Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Oppression of Women

Good Essays
1058 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Oppression of Women
The Oppression of Women
Women have always been oppressed someway or another, and never seem to be understood. In the novel The Awakening, the males, such as Robert, Edna’s father, Edna’s husband, and Alcee Arobin, all try to control Edna, but do not realize that Edna wants to be a strong, independent woman. Arobin tries to manipulate Edna into thinking that she needs him. Robert wants Edna to be his wife, but he does not understand her. Edna’s father and husband think that she should be a proper lady, and try forcing her to be someone that she is not. All Edna wants is freedom, but she cannot get it with all these men in her life trying to control her. In The Awakening, Edna wants freedom, but due to the oppression from all of the male characters in her life, she is unable to find it.
First of all, one of the reasons that Edna feels so oppressed and trapped is at the fault of Alcee Arobin. He basically tries taking advantage of women, and Edna Pontellier posed as a perfect target for him to try to manipulate. When Arobin finally gets Edna, he tries to keep her in his possession, mainly by always wanting to see her and be around her, as seen in this quote, “He responded at once by presenting himself at her home with all his disarming naïveté. And then there was scarcely a day which followed that she did not see him or was not reminded of him.” (Chopin 48). This is also keeping her having freedom, as he is forcing her to seem him, and making her think that she needs him.
Secondly, Edna’s father, the Colonel, has a strict mentality, causing him to hold Edna to a very high level of discipline. This is preventing her from getting the freedom that she wants. “Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s.” (Chopin 116). This quote is from just before she dies, showing the struggles that she had had with her father. Edna’s father always tried to control her, and even attempted to make Mr. Pontellier more controlling towards Edna, giving her even less control. “You are too lenient, too lenient by far, Leonce," asserted the Colonel. "Authority, coercion are what is needed. Put your foot down good and hard; the only way to manage a wife. Take my word for it.” (Chopin 71). When the colonel comes to visit, Edna starts acting like a ‘proper’ housewife should act, due to the fact that she wants her father to believe that she is playing her role as a woman, as he would be very upset if he knew what she were really like. “She would not permit a servant or one of the children to do anything for him which she might do herself.” (Chopin 69). This clearly shows how much the oppression of her father has an affect on her, as it makes her become a different person that she does not want to be.
Also, Robert Lebrune can be blamed a lot for taking away the freedom of Edna. One of the main reasons for this is that he wanted a conventional wife, and he feels like the woman should have the average duties of the average housewife. He finds out that he can never be with Edna, as she does not want to be his wife. “I forgot everything but a wild dream of your some way becoming my wife.” (Chopin 108). Robert is hoping that Edna will leave Leonce and be with him, but he does not realize that Edna wants to leave Leonce because she does not want anyone to control her, so that she may have freedom and can express herself. Therefore, Edna being with Robert would be no different from Edna being with Leonce. Robert realizes how he was oppressing her into being with him, and back away. Edna’s freedom was threatened by Robert hoping to be with her, so she tried fending him off.
Finally, one of the most oppressive men in the novel is Edna’s husband, Leonce Pontellier. He thought of women as only useful for supporting their family’s needs. “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business.” (Chopin 5). This quote shows that Leonce thinks that it is Edna’s responsibility, and not his own, to care for their kids. A lot of this had to with the time period, pertaining to how society thought wives should act. Mr. Pontellier very selfishly forced Edna’s occupation to be work at home, whilst his occupation was his business. Mr. Pontellier never asks his wife about her opinion on things, or even how her day went, yet on page 5 it states that “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in the things which concerned him and valued so little his conversation.” Mr. Pontellier expects his wife to be in awe of him and his words, yet very often he does not even acknowledge her existence. Also, Mr. Pontellier thinks that the people living in his town will scorn him and his business will be ruined if the townspeople think that his wife is out of control, like he thinks she is. This is another reason why he has to force her act like a proper lady should. Edna’s lack of responsibility for her kids, odd pastimes such as her art, and want for freedom could really mess up Leonce’s image; therefore he tries to oppress Edna. In the novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is oppressed by nearly every male character that she knows. Right before Edna commits suicide, Chopin acknowledges how Edna is trapped and chained down by this quote; “She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree.” (Chopin 116). This shows that Edna refers to herself as a chained dog; a creature who just wants freedom, but can never receive it due to what is chaining it down. Men will never understand her, and therefore the only real way to express herself and have complete freedom…was to kill herself.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Edna was not going to sacrifice herself or her happiness anymore for others. Not for her husband, her children, her fellow friends: Madame Lebrun and Madame Ratignolle, or even the love of her life, Robert. She loved herself too much and felt herself too important to stay confined to a role that didn’t fit who she was as a person. Edna came to this realization through a series of different experiences: her relationship with Robert, her friendship with Mademoiselle Reisz, and her developing artistic ability for painting. Edna realized that she couldn’t be herself and be happy, and still “remember the children.” She no longer wanted to be possessed mind, body, and soul. In the end, she would only be sad, alone, frustrated, and unhappy. So she came to the realization that she had to kill herself and accepted that fact.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edna Pontellier is a woman in control of her life. She and her husband, Léonce, have frequent power struggles due to this. When he returns from his business trip and goes to check on their sleeping children, Léonce is convinced that one of them has a fever and needs looking after, but not from him. Léonce tells Edna to go look after her kids, and when she refuses and says that she checked before and they were both fine he starts to reproach her for neglecting her family and not caring about her kids. Edna, finally, finds herself going to the kids’ room just to calm Léonce down; but she never tells him what she did or how the kids were. After this Edna feels: “An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in an unfamiliar part of her…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna’s independence causes familial tension. Edna’s resistance to her husband’s orders angers Leonce. For example, when Mr. Pontellier learns that Edna did not stay at home for her regular Tuesday reception, he screams and says she had to continue the…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kate Chopin's depiction of "The Awakening" is realistic as she develops Edna Pontellier's character from a socially and morally respectable individual to an individual that turns her back on everything closest to her as she births her new self-being. Edna Pontellier struggles between her subconscious and conscious thoughts as unusual feelings stir unfounded emotions and senses. Some of Chopin's characters lend themselves in Edna's "awakening". Through examination of Leonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, Madame Moiselle Reisz, Adele Ratignolle, and Alcee Arobin the life of Edna Pontellier turns into her ultimate death. The relationship she has with each one of these characters influences and initiates a lost feeling that has never risen to its complete capacity. As Edna awakens to this new self she becomes self absorbs and chooses herself-satisfaction over her family.…

