I Will No Longer Be Mademoiselle

The Character of Mademoiselle Reisz in The Awakening    "She was a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost everyone, owing to a temper which was self-assertive and a disposition to trample upon the rights of others." (25) This is how Kate Chopin introduces the character of Mademoiselle Reisz into her novel, The Awakening. A character who, because of the similarities she shares with Madame Pontellier, could represent the path Madame Pontellier’s

Some of the motives of the book the awakening were music, children, and houses. Music gives us a sense of Edna ideological alignment in relations with the others characters. Edna first learns about the emotive powers of music from Mademoiselle Reisz, whereas Adele Ratignole piano playing is sentimental for Edna. When Adele is playing the piano it stirs new feelings and emotions in her. The children relate to Edna because she sees a form of rebirth as she discovers the world from a child perspective

feminine and sexually, in the repressive and Victorian Creole world of the latter nineteenth century. She is met by a counterpart, Mademoiselle Reisz, who is able to live freely as a woman. Edna herself was denied this freedom because of the respectable societal position she had been married into and because of her Presbyterian up bringing as a child. The role that Mademoiselle Reisz played within society, a society that failed to view her as being a truly respectable social member, was quite opposite

To this present day, women throughout America would be drastically different and would withhold fewer rights if it were not for women in the nineteenth and twentieth century like the characters Madame Ratignolle, Edna Pontellier, and Mademoiselle Reisz in the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. They shaped America into a place where freedom and equality for women is possible. Although the three women were different, they all contributed to different aspects of the feminist movement. Each character

necessarily coincide in the same object of desire” (Beer, et al 90). Edna decides to leave her husband, saying that “ I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose”(Chopin 108). Spicher 2 Edna leaving her husband shows her independence from her husband and that she decides not to live with these traditional stereotypes any longer.. Edna also undergoes a sexual realization. “ Edna grapples with the conflict between her romantic and sexual impulses

of English merchants are coming to France to trade. This is when the Ingenu is first introduced. The French are most intrigued by his appearance. Because of a picture believed to be the brother and sister-in-law of the Abbe de Kerkabon and Mademoiselle de Kerkabon, the Kerkabons felt that they saw a resemblance and take him in as their nephew. This is only the beginning. With no set beliefs, the Huron comes to live with these people of France and is taught to live as they do. Under appearingly

represents Edna Pontellier. She feels as if she is stuck in a golden cage with only one other being who understands her. She has always had food on her plate and her husband provides a stable income and life for her. The mocking-bird represents Mademoiselle Reisz, because she is the only other being who understands what Edna, or the parrot, is feeling and wanting to

“By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am (216)” Kate Chopin Kate Chopin’s The Awakening depicts Edna Pontellier’s struggle to find and assert herself within the cultural constraints of late 19th century America. Like her name “Pontellier”, which means “one who bridges,” it implies that Edna is in a transition between two worlds but not fully embedded in either. Her intent is to bridge the limited world

life and her self. To Edna, the question of whether or not she would die for her children is somewhat simple. Edna attempts to explain this concept to her good friend, Adele Ratignolle, but to no avail, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin 62). Not only does Edna consider her life unessential, she categorizes it as equal with material objects such as money. The idea of self, on the other hand, lies on a completely

represented Edna Pontellier. With only one other being who understands her, she felt as if she was stuck in a golden cage. She had always had food on her plate and a man who provides a stable income and life for her. The mocking-bird represented Mademoiselle Reisz, because she is the only other being who understood what Edna, or the parrot,