Awakening Theme Essay

The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, and A Doll’s House, a play by Henrik Ibsen are both works of literature that can be facilely compared. Both works were written around the late 1800’s, a time when men dominated the lives of women. Each story contains a woman protagonist who seeks to understand herself better rather than continuing to conform into the standard societal stereotype of women. Both Nora and Edna grew to feel suffocated by their husbands orders, in which they clearly showed traits

Claim: In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is ironically portrayed as a Christ-like figure. Analysis: How to Read Literature Like a Professor, a guide written by Thomas C. Foster, encompasses an list of analytical strategies used by young scholars to better break apart a text to delve into a deeper meaning below the surface In this example, the comparison of Christ to the main character of The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, is meant to be ironic; Mrs. Pontellier is the epitome of a self-serving, thoughtless

and others. Conformity to social paradigms can be seen as antithetical to gender freedom and individualism. In The Awakening, Edna’s convictions challenge the idealisation of motherhood, since the “indescribable oppression” and “vague anguish” she experiences presents her life as aimless and unfulfilling. Her feelings of “anguish” and “oppression” are indicative of her first awakening. Slowly, she realises how confined and claustrophobic her life is. These thoughts are “unfamiliar” to her because

Importance of the Ocean in Chopin's Awakening        In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, Chopin uses the motif of the ocean to signify the awakening of Edna Pontellier. Chopin compares the life of Edna to the dangers and beauty of a seductive ocean. Edna's fascinations with the unknown wonders of the sea help influence the reader to understand the similarities between Edna's life and her relationship with the ocean. Starting with fear and danger of the water then moving to a huge symbolic

of the Sea in The Awakening      Throughout her novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses symbolism and imagery to portray the main character's emergence into a state of spiritual awareness. The image that appears the most throughout the novel is that of the sea. “Chopin uses the sea to symbolize freedom, freedom from others and freedom to be one's self” (Martin 58). The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, wants that freedom, and with images of the sea, Chopin shows Edna's awakening desire to be free

Finding Freedom in The Awakening In her novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin shows Edna Pontellier¹s confrontations with society, her imprisonment in marriage and Edna¹s exploration of her own sexuality. Chopin also portrays Edna as a rebel, who after her experiences at Grand Isle wants to live a full and a free life and not to follow the rules of society. Edna¹s life ends in her suicide, but her death does not come as a surprise. Chopin foreshadows Edna¹s death by the use of nature and Edna¹s

Romanticism, Realism and Local Color in The Awakening   Kate Chopin is an author who was born in 1851 and died in 1904.  Her father died when she was young, and her husband died when she was thirty-one leaving her with six children.  Due to this, she had little male influence throughout her life.  This may possibly be why she had so little inhibition when writing her novels.  She seemed to concentrate on the oppression of women and presented socially unacceptable ideas

The Nature of Solitude in Chopin's Novel, The Awakening "The name of the piece was something else, but she called it ‘Solitude.' When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him."(47) "All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the Creole men are as diverse and different as Edna. Kate Chopin’s story centers around a woman, unsatisfied with her life in a man dominated society. The three main male characters resemble typical men of that era. Chopin shows the diversity of each of those three characters- Roberts awakening, and the struggle to do the right thing, Alcee and his carefree and unconcerned attitude towards society's expectations, and Mr. Pontiller, a business man, with little

Choosing between Family and Individuality in Kate Chopin's The Awakening               Kate Chopin's The Awakening focuses on a woman's struggle to become an individual while still being a mother and wife. In the process of this journey, the female heroine discovers that establishing her own identity means losing a mother's identity. Edna looks to be the "brave soul," a "soul that dares and defies" (Chopin 61). Edna's society looked down upon females who seek anything other than attending to