Awakening Essay -- essays research papers

When Kate Chopins The Awakening was published at the remove of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the authors defiance of squeamish proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the elicit of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopins own words halt-to-end her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the books end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she coffin nail no longer struggle against the social conventions which get across her fulfillment as a person and as a charr. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more(prenominal) than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent persuasion which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any mea ningful participation. The fact that Edna is an artist is significant, insofar as it allows her to permit a sensibility as developed as the authors. Furthermore, Edna is able to construe in Mlle. Reisz, who has established herself as a musician, a role present who inspires her in her efforts at independence. Mlle. Reisz, in confiding to Edna that You are the only unitary worth playing for, gives evidence of the common bond which the two of them olfactory perception as women whose sensibilities are significantly different from those of the common herd. The French inheritance which Edna absorbed by dint of her Creole upbringing allowed her, like Kate Chopin herself, to have fellowship or a way of life that represented a contend to dominant Victorian conventions. In Creole society, women are dominated by men, but at least the freer attitude toward knowledgeableity allows a woman opportunities for romance which are lacking in Anglo-Saxon culture. But sexual freedom is of little interest to Edna unless it can be used as a means of asserting her overall freedom as a human being. Learning to swim is thus important to her, because it allows her to have more control over the circumstances of her own life through the overcoming of the dread of water and the fear of death which it symbolizes. Again, the process through which Edna attains liberation and, in the authors words, begins to do as she likes and to feel as she likes, is a gradual one. From stat... ...otagonist, or the heroine. She dares to rebel against prevailing society, and change surface the very title of the book, as named by Kate Chopin, The Awakening is analogous to danger. Is the truth then so dangerous and dreadful that one risks self-destruction? And if so, is this applicable to everyone? Similarly I would ask the question, if this were to be the case, or if even not, why is that most of the population is not committing suicide? Surely they are living lives which they would not prefer, for example, most people tally to polls would not report their job unless they had to and were paid for it. Most marriages end in divorce. Indeed, the degree and level of suffering and pain throughout the existence is almost unfathomable. Perhaps, Ms. Chopin was living out a vicarious reality through Edna in committing suicide...and perhaps, this may be the underlying reason for the great answer which this novel has enjoyed...as well as staying power. Similarly, it has also been appointed a flesh of jewel of the vanguard of womens rights. Indeed, The Awakening is one novel which exemplifies the attempt -- even realization -- of American womanhoods escape from personal and domestic bondage.