Edna Ferber

Edna Ferber's childhood and career influences many of her works. She was born in 1885 and died in 1968. Growing up, she was taunted for being Jewish. Her family moved a great deal, so she was able to see a lot of the country. She eventually landed a job as a reporter, but faced a lot of criticism at the workplace for being a woman. When asked about her role model, Edna Ferber said, "My mother is of the iron age when things were not handed to people on velvet pads of ease-She had a zest for life and

Stage Door, written in the 1930’s by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman is the story of a house full of actresses living at the Footlights Club who are struggling to earn a living as actors. The main story follows Terry Randall, who has a passion for broadway. The story makes commentary on social status through the treatment of the young actresses. This is shown through the journey of Jean, and how people treat her in comparison to Terry. Jean Maitland is a resident at the Footlights Club who cannot

As Isak Dinesen famously states in Seven Gothic Tales, “The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea.” Paradoxically, since the days of ancient creation epics, the sea has been a symbol of chaos and danger; clearly, water takes on these characteristics in the terrifying ocean in The Awakening and in the river that swallows Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Yet for each major character in the two novels, water yields lucidity in its wake; it is the “cure” that brings closure to each story

Awakening, Edna is able to find some liberation in each of the various places she inhabits, yet it is immediately countered by misery and unfulfillment. This holds true even until the end of the novel when the reader is left with the question of whether Edna has truly found a setting in which she can finally feel whole and be her true self. Grand Isle: The novel begins with Edna, her husband Leonce, and her two children vacationing in the island of Grand Isle for the summer. When Edna is in Grand

expected of women. Edna is the opposite of the ideal mother and wife. She does many things that would be frowned upon in the late nineteenth century. Throughout the novel Edna is seen fighting societal standards. She struggles to have an identity of her own instead of being known as Leonce Pontellier’s wife and Raul and Etienne Pontellier’s mother. In the end Edna chooses to end her life instead of being defined by men for the rest of her life. In the beginning it seems like Edna feels compelled to

Rivera 2 the novel, she continues to refuse the role expected of her. Edna was sleeping in a hammock just outside her home and Leonce repeatedly asked her to go to bed but she denied his request. She stood up for herself in a world that believes she is less than human. She did not allow him to taunt her and control her no matter what the situation was. No other woman at that time would have audacity to speak against her husband but Edna could. “Mr. Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long

Edna is isolated and trapped like those birds in the cage, by her husband, and she does not have any freedom to leave as she pleases. “You are burnt beyond recognition,” he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin p.24). Edna could not escape from her husband anywhere, even when they were at the ocean; “ I thought I should

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

Brennan Mrs. Schroder AP Literature 3 January 2018 Edna Pontellier: Her Internal Conflicts As the main character in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier experiences strong internal conflicts that could be influenced by the social standards of the time as well as her close Creole companions. Throughout the novel we are given a first hand look at how Mrs. Pontellier deals with these conflicts and in the end, her final decision. Edna Pontellier poses as a double-minded character struggling

often treated like they deserve more than their counterparts. In The Awakening, Edna is a representation of women as a whole, as she is not treated with the respect a woman deserves. She is overlooked and ignored by her husband, which leads her to doing some questionable things. Edna is then looked at as the bad person in the relationship even though she was the one being pushed around in the situation. Specifically, Edna represents women’s mistreatment throughout time, but her character also shows