The Typical Role of Women in the Late 19th Century in the Awakening by Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, was widely and harshly criticized at the time of its publication in 1899. Critics felt such outrage over the novel, that many would call it morbid and vulgar. One of the reasons that The Awakening faced such strong moral outcry was because of its depiction of female sexuality and the gender roles of the time. At the turn of the 20th century women were expected to be mothers and wives, not to lead their own lives full desires and dreams. Women of the Victorian era were not allowed to be sexual beings, nor were they allowed to explore their who they were without men. The male gender role at the time dictated that men not have close relationships with women, that they were completely free to do as they wished

The 19th century woman’s movement formed the building blocks on which women stand today. The first major event being Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech in 1851. Following this, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Women Suffrage Association in 1869. The list of events continues to expand throughout the United States history. One of the literary works of the women’s rights time period is The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This novel is an argument for feminism that depicts Edna Pontellier as an example of both a bildungsroman and a feminist of the 19th century through the image of birds.

When I first heard Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” my freshman year of high school, I believed that she was commenting on the difference in treatment in society of a black woman compared to a white woman. I thought she was saying that she should be “lifted into carriages, over ditches, and given the best place everywhere,” just as white women were. Reading it again now, I realize that I miscalculated her intentions greatly. She was saying that no one ever helped her in these ways because she didn’t need help. She could do it all on her own. Even one hundred and thirty years later, this kind of attitude speaks to the women of my generation. We don’t need anyone to tell us what to do or how to do it, to keep us from achieving our full potential

In the 1920’s, women were objectified in society, yet began to show signs of independence by striving for equality between genders. In this time period described as the Roaring Twenties, women began to use their voice as they desired to live their lives how they choose. Written in the middle of the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald, a renowned author, displayed his perception of women attempting to prove their worth through his new book. One of the protagonists in the novel, Daisy Buchanan, challenges the gender barriers and threatens to paint a new image for women by choosing love over wealth. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the modern woman's inability to obtain independence as they were perceived as incapable of making their own decisions and relied on traditional gender roles to guide their lives in order to achieve prosperity.

After reading the Great Gatsby, often people will scrutinize Gatsby’s affection for Daisy citing his feelings as insincere and self-motivated. That Gatsby’s love is characterized by narcissism, and he merely views Daisy as a pawn. However, while Fitzgerald asserts a pessimistic stance on Gatsby’s form of love, he does not question its legitimacy. He instead criticizes the progression of love when it is held onto over time. By portraying Gatsby’s love as inimical and unhealthy Fitzgerald challenges the long-held societal belief that love is inherently good. Through the extreme of Gatsby’s unconditional love for Daisy, Fitzgerald emphasizes the detrimental effects love can have as the longevity of Gatsby’s infatuation

I remember having loved a woman in my younger years, and when we broke it off I cried; yet inside me there was a strange sense of relief and a sort of joy that was desperate to claw out of me. That’s what I thought of when I read Chopin--but having read your essay I do question whether there’s more to it than what I thought. I wonder if it’s really a story about the plight of women or the emotional ride of one person.

A genderless perspective within today and past's society, helps to truly clarify and understand the meaning within one’s actions and persona. A stereotypical point of view might seem correct within the majority, but contradictory and naive when it is put into an absolute practice, in an attempt to define or categorize one’s response and behaviors under extreme circumstances, as truly inspiring and heroic or simply pathetic. This concept was firmly applied in the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, as one of its characters tries to valiantly sail away from her auto-designated destiny, merely fueled by her and unwavering conviction ideals.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening depicts a woman's struggle to find and assert herself within the cultural constraints of late 19th century America. Edna Pontellier’s journey is chronicled throughout the novel as she experiences a new sense of independence and expression of freedom that’s paralleled by her corresponding sense of conflict and despair through a series of fractured and convoluted relationships among friends, family, and societal customs. The term "awakening" is defined as the act or process of waking from sleep. 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. Edna is one whose mission is to begin the process of bridging two worlds: a world where women become wives and mothers or a world where women are exiled for their expressed individualism.

What is the purpose of women? How are they supposed to act? Are they fragile creatures that need constant guidance and attention, or are they something more? In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, these were the types of questions that needed answers.

The link between genders in the society is then also shown emotionally to cause certain internal feelings of the women. In this short story, Desiree Aubigny is at full dependence of her husband's feelings over her own. Chopin shows this link by exclaiming “When he frowned she trembled...When he smiled, she asked no greater blessing of God” (2). This quote represents the relationship between the husband and wife and how the husband is in full control of her emotions. Chopin uses this to indirectly suggest that women do not have feelings except the ones that are planted by their husbands. The women are dependent on the men to create these emotionally feelings to know how to act or what to say. Finally, Chopin represents the emotional dependence

Globally, people widely consider Kate Chopin a feminist writer for her stance on the roles of women greatly differ from the common role of women during her time. After losing her sole provider, her husband, she was financially abandoned and found herself in an undesirable situation. Due to the persuasion of a friend, she began writing to support herself and provide an emotional release for her grief. Many of the short stories that Chopin wrote were before her time and did not become widely recognized until years after her death, making her a posthumous success. As a result, students around the world learn about her, read her stories, and analyze her literary genius as well as the message she was trying to institute with her writing.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin brings light to the strict social pyramid that all women and men during the late 1800s were forced to conform to, and how when one woman dares to step outside of society’s boundaries the consequences she faces proves to be deadly. Gender roles during the setting of the novel had no fine line. The way that men were expected to act and the way that women were expected to act were taught at a very young age, and deviances from these ways of living were highly frowned upon. This suffocating society where one is not able to express themselves freely is ultimately the cause for the protagonist’s downward spiral and eventual death.

I think that three major points that Chopin seems to make about women during her time in her novel are: society believes a woman should stay home and be a home maker, a woman should not be overly sexual, and put her family above herself.

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, three female characters personify the spectrum of women’s perceptions and executions of gender roles in the Victorian Era with which the reader can view Edna’s journey of self identity. This is done through three lenses: the lense of the housewife, the lense of the feminist, and the lense of a woman undecided. Adele represents the societal ideal as a mother and housewife. Madame Reisz contradicts this as her opposite; a woman with no family, living for her own goals and hobbies. Caught between the two is the protagonist, Edna, who is constantly travelling back and forth between struggling to accept her given role as a woman and working to defy it.

Women determine their success through a variety of factors, such as their kids, their friends, their career, and their state of living. Many women want to be independent and self-sufficient, while others want to be a homemaker and stay at home with their family. In the novel, The Awakening, the women, who are treated as inferior creatures and as the property of men, focus on their personal and social lives, rather than their professional lives. However, Edna wants to break the societal ideals that determine what a woman does, and she desires to be free to do what she wants, rather than what society wants of her. First, she must break free of her barriers such as the society and her husband.