The Role Of Women In Kate Chopin's 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.

Throughout history, women have been expected to fit into a rigid gender stereotype. Women in the early 1900s would be expected to care for children, be able to do household duties and obey everything their husbands instructed. Those women that did not fit the stereotype were looked down upon by members of society and were often alienated. Edna, the protagonist of the novel, had to battle her inner conflict of not wanting to conform to society's standards throughout the novel. Over, and over again, she was reminded of the fact that she was different and that society did not approve of her way of thinking. In the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, the author uses the characters and their actions in society to express the oppression and expectations society had towards women.

Kate Chopin’s controversial novel, The Awakening, comprehends the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman’s life as she attempts to cope with the strict cultural demands. The protagonist Edna Pontellier challenges the norms of society as she abandons the stereotype of a “mother-woman”. The novel accounts Edna Pontellier’s journey toward a new vision of female and constantly examines and challenges the boundaries of a “mother-woman”. The continuous characterization of Edna throughout the book presents the idea that individuality and freedom of women could not be earned in the inhibiting society that she was trapped in.

Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book.

Social expectations have affected people throughout the years, however, they have changed as time has progressed. Today, women specifically may be labeled by their body size or the way they speak, being cast out of society and even being subjected to physical and/or emotional abuse. In the nineteenth century, women faced harsh discrimination by white men that objectified them and forced them to submit to their husbands and tend to their every need. Today, more women would not subject themselves to this sort of traditionalism, however, many found themselves fulfilling the role without protest and enjoying the simplicity of such a life back in the 1800s. Edna Pontellier refused to be one of these obedient women, deciding to instead follow a path of discovery that allowed her to find herself by being independent of her husband and of society. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier expresses a woman who refuses to bow down to societal expectations, rather freeing herself from those chains and becoming the embodiment of her true identity. Chopin is able to illustrate this theme through an exquisite use of symbolism, sensory imagery, and juxtaposition.

Over a century ago, in 1899, Kate Chopin published a short novel called The Awakening. In this novel, readers follow the story of Edna, a young housewife, as she struggles to live in her women-oppressing society. Throughout the novel, the author illustrates the duties demanded of the female characters. Their

During the nineteenth century, women were the main victims of social and economic discrimination. (Cruea 187). Women were presented with an ideal role and were forced to fit it. “The negation of equality and fraternity excluded women from full participation in society” (Clark 1). Women trying to fit these roles during this time, were faced with many obstacles, and restrictions based on their social expectations, and how they were expected to be seen. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates characters that reflect women's roles during this time and the struggles they encounter. “Of a Southern lady who wanted to do what she wanted to. From wanting to, she did, with disastrous consequences.” (Eble 9). Chopin uses different characters throughout the story to resemble the different stereotypes of women and their gender roles during the nineteenth century.

Kate Chopin, author of the book The Awakening, summarizes how Edna feels about how her gender is perceived by society and all of the issues she faces due to these preconceived notions, when Edna says, “I’m going to pull myself together for a while and think – try to determine what character of a woman I am: for, candidly, I don’t know.” Chopin, 613. There can be no doubt that, this is an example of how gender plays an extreme role when it comes to the history of womanhood and gender roles in literature. Gender roles separate womanhood into two distinct categories the true women being; the ideal mother and wife, to dress and act “as a lady should”. On the other hand, the idea of the new women is the exact opposite; women can work and go to

For centuries literature has identified and associated women with certain images and symbols. The critical lens of feminism works to identify these symbols and further argues that gender and time period dictate the manner in which one behaves. Themes of feminism are evident throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Chopin uses contrasting characters such as Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle to further embody the differing aspects of feminism. Adele Ratignolle represents the ideal woman of the time period, a mindless housewife working to serve her family, whereas Edna signifies an independent and daring woman who does not conform to society’s beliefs. These two women’s differing characteristics and personalities allow Chopin to further

A woman's ultimate goal was to get married so it was expected that “she should be attractive and playful enough for the man to want her” (Seyersted 103). This echoes the belief that women were less important than men and that their only important trait was their looks. Edna’s nonconformist actions and beliefs separate her from normal women of the 19th

Because of her views of women in society, Kate Chopin was heavily criticized and ridiculed for her beliefs of women’s rights and her portrayal of defying the expectations of being married and being a mother. Throughout the Awakening, Kate Chopin criticizes different societal expectations such as the concept of motherhood, the oppression of the patriarchy, and the way the individuality of women is portrayed, in order to critique society’s views on the roles of women and to evince that women cannot truly be free because of society’s expectations. Chopin portrays the concept of motherhood and criticizes it by evincing the way women were expected to behave and what their roles were in society, which was to be a mother and a wife. Chopin also analyzes the submissive behavior of women to men to critique the fact that men oppressed women and deemed them as inferior. Chopin then criticizes the aspect of how individuality in women was rarely expressed because of how society expects women to adhere to the expectation that they should depend on what society tells them to do.

Sojourner Truth’s words in her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” served as an anthem for women everywhere during her time. Truth struggled with not only racial injustice but also gender inequality that made her less than a person, and second to men in society. In her speech, she warned men of “the upside down” world against the power of women where “together, [women] ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!” Today, America proudly stands thinking that Truth’s uneasiness of gender inequality was put to rest. Oppression for women, however, continues to exist American literature has successfully captured and exposed shifts in attitude towards women and their roles throughout American history.

We can't choose our gender by ourselves when we were born into the world. The whole society has already created a set of gender categories which can consider as the foundation of social identity. In the late of 19 century and the beginning of 20 century, "How does the role of gender shape the gender identity?" can be a question of that period. The answer to this issue can be easily found in these texts: Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"(1899), It shows how Edna falls into the struggle of the battle of man, society and herself to get freedom. H.D.'s "Leda"(1919)

The late 1800s and the 1900s was a prison for woman’s individuality. During this time period, stereotypical views of women were commenced by society and men. In the era that the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin was published, the gender roles were graved in stone, men would work to maintain their family and women would adhere to the house-hold duties. Dissatisfaction with the labels put on individuals can result in the loss of identity and the desire for independence outside of society. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist, is in search for social liberation, and fundamentally ends up self-destructing herself by taking an action she believes can only be controlled by herself. A part of Edna wants to meet the standards of mother and wife that society has set, however, her biggest desire is to be a woman free from the oppression of a society that is male dominant. Women like Edna were viewed as possessions and trophies. She was indulged into her husband’s rules and expectations. The men in Edna’s life, such as Leonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, and Alcee Arobin try to oppress her freedom, thus, she never finds peace until she ends her life.

Women suffer from economic, social and psychological oppressions in patriarchal society, which appears clearly in the first fourteenth chapters in “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin. Firstly, women incur to economic oppression. Patriarchal society gives men the role of providers of money while women are powerless in this role. So, women take the inferior position in field of economic. That shows when Mr.Pontellier gives his wife half of the money which he gains by gambling and she takes them “with no little satisfaction” (11). Secondly, women suffer from social oppression. Society creates the gender of male and female as man and women and creates traditional gender roles for each one. As a result, culture and society ideology gives women the role