Feminism In The Awakening

In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin portrays an image where someone shifts from one phase to another one. We find the protagonist go through a shift from patriarchy to feminist resistance. As this story continues to unfold, Edna goes through feminist resistance where she doesn’t want to still rely on her husband anymore and want to live by her own rules. Edna Pontellier’s “awakening” takes place in Grand Isle and New Orleans during the late 1800s. It is an important factor of the book because during this time period women were fighting for their rights. Usually before this time, women would only stay home and follow the orders of their husbands. Women during this time period needed to stay home and care for the house and the children. They always had to live for their children almost are like a slave to their husband. Women would be often seen as a property and not an actual human being. In this novel, we find restrains at the beginning and later see the shift to wanting freedom of expression.

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates a protagonist that clearly demonstrates a feminist. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier seeks more from life than what she is living and starts to refuse the standards of the society she lives in. Edna has many moments of awakening resulting in creating a new person for herself. She starts to see the life of freedom and individuality she wants to live. The Awakening encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain freedom and choose individuality over conformity. Chopin creates a feminist story that shows a transformation from an obedient “mother-woman” to a woman who is willing to sacrifice her old life to become independent and make an identity for herself.

Although The Awakening may be seen as a tragic love story to some, it is truly a novel that displays the turning point for a woman’s role in the 1900’s. The main character, Edna Pontellier, is the epitome of the new working woman. The story centers around Edna’s discovery of her beliefs which are found through a series of awakenings and contrasted with the social norms of the time.

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States, and it caused a few major changes. One of these major changes were the roles and outlook on gender. The role of the male was very important in the 19th century, they were expected to necessitate no selfishness. Most of them had their set jobs, which were very important duties with God and their families. Women were also being given duties during The Great Awakening, they had new and exciting changes happening to them. Although the roles of men and women were stereotyped

Though it was uncommon during the 1800’s, some women didn’t want to assume the traditional role of a typical Victorian lady. Such is the case in Kate Chopin 's The Awakening; she introduces us to Edna Pontellier a mother and wife during the said era. Throughout the story, we follow Edna 's journey of self-discovery and self-expression through emotions, art, and sex thanks to the help of people she meets along the way. Chopin decides to end the book with Edna’s suicide in an attempt to convey a sense of liberation from her repressed life, but was the reasoning behind her suicide what everyone else thinks? Consequently, this said journey took me along for the ride, and I had no complaints. As Edna figured out who she was, I felt as if I was

The Second Great Awakening was a religious revivalism that happened in the late 18th century that reconstructed religion in the United States. Before this revivalism there was the idea that we were all sinners and there was no way of receiving salvation. The awakening gained a focus on piety and evangelicalism brought through camps and missionaries. Although the second Great Awakening occurred episodically and under ministers of several denominations, the revivals happened in a uniform way. Religious leader of revivalism shaped the creation of new religions such as the Methodist and the Baptist to later leading to other religious groups like the Seventh Day Adventist and the Mormons.

Throughout The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

The Awakening challenges many of the preconceived notions or expectations that society sets for women. Especially during the late nineteenth century when the novel was written, this novel turned tables as it not only challenged society, but also was scandalous. The Awakening gives insight to what it was like to be a women living in this time period, when women were expected to fit the specific mold of a wife, mother, and homemaker.

Women rights are a huge part of United States history. If it was not for the women rights movement America would be completely different. Many do not want to think about life without the women rights movement. Especially women themselves. Edna and her friend Mademoiselle show a big part of the women’s rights movement.

In our modern, selfie-centric, and Facebook-likes-driven culture, it is widely understood that the formation and discovery of the "self" are crucial to one’s potential happiness. It is often advised that one must first focus on the well-being, contentment, and happiness of one’s self before working to provide such things for another. However, this mentality is relatively new in human history. It was once considered selfish to think of the "self" before the welfare of one’s community since they were once much more deeply and rigidly bound together. As one can imagine, the transition from a community-centric society to that of a self-centric society was neither easy nor quick. It caused strife for many generations as those of the community-based society saw their values being displaced and those who fought for the self-centric changes they felt were necessary and right clashed over differing values. A prime example of this would be the feminist movement of the 18th Century Enlightenment movement; women were fighting to be perceived as equals, and they often conveyed ideas on their society and their positions in it though literature. In Mary Robinson’s satirically ironic The Natural Daughter, she does just that by narrating the life of Martha, a young woman who rebuffs societal notions of ideal ladyhood and instead commits to being her "self."

In the late 1800's, as well as the early 1900's, women felt discriminated against by men and by society in general. Men generally held discriminatory and stereotypical views of women. Women had no control over themselves and were perceived to be nothing more than property to men. They were expected to live up to a perfect image that society had created, while trying to comply with their husbands' desires. While many women felt dissatisfied with their lives, they would not come out and say it. However, in 1899, Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening, which showed women that they were not alone. This novel showed the discriminatory views and treatment towards women. It also distinctly indicates the dissatisfaction that women felt in their

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening in the opening chapter provides the argument for women's entrapment in roles that society has forced upon them. Chopin was not just trying to write an entertaining story but trying to convey arguments against these social injustices. Women are like these birds trapped in these cages unable to free themselves from these imposed roles by society.

    The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In Chopin's time, writing a story with such great attention to sensual details in both men and women caused skepticism among readers and critics. However, many critics have different views with deeper thought given to The Awakening. Symbolism, the interpretation of Edna's suicide, and awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics.

Women characters also depict the feminist critical approach throughout the novel. Society views women as being inferior to men. For example, The Awakening states that Mr. Pontellier, “… looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage,” (3), which shows he does not appreciate his wife. He treats Edna as if she was an object that he owned, and had full possession of. Although it takes a while for these women to break free, they end up realizing