The Awakening Critical Analysis - 1596 Words

The Awakening by Kate Chopin Critical Analysis The novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, was written during the late 19th century, when the feminist movement was in its infancy. During that era, the novel was yet to be discovered and the few considered it as a disgrace. Many thought that it portrayed a negative example of how a women should think and behave. Women during that era expected the book to be more â€Å"sophisticated† and â€Å"ladylike,† but Chopin had a different view of how women should be portrayed. Today, this novel is a famous classic, read in many schools, and praised by many feminist. Readers can easily surmise the story’s theme: finding one’s identity is not easy. The characters and the setting in this novel contribute to†¦show more content†¦In order for her to do this, she is inspired and influenced by two main characters who help shape the â€Å"Inner Edna.† Two characters that play a significant role in Edna’s life have a positive and a slightly negative effect in her awakening. The first character that has a positive and slightly negative effect in Edna’s life is Adele Ratignolle. Adele was a Creole woman who cared for her three children, loved her husband, was beautiful, followed society’s norms, and was respected in her society. Adele positively influenced Edna’s life when she acted as a â€Å"mother† towards Edna, by often worrying about her and giving her advice. However, Adele was a negative influence in Edna’s awakening because she tried stopping the â€Å"Inner Edna† from coming out. In the novel, Adele advises her to â€Å"think of the children (Chopin 170). She urges Edna to consider the power of motherhood as a special virtue. Adele knew that Edna wanted to be free and liberated from following society’s norms and knew that Edna wanted to be completely independent. T his meant that if she chose to let the â€Å"Inner Edna† come out she would leave behind her husband and two children, because either way Edna never saw herself as a â€Å"mother-women† anyway. In the novel Edna says, â€Å"I would give my money, I would give my life for my children, but I wouldn’t give myself† (Chopin 53). The second character who positively influencedShow MoreRelatedCritical Analysis Of The Awakening1412 Words   |  6 Pagesand desires, reaching untamed worlds. Turning imagination into realism is denounced as an impossible being, but it s in fact the awakening to our lucid dreaming. Edna Pontellier is a woman with a heart that soared beyond the horizons into a limitless world, forced into cage by the inevitable way of life. Kate Chopin through the beautifully sculpted novel â€Å"The Awakening† condemned Edna with a mindset beyond her years, finding meaning through her unsocial actions shunned by the eyes of others. EdnaRead MoreCritical Analysis Of The Awakening1899 Words   |  8 PagesThe Awakening LAP #3 Prompt #3 Ivan Jimenez Period 3 AP Literature and Composition 10/27/17 Just like a coin that is divided into heads and tails humanity is divided into male and female. Both are human just the same but equality is a matter that women have never completely attained. As for almost all of human history women were oppressed by men. Living under patriarchal societies women were forced to conform with their roles as housewives. They were told to keep quiet and were never allowed toRead More Critical Analysis of The Awakening Essay970 Words   |  4 PagesCritical Analysis of The Awakening The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is the story of a woman who is seeking freedom. Edna Pontellier feels confined in her role as mother and wife and finds freedom in her romantic interest, Robert Lebrun. Although she views Robert as her liberator, he is the ultimate cause of her demise. Edna sees Robert as an image of freedom, which brings her to rebel against her role in society. This pursuit of freedom, however, causes her death. Chopin uses manyRead MoreCritical Analysis: Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay1800 Words   |  8 PagesIn the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin (2005) uses deep symbolism to show how the main character, Edna Pontellier, discovers her own independence in the society in which she lived. Edna was a traditional mother and wife seeking freedom and independence throughout her adult life. Chopin portrays Edna as being a rebel against her own life. The story takes place in the 1960s when women were to follow certain rules made by the society they lived in . 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(376) By employing a variety of critical approaches (including feminist, gender, cultural, new historicism, psychoanalytic and deconstruction) Wolff offers the reader a more complete (albeit complex) explanation of Edna PontelliersRead More A Deconstructionist Critique of Chopin’s The Awakening Essay536 Words   |  3 PagesA Deconstructionist Critique of Chopin’s The Awakening The multiplicity of meanings and (re)interpretations informing critical studies of The Awakening reveal a novel ripe for deconstructionist critique. Just as Chopin evokes an image of the sea as symbolic of Edna’s shifting consciousness (â€Å"never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude,†138), likewise the deconstructionist reading of a text emphasizes fluidity over structure: â€Å"A text consistsRead MoreSt. Louis And New Orleans1606 Words   |  7 PagesLouisiana, Chopin was still far from having established herself as a writer whose work was commercially profitable. Under the advice of editors that a longer work would have a broader appeal, she turned again to the novel form, publishing The Awakening in 1899. The Awakening, however, received uniformly unfavorable reviews, and in some cities it was banned from library shelves. In St. Louis, Chopin was dropped by friends and refused membership in a local fine-ar ts club. Chopin had never expected such a stormRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne And The Awakening1416 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscriminated against, but the people close to them as well. This is demonstrated through the novels The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. The Scarlet Letter follows the story of a woman named Hester Prynne who is forced to wear a scarlet letter â€Å"A† on her chest as punishment for her crime of adultery. The Awakening follows the story of a woman named Edna Pontellier and the struggle that she faces when she has an affair and separates from her husband and her familyRead MoreEdna Pontellier and Elizabeth Bennet: Challenge of 19th Century Conventional Methods1344 Words   |  6 Pagesnineteenth century. Both women often challenged conventional societal methods within their works, which inherently caused these literary geniuses to write in complete secrecy. Chopin and Austen gave birth to characte rs such as Edna Pontellier in The Awakening, and Elizabeth Bennett, the renowned protagonist of Austen’s novella Pride and Prejudice. While noble in their respective ways one can easily mistake Edna and Elizabeth to be selfish creatures of society because of their ardent pursuit of happiness