Compare And Contrast Chopin And The Great Escape
The Great Escape, and Where to Find It
The societal cage that 19th century women were trapped in was damaging enough to break any individual’s spirit. Women were subjected to harsh stereotypes and expectations which fit a very specific mold, and failure to meet those standards could result in dire consequences. Naturalist authors like Kate Chopin and Charlotte Gilman were able to passionately critique the status of their society through the dark, deterministic lens of narrators with no way out. Gilman and Chopin imply that the societal norms of their time were so crippling that women like their characters had no escape but literal or figurative death.
The societal expectations for women in 19th century Louisiana contrasted mightily with the pillars of Edna Pontellier’s existence. The “mother-women” drew the most interest and desire from their husbands, and this model was exactly what Leonce Pontellier was looking for. However, Edna sharply contrasted with her contemporaries, especially from her good friend “Adele Ratignolle. There are no other words to describe her… fair lady of our dreams (1223)”. Adele is …show more content…
This death, whether literal or figurative, is the fate of both narrators, which speaks volumes about the opinions of the authors on the status quo. This pessimistic perspective truly brings attention to the lack of hope for women who needed a voice at the time. Indeed, upon analyzing the second narrator’s insane behavior, she unearths an allegory Gilman extrapolates to the whole of society: “the woman in the cage” embroidered onto the wallpaper represents the situation of all women who don’t fit the mold of the ideal. The Naturalist critique of society brought much needed attention to the walls which ostracized the outliers and constrained those who didn’t line up with
The societal cage that 19th century women were trapped in was damaging enough to break any individual’s spirit. Women were subjected to harsh stereotypes and expectations which fit a very specific mold, and failure to meet those standards could result in dire consequences. Naturalist authors like Kate Chopin and Charlotte Gilman were able to passionately critique the status of their society through the dark, deterministic lens of narrators with no way out. Gilman and Chopin imply that the societal norms of their time were so crippling that women like their characters had no escape but literal or figurative death.
The societal expectations for women in 19th century Louisiana contrasted mightily with the pillars of Edna Pontellier’s existence. The “mother-women” drew the most interest and desire from their husbands, and this model was exactly what Leonce Pontellier was looking for. However, Edna sharply contrasted with her contemporaries, especially from her good friend “Adele Ratignolle. There are no other words to describe her… fair lady of our dreams (1223)”. Adele is …show more content…
This death, whether literal or figurative, is the fate of both narrators, which speaks volumes about the opinions of the authors on the status quo. This pessimistic perspective truly brings attention to the lack of hope for women who needed a voice at the time. Indeed, upon analyzing the second narrator’s insane behavior, she unearths an allegory Gilman extrapolates to the whole of society: “the woman in the cage” embroidered onto the wallpaper represents the situation of all women who don’t fit the mold of the ideal. The Naturalist critique of society brought much needed attention to the walls which ostracized the outliers and constrained those who didn’t line up with