praised as a celebration of female sexuality, conspicuously highlighting the tension between erotic desire and the demands that come from marriage, family life, and society (Martin 1). Unlike other literary contemporaries, Chopin does not attempt to moralize her heroines’ moral frailty, and more importantly she unapologetically allows her heroines’ unconventional sexuality to thrive (Martin 6). Only recently has The Awakening been acknowledged as a well-crafted narrative of Edna Pontellier’s struggle between individuality and

    Read More

  • Edna Pontellier's Attitudes Toward Motherhood In The Awakening

    1044 Words  | 5 Pages

    This novel, The Awakening, is about a woman named Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an independent human being. Also, Edna Pontellier refuses to obey against the social norms by leaving her husband Leónce Pontellier and having an affair with Robert Lebrun. Kate Chopin describes societal expectations and the battle of fitting the mold of motherhood in the Awakening by how Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle contribute to their family in different ways. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women. Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women.

    Read More

  • The Awakening Dialectical Journal Essay

    1120 Words  | 5 Pages

    The author uses a comparison and contrast between Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier to show how these two ladies are different from one another. Chopin emphasizes how feminine Madame Ratignolle is to demonstrate how Edna seems to be an outcast from the Creole society. Chopin chooses to incorporate the appearance of the two ladies to support the fact that Edna feels like she does not fit in, especially when Leonce refers to Madame Ratignolle in some parts of the novel. How Conventionality is Being Challenged “She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility.”

    Read More

  • Outward Conformity In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    825 Words  | 4 Pages

    Edna fully understands that society would brand her as a terrible woman, but she does not view herself as a bad person. There is an external and internal difference that Edna hopes to one day reconcile. Chopin, instead of creating tension within Edna, created tension within the society and Edna with her newfound independence does not mind how society classifies her. Decisively, it can be concluded that the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning builds the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period.

    Read More

  • Léonce Pontellier In The Awakening

    731 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lèonce Pontellier shows a lack of interest and enthusiasm for Edna and her hobbies. When Lèonce say’s ‘“What folly! To bathe at such an hour in such heat. ”’(Chopin 2) you are able to see Lèonce has a degree of frustration built up for his wife, Edna.

    Read More

  • Attitudes Toward Motherhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    617 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, she uses attitudes towards motherhood to convey a contrast in Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier’s mothering techniques. In this book, Chopin describes that women are only useful for marriage, having kids, cooking, cleaning, and other sexist roles. A perfect woman was seen as someone who “worships” their husbands and caters to all. The women’s main goals in life would to be married and have children, and if this did not happen they were seen in society as nothing and that they did not reach their expectation as women. Edna’s rebel towards these expectations allow her to live the life she wants and to find herself.

    Read More

  • Edna's Roles In The Awakening

    1386 Words  | 6 Pages

    Moreover, when her children tumbled, she will not pick them up just let them get up on their own. In contrast to Adele, Edna is not contributing herself to her family as well as Adele. Edna tries to fit in as the role to be a good mother, but, she cannot definitely, to be a mother-woman cannot fulfill her eagerness to be a special, independent and egocentric person. In Chapter XVI, Edna said to Adele, she would give her money and her life to children, but never herself. And that is what she is trying to understand and recognize.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Awakening

    1178 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the late 1800s society assigned to women a specific role to play. The role included bearing children, caring for them, and honoring their husbands. People saw women who took jobs outside of the home or who never married as deranged. Kate Chopin highlights the female duties of the time in her novel, The Awakening, through the use of foils Edna and Adele. Adele represents the model of how an ideal women of the 19th century should behave and feel.

    Read More

  • The Awakening Summary

    1234 Words  | 5 Pages

    Title: The Awakening Author: Kate Chopin Setting: Grand Isle and New Orleans in the early 19th century Genre: Tragedy Historical context: The Awakening takes place when women were seen as a man’s possession. Mr. Pontellier looks at Edna as a possession. Women were expected to stay devoted to their husband and children and remain a stereotypical housewife whose main job is to clean, cook and care for the children. (Adele) Edna rivals against these standards as she challenges society 's expectations of women during the early 19th century.

    Read More

  • Motherhood In The Awakening

    919 Words  | 4 Pages

    At the beginning of the novel, Edna had appeared to be recognizing the fact that her life revolves around her husband and her children, and that it is her main duty to care for them. It is mainly Mr. Pontellier, her husband, who tries to establish an image of her being a both a perfect partner and wife. He views her as an object that must be suitable for the eyes of society. According to him, his wife is a “valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin 2). He is controlling over her appearance and actions.

    Read More

  • The Awakening And Story Of An Hour Analysis

    822 Words  | 4 Pages

    During that time men were of higher power and faced less restrictions. “She has abandoned her Tuesdays at home, has thrown over all acquaintances, and goes tramping about herself , mopping in the street cars, getting in after dark. ”(Chopin 77). Leonce Pontellier expects Enda to be on this schedule and fulfill certain duties as his wife not knowing that the victorian lifestyle is not something she desires. While Leonce is able to do as he pleases like going to the Klein’s Club.

    Read More

  • The Awakening Conflict Essay

    1124 Words  | 5 Pages

    Edna’s marriage to Leonce “was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate. It was in the midst of her secret great passion that she met him. He fell in love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and ardor which left nothing to be desired” (Chopin 18). As Edna’s awakening develops, she begins to act out of character, driven by her inward desires. She starts spending more and more time with Robert, and while Leonce is aware, he pays no attention to the affair.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Othello's Jealousy In 'The Awakening'

    500 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the play “Othello” by William Shakespeare showed how the lies and the jealousy of others can ruin a relationship . Throughout the history of this play people have understood it as a “triad of nobility,purity, and villainy.” A literary critic, Michael Andrews noted the significance of the handkerchief that was used in the play. “Othello tells Desdemona that the handkerchief is a love-controlling talisman his mother received from an Egyptian "charmer.” The gift that Desdemona receives is used to represent a symbol of Othello’s love.

    Read More

  • The Character Of Edna Pontellier In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    628 Words  | 3 Pages

    A woman with an independent nature can be described as rebellious, passionate, and courageous. In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the reader is introduced to Edna Pontellier, a female who epitomizes the qualities of a woman with such an independent nature. Living in a “patriarchal society” that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers, Edna attempts to seek out her true identity as it becomes apparent how unsettled she feels about her life. Throughout The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, dissatisfied with her duties as a mother and wife, decides to pursue her own interests and express her true identity, resulting in an awakening and her finding the courage to make the changes she deems as necessary. Edna Pontellier had two young boys, Etienne and Raoul, who were ages four and five, respectively.

    Read More

More about Patriarchy In The Awakening

Open Document