What Is The Feminism In The Awakening

In first paragraph of the novel, Kate Chopin describes an image of a bird that is restrained from its freedom just as Edna feels held back from hers. “A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door...” (Chopin, pg#) There is symbolism behind the caged bird, which refers to Edna’s feelings of imprisonment. The bird symbolize Edna at home, a place she can’t escape from and has to live with under her husband’s “ruling”. There is a saying in Spanish that states

The Awakening is centered around the changes that Edna Pontellier undergoes and the way that it affects her and those around her as she breaks free from the shackles of society's gender roles. Edna, unlike Adele, is not the perfect mother to her children. “She did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing” (63). While Edna does care about her children and their well-being she also cares about herself. “I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself ”(97). This sense of self that Edna possesses is one of the most important parts of her awakening because, at the turn of the 19th century, women were not allowed to control themselves as they were not considered to be important parts of society. Women were the property of their husbands and were expected to submit to them at all times. “She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had”(77). Even when Edna is further along in her awakening, she is still thought to be the property of her husband by others. “Oh! I was demented, dreaming of wild, impossible things, recalling men who had set their wives free, we have heard of such things”(167). Although, Robert understands parts of the awakening that Edna is undergoing, even he is not fully able to grasp the extent to which she wishes to be her own person. At the end of The Awakening Edna commits suicide. Just before she

As the novel begins we are shown Edna’s life before her escape from society’s standards. At the beginning we are shown that Edna is valued by society because of her physical appearance and is portrayed as a housewife married to a wealthy husband. On only the seventh page of the novel we are shown the lack of individuality women had during this time period. We are first introduced to Edna and Edna’s husband, Leonce. Leonce creates the income for the family as well as viewing his wife more of a possession rather than a partner. Leonce notices Edna is sunburned when she has come back from swimming and views her as “a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage” (7).

In The Awakening, we are shown that a person’s freedom physicaly and emotionally can’t always be ignored. This Idea is strengthened upon when Edna chooses to move into a smaller house down the street, leaving her nice big house with Mr. Pontellier without his consent. She preferred her small cozy home over her large rich house, that symbolized her want for a simpler more concentrated lifestyle instead of the previous bland life. Through this action, Edna realizes that she is becoming her own new person and that alone enforces the idea that freedom can’t emotionally be ignored. When Edna pursues Robert over Mr. Pontellier, she also illuminates her views of individual freedom.

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.

During the late nineteenth century, the time of protagonist Edna Pontellier, a woman's place in society was confined to worshipping her children and submitting to her husband. Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, encompasses the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman's life as she attempts to cope with these strict cultural demands. Defying the stereotype of a "mother-woman," Edna battles the pressures of 1899 that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. Although Edna's ultimate suicide is a waste of her struggles against an oppressive society, The Awakening supports and encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain sexual freedom, financial independence, and individual identity.

The notion of freedom (). The responsibility of women is to manage the house. “Every step she took toward relieving herself of obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to "feed upon opinion" when her own soul had invited her” (32.7). There’s an inverse relationship between obligations to society and happiness as an individual. In other words, the more Edna distances herself from society and its demands, the happier she is as an individual.

The Awakening’s protagonist is Edna Pontellier; She is a twenty-eight years old mother of two. Consequently, her appearance is slight that of what a mother should look like, she possesses "quick and bright" eyes, which compliment her thick, wavy, yellowish brown hair" (9); While Edna 's physique is "poise and movement" (27). Despite this, Edna does not want to assume the role of a mother; Edna wants to be free from social assumptions of what a lady and even mother should be during the 1800’s. Independence is her goal, and she is not letting anything, or anyone gets in her way. This is why she has an affair with Robert Lebrun. Edna is symbolized in the story through multiple birds, which in the end tell a story in and of itself

TOPIC #3- EXPLORE HOW EACH MAN IN EDNA’S LIFE ATTEMPTED TO CONTROL AND/OR REPRESS HER EXISTENCE..

when the roles of Victorian women were expected to be limited to childbearing and a housewife. Their life was suppose to be centered around their husband and their children. They would submit themselves to their husband and was in charge of the domestic duties. So the women’s and men’s role were not viewed with the same status since women’s rights are given to their spouse after marriage. Thus in The Awakening, Edna’s actions are viewed as uncanny and erroneous because women were not viewed as equals but as housewives.

Referring once again to the ideas of true womanhood, we go into Edna’s role as a wife and how she combated against those ideas. A perfect wife would be described as submissive, tend to the house, and not work. (Christina R. Williams 2008) In

The expectations of motherhood and fatherhood are very different than one another in the novel, mothers are expected to perform household duties, and raise her children with the utmost attention while also taking care of the needs of their husband.However, the father was a mere figure who provided the financial support needed to raise his family. He was the breadwinner. In “The Awakening” this is clearly shown as Edna and Leonce belong to two different spheres where hers is domesticity (her own private realm) and his is the outside world.

In the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin the critical approach feminism is a major aspect of the novel. According to dictionary.reference.com the word feminism means, “The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” The Awakening takes place during the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds, in New Orleans. The novel is about Edna Pontellier and her family on a summer vacation. Edna, who is a wife and mother, is inferior to her husband, Leonce, and must live by her husband’s desires. While on vacation Edna becomes close friends with Adele Ratignolle, who helps Edna discover she must be “awakened”. Adele is a character who represents the ideal woman. She is loving,

“The Awakening” gives readers different view of feminism. The novel not only displays how Edna begin to gain independence from the role of an obedient wife but the novel also embodies of how Edna gains control of her body. The idea of Feminism rebukes people from being treated as property. This notion of feminism not only applies to independence but also freedom of making decisions, in Edna’s case, Decisions about her body and sexuality. Edna cared for her husband and appreciated how well he took care of their family. However, she didn’t love him, “she had married without love as an excuse” (Chopin, 2005). This being evident in the novel, it’s no surprise the Edna started to stray from her marriage to Leonce. The estrangement between the couple started earlier in the novel

The literary novel The Awakening written by author Kate Chopin was groundbreaking in its time as a story following Edna Pontellier’s transformation from an obedient, traditional housewife and mother into a self-realized, sexually liberated and independent woman— all written during the Victorian era of patriarchal constraints and beliefs that a woman was fit to be only a wife and mother. Chopin introduces a multitude of feminist issues throughout the duration of the story, including the societal structures of motherhood, marital expectations and feminine liberation. The fact that Chopin’s novel addresses these issues is a testament to how radical and ahead of its time The Awakening was. Although this novel was originally published over a century ago, it is clear that the feminist topics that Chopin proposes in the novel are still relevant today in our modern day patriarchal society.