In Kate Chopin’s literary piece “The Awakening” she uses the literary school of criticism of feminist criticism to criticize the feminist standpoint in the novel and the time period the novel was written. Kate Chopin uses self experiences of feminism that she faced to create her novel “The Awakening”. "she experienced a revival in the latter part of the twentieth century because of her concerns with women 's issues, especially their freedom from societal (particularly masculine) mandates” (Timko). Kate Chopin was recognized more in the later part of the twentieth century because of concerns she had with the women 's issues for their freedom and the social aspect of their male partners. With the concerns that Chopin had for the freedom of the women and the social part of their relationship with men and had decided to show her concerns through the novel.
Virginia Woolf is a writer who took her inspirations of her topics from her own life, just as in her novel Mrs. Dalloway. Because her father was a strict and conservative person, she was inclined to her feminist ideology more and more. She was concerned with the thought more and more that why women do not have the same rights as the men? Due to this influence, she began to use these topics more frequently. The feminism as a principle is also included into the novel Mrs. Dalloway, for the reason that Woolf is writing about the after war era when the society had experienced the horrors of the war.
Northanger Abbey was the first completed novel by Jane Austen, one of the most famous novelists of the early 19th century and British novelists in general. Austen is known for her social commentary, as well as romance, for which some of her works like Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility are popular even today. Northanger Abbey is a novel famous for its satirizing of the Gothic novel, simultaneously criticizing the values of people (stressing the importance of education for women) and illustrating the life of the British gentry, placing the spotlight over a young woman and her adapting to the real world surrounding her. Therefore, it is hard to place this novel into only one specific genre, just like it is hard to identify Austen with a particular literary movement as romanticism or Victorian literature.
“Who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?” Virginia Woolf, one of the most talented female writers in history, questioned the society, in which women had no say to their future and had nowhere to display their talents. In her article, Shakespeare’s sister, Virginia Woolf addresses this problem and manipulates her audiences, especially upper classes’ males, to pay full attention on gender inequality issues she discusses by using well-developed conceit, allusions to historical evidence and female figures, and appeals to audiences’ pathos to establish her authority and extend the gender issue to a deeper level. Conceits in Woolf’s article help her establish her authority and provide her audience with vivid comparisons between science and fiction. In the second paragraph of her article, for example, Woolf compares science to “a pebble”, which would “[drop] upon the ground”, and fiction to “a spider’s web”, which “[attaches] ever so lightly perhaps, but still [attaches] to life at all four corners.” By providing readers with the images of “a pebble” and “a spider’s web”, which correspond to science and fiction, Woolf conveys the idea that science is solid, real, and unchangeable like a pebble formed with hard materials, whereas fiction is soft, changeable, and invisible like a spider’s web with fine threads. The conceits prove her ability to write effectively and surprisingly, and the
A woman’s job in life was to be a good mother and a good wife, period. Although feminist movements were now on the horizon, the subject of women standing up and speaking out for their rights was extremely controversial. As a feminist, Kate Chopin incorporated feminism in The Awakening through characters such as Edna Pontellier and Mademoiselle Reisz. Because the subject matter was so controversial and taboo, Chopin received a lot of negative feedback when she published the novel, with readers calling it “morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable.” The reactions Chopin received in response to her novel are very similar to how the people within Edna’s society react to her journey of a spiritual awakening. Both were intensely judged and alienated due to their unique views that did not match up with the masses.
The question of feminine insanity and madness within literature has been a topic of much debate within literary studies, particularly among those scholars who focus on feminist readings of the texts in question. Many of these new readings and analyses are based on or heavily rely on the influential work of Gilbert and Gubar, who focused on the issue of female madness within Victorian fiction in their work The Madwoman in the Attic. As they posit in their work, female authors of the time were confined to only two models of femaleness within their works, either the pure angel or the untamed madwoman. Here they also introduce the idea of the double, which harkens back to the dark doppelgänger from the gothic tradition. As they explain in the preface
I definitely agree with you it is still apparent that the "Second Sex" and the "Other" still exist today. “Gender influences who we are, what we think, and what opportunities are available to us (Anderson, 3).”One of my favorite writers Virginia Woolf, wrote an essay that was incredibly touching called: "Thinking about Shakespeare's Sister." In this essay Woolf tries to find the main cause of why there are not any great female authors (Shaw,275) . For a moment, she considers: is it because females do not have the ability or talent become great writers? She quickly shuts the notion down by creating a fictional character called Judith Shakespeare.
The Victorian era was a particularly trivial time for feminism. Many women had begun to speak up about their views that were previously muted by the fear of the predominant male-led society. With this time period and the publicity of feminism rising came female authors who sought to speak their views on the current society. The Bronte sisters were one of the most well known female authors of this time period, all three voicing their differing views on feminism. The impact of the male dominance loomed and had an apparent effect as well, as the three, as well as other female authors of this time, lived under pseudonyms in fear of judgment from the male-dominated world of literature.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin, is a highly acclaimed and controversial classic which is widely accepted as a big cornerstone for the women's movement. It can be said that such piece of literature helped lay some of the foundations for the political theory of feminism, and it suggested and inspired many women to seek their equality. This is mainly because the book itself explores the physical, emotional and mental state of Edna Pontellier, whose goal was to step out of the boundaries of a stereotypical Victorian wife. The main conflict of the narrative could be explained as an internal struggle, in which the protagonist begins a process to seek her desires, her inner self and even love. Those reasons alone are enough evidence to imply that The Awakening's plot is themed around an internal chain of discoveries and realizations.
According to Desai, most marriages prove to be unions of incompatibility. Her women long for love and communion of the spirit which they perceive as the panacea of the ills of the world. The writer primary emphasis is on sights and sounds, on movements and patterns both physical and mental as they impinge on the consciousness. Key Words: Alienation, stress, incompatibility, communion. Of all the contemporary Indian English novelists, Anita Desai is indisputable the most powerful women novelist.