Preview

Comparing The Awakening And At Fault, By Kate Chopin

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1553 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparing The Awakening And At Fault, By Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin establishes her perception of human rights unification, between the genders of the male and female, within the confines of her two Victorian novels, The Awakening and At Fault. Naturally, Chopin utilizes her womanly attribute of candid expressing of the mind; through this, the progressive author adroitly elaborates her influences and composing style. As Chopin builds the structure of the two novels, she had illustrated and defined an open outlook on the average woman’s life in America, during the late eighteen-hundreds. Chopin interacts with her deeply rooted feminist opinions, constructing the following passages with main character female perspectives and compelling details that result in the contemplation of the audience. As an …show more content…
Kate Chopin distinguishes her feminist-based opinion, referring to equal human rights, through the female characters of the Awakening. Chopin had fabricated a woman, one who was a product of a forced marriage. The woman, Edna, she often “found her herself face to face with the realities” of the world, realizing that this place was not fit for an average American woman to make it out of independently. (Snodgrass 63) In effect, the generating of this particular woman had fit the lifestyle of many of Chopin’s female readers during the time. The outbreak of this perspective had separated Chopin’s works from the many other female composers during the Victorian Era. The author discusses a powerful subject, one that hits home for …show more content…
The author gifts her audience with an experiential third-person omniscient point-of-view, discussing how women were limited to the right of free choice. Chopin takes her audience through a series of women, who “realize their position in the universe as a human being,” only to be pushed down again “as an individual.” (Snodgrass 57) The women go through sentiments and reflections that push certain women to a self-realization of purpose, then to be degraded by the male characters as a memory of how life really is. The author utilizes the portion of the text as a part to spark a sense of contemplation inside the audience of women who have dedicated their lives as a wife and mother, those who seem to be unable to determine their true purpose or to follow their path. The honestness of the author within this time period, was long-standing and time-honored by women across the United States because of her confidence of greatly modifying the traditional housewife into a working and self-dependent being, was contumacious to the moderate American man, yet, puissant to a woman. Kate Chopin reaches out to her female audience with an optimistic point of view, in order to display that their lives and significance did not have to be forcefully subjected to the beliefs of the society of how women should be. Generally, in this time period, many men were "less supportive of the Equal Rights

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Symbols In The Awakening

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Around the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were fixed roles for men and women as dictated by a male dominated society. The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin in 1899, can be taken to show how some women of that particular time felt confined. They were expected to be everything: a caring mother, a loving wife, a social friend. In The Awakening, the main character, Edna, decides to veer off from that path of what is socially expected from her, and in such creates her own desolation. She opts to satisfy herself over what she is accountable for. In the end, there could be no happy ending for her because of this. Chopin assimilates many motifs and symbols including minor characters to contrast Edna’s complications with her own identity and place…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kathleen M. Streater is author of the article “Adele Ratignolle: Kate Chopin’s Feminist at Home in The Awakening” which was published in the peer reviewed journal, The Midwest Quarterly. After doing an extensive search of Streater’s background, it does not appear she has written any other articles. Although not an expert on the subject of Chopin, Streater makes a unique and convincing argument in her article. She uses expert quotes to bolster her position that “to focus solely on Edna’s radical feminism is to limit Chopin’s exploration of feminism itself” (409). This argument is unique, as the author describes, because many critics dismiss Adele all together as a feminist. Chopin’s depiction of Adele as a “mother-woman” muddies the water because to “become a wife and mother is, on some level, to capitulate one’s self to patriarchal systems” (406).…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” Kate explores a depressed high class woman’s psychological journey and gender issues towards enlightenment and end up committing suicide as she couldn’t open up herself to anybody who could help her in the situation she was going through. The position of women in society in 19th society was limited to household activities, taking care of children, and work according to the husband to please him all the time. Edna, who is self-aware and she wants to live her life in her own way rather than dancing on tunes of her husband to fulfil his desires. The Awakening supports women to obtain independence physically, emotionally, and financially which was impossible for the women of 19th century.…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Her stories often deal with marriage and would provoke an unconventional perspective on the theme. “She forced her characters to face choices between what society expects of them and what they really desired” (Bonner Jr.). When the characters decided to follow their own path rather than that of society, it forces the reader to explore the problems and dilemmas that women face. “Chopin also is unafraid to suggest that sometimes women want sex -- or even independence” (Baker). Women accepted their roles forced upon them by society, even though a void in their inner selves longed to be filled. Chopin used her writings to put longings and feelings in written form on a page. The Awakening and “The Storm” opened an awareness that women and society needed to address and change for the better. Naturally, sexual feelings are something to embrace not confine. Putting restrictions on these feelings is not healthy and confines a woman to not blossom and grow. Letting a woman blossom would bring out the true beauty of her inner being. She also gave us a glimpse of possibilities when the decision of an adulterous affair is acted upon. No judgment or condemnation came from her writings. Kate did want to show that outcomes could have different collateral and consequential paths. No matter what decision has been made, the cause and effect implemented as soon as a decision has been reached. Either bad or good outcomes are one’s own personal choice. Every individual has to live with every decision acted upon. The consequences can lead an individual down a bittersweet path. To have the freedom or liberty of being one’s true self is worth the outcome. Every individual is unique and created to bloom from this uniqueness. People around us would not see the beauty the individual is meant to be unless we allow ourselves to bloom to…