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During their talk in chapter 7, Edna also tells Adele something about her feelings for her children. Edna loves her children but feels weighed down with a responsibility that is suited to her nature. She feels relief when they are away. Edna is not a “mother-woman” like the women that surround her on the island, and their children, when they fall over and hurt themselves, do not rush to her as other women's children do, but they merely pick themselves up and carry on playing. Although Mr. Pontellier is therefore not able to point the finger towards any definite dereliction of duty as a mother, the way that Edna is obviously so different from the other mothers with them that summer highlights that she has a very different kind of relationship…

    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gender is a socially constructed power hierarchy that must be destroyed, not reinterpreted as consensual, empowering, individualized “gender identities” that are magically divorced from all contextual and historical meaning. Such a framing invisibilizes female and feminine oppression by falsely situating men-born-men and women-born-women as gendered equals relative to trans-identified people. Though possibly unintentional, “cis” now functions as a significant barrier to feminism’s ability to articulate the oppression caused by the socially constructed gender differentiation that enables male/masculine supremacy. Cis is a politically useless concept because it fails to illuminate the mechanics of gendered oppression.…

    • 94 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    However, Chopin also contrasts this light with “shadowy anguish” giving the idea that although Edna seems to have ‘awoken’ from her stupor she is still clouded in many aspects of what she feels. Continuing throughout the book, Edna remains in a deep thought, which also suggests that she has not fully emerged and still continues to be slightly outside of what is real. In the short length of chapter six Chopin abridges Edna’s most significant spiritual awakening throughout the book; capturing the wisdom that is slowly descending upon Edna. After chapter six there seems to be a change and over the course of her time in Grand Isle her reticent character seems to erode. She exposes a stronger sense of herself through her relationship with Robert; his insouciant flirting seems to inspire Edna to reveal herself more to others. Despite this, she still seems to be living a “dual life-the outward existence which she conforms, the inward life which she questions” which could refer back to her mechanized way of life. It becomes evident that as Edna experiences her awakening she begins to blur the lines of these dual lives. This interlacing is shown, most clearly, through her attitude towards her husband and friends and the way in which her social interactions begins to…

