Spiritual Change In The Awakening

It is common for people in everyday society to conform to society’s expectations while also questioning their true desires. In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess, "That outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions." In other words, Edna outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Kate Chopin, uses this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning to build the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period. Edna outwardly conforms to society’s expectations by marriage.

Anne is very curious in both the play and the movie about her maturing body. In both, she becomes very angry with her mom and has certain mood swings with forgiving her mom or being upset with her. Not only does she have mood swings, she is very excited to grow up and change in many ways, inside and outside. This is the main reason for her falling in love with a boy who has been living with her for a long time, Peter. This is significant because it adds romance and anger to the story, which generates a lot of suspense and it interests people.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s it was incredibly difficult for a woman to express her thoughts simply because she was not a man. The two novels, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, and The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton, use their writing to explore what it would be like for a woman to explore herself. The Awakening is a story about a woman, Edna, who is determined to find her true self no matter what it takes. In the story, Edna leaves her husband and begins living on her own, in her own house in order to find her independence. This search for independence is interesting because I believe that it is something that I can relate to, even in this day and age.

Musical strains, well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind.” This quote Chopin states in page 26 shows how Mademoiselle Reisz not only showed Edna values of being an artist but also made Edna`s inside passion, shows how it makes Edna think more than she used to, which show that she control`s Ednas life through music. As Showalter states in page 316 “Chopin becomes the code word for a world of repressed passion between Edna and Robert that Mademoiselle Reisz controls.” This statement is very strong it agains shows that Mademoiselle Reisz is just a motherhood role for Edna which is trying to guide her in a path of her own and it has influence in Edna and Robert. Also showing that is Chopin showing her way of thinking using Reisz as a voice to talk for herself. Also let us know the view she has for the arts. Chopin is showing us the differences of mothehood that is in Ednas

“If you love something you must set it free, and if it returns then it was meant to be”. This quote is fewer or more words demonstrates the beauty in releasing something for the greater good, which is exactly what took place in the story “The Awakening”. In the story “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin the author uses symbols and motifs through her main character, Edna, to illuminate her feelings and define her actions. In “The Awakening” the author uses her main character Edna to illuminate independence and coming to her personal realization or “an awakening”, through the use of motifs. A motif that was in infiltrated in the story was the motif of her children.

The women began to notice that if they were trying to teach their family pure morals inside of the home and then continued to send their family into the dark and wretched world, they were only digressing. This new idea started what we now know as, the Public Sphere. Women felt that it was their jobs to fix problems for people such as slaves, widows, drunks and many other immoral groups (Ginzberg 10). The Public Sphere of women was simply the idea that the rest of our world needed to be reformed into a moral place to ensure that our families would be positively influenced. This change from the domestic sphere to the public sphere showed a change in women’s influence on religion and social aspects of the early American society.

Then, as a butterfly would emerge from a pupa, the narrator is liberated not only from herself, but also from her mental cognizance. Jane’s statement, “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman 966), marks her mental and self-liberation. Rao sums the story up by stating, “In Gilman’s hands, the wallpaper comes alive. The progressive degeneration in the narrator’s mental health and the slow but sure spiritual assertion in the female protagonist are worked out with the help of the central symbol of yellow wallpaper” (Rao 44).

She uses the handmaids clad in red to allow readers to deepen their emotional connection and understanding of Offred so that she seems like a physical person. She uses the phrase "Nolite te Bastardes carboundorum" to give readers a sense of hope for change and freedom. Lastly, she uses the Eyes to remind readers that the situation in the novel is not the result of her fanciful imagination but the result of real problems faced by women. Atwood wrote an extremely wonderful novel that not only made people question the existence of modern sexism but she also used this to her advantage and created an unforgettably realistic novel that critics cannot stop talking

Though she dresses her daughter is extravagant clothing, for herself she dresses in in text about what she wears. Hester undergoes a transformation in the story, that emphasized how society had impacted her, and perhaps to have the constant reminder of truth, another theme of the story. Again, she lives the simple life of a transcendentalist who does not take more than what is necessary. Hester Prynne is a transcendentalist because she demonstrates the qualities non-conformity, self-reliance, and simplicity throughout the book. Being exiled by society, she then has the opportunity to fully come into her own.

I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,’ I should laugh at the both of you” (108). Throughout the story Edna’s feelings for Robert grow stronger and deeper, so that by the end of the novel she simply longs to be with him. Yet parallel to that growth Edna has discovered her self and developed her own identity. The idea of a transfer of ownership of her person from one man to another is abhorrent to her, so much so that it would cause her to abandon her dream of being with Robert.