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many individuals believe that we live in a perfect environment, without violence or prejudice. A group of people who call themselves feminists argue that a significant amount of the population, women, are treated as men’s tools. To fight back this ideal, people write stories with female protagonists who challenge the social norms, one example being Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. The novella gives life to the motherly Adele Ratignolle, the unconventional Reisz, and the stubborn protagonist Edna Pontellier. Mrs. Pontellier is a rebellious woman trapped in a strict culture who finds freedom during her vacation in Grand Isle. As a result, she decides to obtain her individuality with radical actions that reflect modern feminist ideals that are essential in a feminist literature.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout history, women have been oppressed because they did not have the same rights as men. Thus, they have suffered unfair treatment such as not being able to vote, having their voices heard in the political sphere because of their gender and so on. Therefore, feminist criticism, which focuses on the women’s perspective, gradually formed and became quickly integrated into the literary works such as Kate Chopin’s short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby”. Kate Chopin is an American author who advocated that women and men both should have right of equality and freedom. In her short story, “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin describes a young wife who has heart disease which is why her sister and…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In her novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin depicts a woman much like herself. In the novel, the reader finds Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who, like Chopin, struggles with her role in society. The Victorian era woman was expected to fill a domestic role. This role requires them to provide their husbands with a clean home, food on the table and to raise their children. They were pieces of property to their husbands, who cared more about their wives’ appearance than their feelings. Edna initially attempts to conform to these roles, her eyes are gradually opened to possibilities of liberation. Throughout the novel, many aspects to Edna’s awakening are revealed. Edna’s emotional awakening and change in perspective on romance lead to…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kate Chopin’s purpose in delivering The Awakening to the public was to show the lives of women and how limited they were and felt in her days. During her time, a typical woman’s role in society was a good homemaker who cared for her children. However, by creating a story about Edna Pontellier break free from society’s norms and live life as she pleased, Chopin also revealed a woman’s hidden capabilities and how they were and could be more than what society believed them to be.…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kate Chopin bravely exposed an attitude of feminism to an unprepared society in her novel The Awakening. Her brilliant work of fiction was not recognized at the time because feminism had not yet become popular. Eble claimed that Chopin 's book was considered to be "Too strong a drink for moral babes and should labeled 'poison '" (75). Chopin defied societal assumptions of her time period and wrote the novel, The Awakening, using attitudes of characters in regard to gender, changes in the main character, imagery and Edna 's suicide to illustrate…

    • 2601 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Millions of people were “focusing on the changing position of women at the turn of the century” (“Awakening” 1). The Women’s Movement was a national movement by women for women. They fought for equality – legally, politically, and socially. Kate Chopin was alive for the first and second waves of this monumental feminist movement. By the time Chopin began writing in the 1890s, the second wave of feminism had already begun. Women had made great strides. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was born in 1966. This group fought for maternity leave rights, tax deductions for child-care expenses, equal job-training opportunities for poor women, etcetera (Burkett 1). In a relatively short time period, “women gained access to jobs in every corner of the U.S. economy…divorce laws were liberalized…women’s studies programs were created in colleges and universities” (Burkett 2). Unfortunately, women were still expected to complete the traditional “housewife tasks”: cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children (Henry 168-69). Needless to say, society’s focus was turned to the political and social progression of women. This is why Chopin was concerned with “the fixed idea of women’s roles. She and other women were beginning to set down the roots of modern feminism” (Davis…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Feminism has consistently been a major theme of literature throughout history. It has been used as a commentary on the status of women in a given time period, or to show how people’s attitudes have changed over time. Feminism in literature can also be used, as in the case of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, as a way to show how individual people, especially women can have a positive effect on the world around them. The actions of Edna and Adele Ratignolle in The Awakening are examples of how women can advance feminist ideals, even if it is not done in the conventional way. Edna does this by becoming her own individual person throughout the story. Adele does it by simply her life the way she wants, even if that means stay home and…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Edna's Inequality

    • 3185 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of great struggle within American society. Politically, there should have been equality, for all people were given the same rights by law. However this certainly was not the case in reality, for society was not accepting of any change; there was in fact prevailing inequality. Kate Chopin challenged this reality with her bold, unconventional ideas, but was scorned by the traditional view of society when she first published her novel, The Awakening in 1899. This novel reflects the author’s own personal life experiences and through the protagonist Edna Pontellier and also portrays her views on the cultural, political and social norms of this century through Edna’s actions, as well as her emotions towards herself, society and the other characters in the novel. The struggle for gender in this time period was often depicted as a physical…

    • 3185 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1899 Mrs.Chopin published her final novel, The Awakening, although it was widely accepted, it shocked people because of the strong leading female role. Kate Chopin had wrote this book when the feminist movement was just beginning in America, during this time in some states women were still classified as property. The Awakening is about a young woman, Edna Pontellier, who thinks about herself as a rebel and she has an affair with her husband, Léonce, cheating on him with the Alceé Arobin. During Edna’s “Awakening” she learned many things, like how to express love and compassion, and how to express herself through art. This offended a lot of people because Mrs.Chopin had written about controversial topics like feminism, during the time she wrote this the feminist movement was recently starting to…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The intent of Kate Chopin’s story was to show the limited options of a woman. Mrs. Pontellier was one who broke all the expected roles of an upper class woman. Mrs. Pontellier became extremely bored with her lifestyle and her husband. Her husband was never around, nor did he appear to be…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Awakening

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    There is nothing that Edna Pontellier wants more than to be unbounded and free from society’s expectation of women. In “The Awakening”, Kate Chopin clearly exhibits her personal stance on women’s roles through the main character. The characterization of Edna allows her personal passion to alter her personality and make several prominent changes to her lifestyle.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays