The Flapper In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Chopin wants the reader to realize that in her time, women were stereotyped in a male dominated society. After hearing about her husband’s passing, Mrs. Mallard began to have a sense of peacefulness coming from the outside world. This doesn’t mean that she was happy about the death of her husband, but she felt a newfound independence. Stereotypically, married women were considered to be housewives during the early 1900s. Women were told by their husbands what to do because in those times it was believed that men had higher authority than women. So now that her husband is gone, Mrs. Mallard realizes that she doesn’t feel controlled like she used to.

The Awakening, a novella by Kate Chopin, introduces Edna Pontellier’s struggle to find independence from society's standards. This novella was set in the 19th century in La Grand Isle, off the coast of Louisiana. While Edna was staying in La Grand Isle she met Robert Lebrun who was very flirtatious; Robert’s innocent flirtation was taken seriously by Edna, and this ultimately sparked her desire to feel independent from the realities of her life. Throughout Edna’s quest for separation from societal expectations she not only became disconnected from her family, but also her friends. Adèle Ratignolle displayed a consistent friendship towards Edna throughout Edna’s rebellious actions towards her family and society. While showing qualities such as friendliness,

“No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” Laurence Sterne’s quote of mental conflict relates to Kate Chopin’s novel, “The Awakening”, where Chopin’s main character faces contrasting influences concerning her life. The two influences which direct the actions of Chopin’s main character, Edna, are the novel’s contemporary views concerning a woman’s position in society, and Edna’s unorthodox personal opinions. Both opposing impacts form the mental contrast which directs Edna’s inner conflict throughout Chopin’s novel, and Edna’s conflicting influences prove to illuminate the meaning

The story opens with the narrator telling the readers that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble. In addition to this medical condition, her sister Josephine breaks the news to her sister, Mrs. Mallard, that her husband passed away. With all of this sudden news, Mrs. Mallard “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” With everything happening in such a quick time period, Mrs. Mallard might feel a wild abandonment because she just lost her husband and it seems like she feels a lack of love.

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

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, we are introduced to a woman named Edna Pontellier. She is a wife, a mother, and a homemaker who struggles to fit in the ideal “Victorian woman” mold. The expectations of women during the Victorian era was for women to be devoted to her husband, children and her home and it was frowned if a woman were to devote some time for the benefit of herself. The women were like caged birds; unable to use her wings for flight. Throughout the novel, Edna’s dissatisfaction with her life becomes apparent and we see Edna’s journey to independence and self-discovery. Chopin uses bird symbolism and metaphors to reflect Edna’s journey and her true desires. The bird is used as a symbolic element used to represent Edna and

The Awakening by Kate Chopin contains many internal awakenings the main character, Edna Pontellier, experiences. Edna Pontellier discovers her self-identity and self-empowerment once facing her fear of drowning by swimming in the sea. This one event changed Edna’s character by making her feel free and empowered. These self-awakenings Edna Pontellier experiences adds suspense and excitement to the novella because her new identity is more scandalous and out-of-the-norm for women living in the late 19th century. The internal conflict Chopin creates for Edna Pontellier through her multiple awakenings is what adds to the suspense, excitement, and climax 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.

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.

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

“Adele Ratignolle: Kate Chopin’s Feminist at Home in the Awakening” was written by Kathleen M. Streater and featured in the famous “The Midwest Quarterly”, a famous peer reviewed periodical. Kathleen Streater has not written many articles, which is suggested by doing a thorough research on her background; however, this paricular article is highly quoated. Furthermore, she does not seem to possess in-depth knowledge on Chopin but the arguments made by her in the article are quite convincing and unique. There are many encouraging quotes used by Kathleen, for instance she once argued that Chopin is only concentrating on the radical feminism of Edna which has limited her assessment of feminism to a great extent. This is a unique argument presented

Women’s rights have drastically improved since the 1800’s. The model of patriarchy was widely accepted as a social norm in America and many other countries until the early to mid 1900’s. Today women are still fighting the belittlement that the patriarchal model deemed acceptable. The character of the rebellious strong women is still one today that many women look up to; especially women in very oppressive middle east countries. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Chopin strives to argue social emancipation for women

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.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a piece of fiction written in the nineteenth century. The protagonist Edna is a controversial character, Edna rebels against many nineteenth - century traditions, but her close friend Adele was a perfect example in terms of a role of a woman, mother and wife at that time. Chopin uses contrast characters to highlight the difference between Adele and Edna. Although they are both married women in the nineteenth century, they also exhibit many different views about what a mother role should be.

Women in the 1890s were expected to work at home to keep their husbands comfortable and bear him children. Kate Chopin wrote most of her short stories during this time period. Her stories “A Respectable Woman” and “A Story of an Hour” show a female protagonist who want their freedom and control over their own lives. Her characters pushed the bounds of the roles that society gave them and showed the brutal reality of how women were treated in the 1890s. In “A Respectable Woman” the female protagonist Mrs. Baroda is married and lives on a plantation with her husband, who invites a friend to spend a week or two with them. Mrs. Baroda feels inner conflict with wanting to be with her husband’s friend, but also her duty as a woman in society. Within “A Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard faces a similar situation when she wants the freedom and autonomy from her husband. Through these works of Kate Chopin, the reader can see that the women protagonists face inner dispute, self-realization, and resolution with those feelings.