    • 1657 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Edna neglects her social reputation and duties by having affairs, she seems to become an independent woman whose power is guided by love, but she soon crashes through this dream as reality kicks in that she still has a family that she must take care of and expectations to reach. Robert realizes this, which is why he leaves, but seeing her lover float away, Edna loses her fight for control and thus decides to take her own life, sadly much like how many other people in society decide to deal with their problems. If one is going to fight for control and rebel against expectations, he or she must be prepared for the…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    All in all, throughout “The Awakening,” Edna learns who she is as a person. By becoming an independent woman who takes risk, she learns she doesn’t need a husband to function throughout society, especially Creole society. From getting into Creole lifestyle, the affairs, and her suicide, I believe Edna was her own biggest influence throughout “The Awakening”. Although, I do believe she learned the repercussion of making risky…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna faces this struggle with her husband, Mr. Pontellier because she feels like he controls her. After her first awakening experience, Edna’s husband demands that she come inside and go to bed and it is noted that, “She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did.” This realization that her husband used to control her and Edna’s refusal to continue obeying him demarks the first steps she takes toward taking control of her own life. The second prominent example of blatant disregard for her husband’s wishes is when Edna moves into her own house. No longer wishing to live in her husband’s house, she moves to her own as the narrator points out, “The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm… Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.” This validates Edna’s desire to be free from her former life and highlights the fact that she is only able to truly flourish when she is on her own. Sadly, one must be willing to give up relationships in order to fully achieve this sense of…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna is a married woman vacationing at her summer home with her family. Edna’s husband conforms to gender stereotypes of this time and is devoted more to his work than to his family, and believes he holds dominance over his wife solely because he is male. In the first chapter of the novel Mr. Pontellier leaves Edna for Klein’s Hotel and doesn’t return for hours. This is the first of many instanced when Edna is isolated from her husband for long periods of time. Edna quickly becomes rebellious toward her husband. In her time alone she realizes that she doesn’t need him and can be perfectly happy on her own. Edna relishes in her first experience of talking back to her husband enjoying the power she suddenly feels over…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Awakening

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Edna Pontellier’s action in the novel “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, could be justified as her being selfish and unjustified in her actions. The story's romanticism changes the outlook of Edna to being an admirable character, in many ways. She emancipated herself from her restraints and achieved nearly all that she desired. Chopin could have used this book to glorify the women of this age, but because of the time period and life styles, most of what was referred to in the story was very straightforward and possible. Therefore, I believe her affairs, treatment of her family and lovers, and suicide were completely unnecessary and, well, idiotic.…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    There is a dual personality in Edna, “the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” (Chopin 26). Edna does not express opinions or anything that would insinuate a power struggle between her and the men around her. This behavior is typical of the woman in the nineteenth century as women were only seen as objects. Edna is especially seen as an object in the eyes of her husband. After Edna comes back to her husband from the beach, he shows concern over her darkened appearance. Mr. Pontellier looks at his wife as if she is “a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin 7). Edna does not establish herself as a human with thoughts and opinions, as she just laughs with her friend soon after. Although, there are a few women who do share opinions and speak about educated topics in broad daylight. Edna is with these women in the…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Awakening

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    To start things off, it is unmistakable that Edna was not a conventional woman. Even from early on in the novel, Chopin clearly states that “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother woman.” Mother women were abundant at Grand Isle and were described as women who idolized their children and worshipped their husbands. One of the mother women, Adele Ratagnolle, was the epitome of the term and served as the foil to Edna. Adele was described as “the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm whereas Edna was “rather handsome than beautiful.” By introducing Madam Ratagnolle, Chopin successfully emphasizes the contrast between Edna and the ideal of a perfect woman at the time.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hates that she still cares what others think of her, hates that she relies on their judgment of herself and even her art. "I'm not going to be forced into doing things," Edna decides, for no one else but herself that she will not become the conventional woman; she will not settle on a life filled with conformity to please others; Edna would rather die…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays