The Oppression of Women in Society

Naturalism is a literary movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in America, England, and France that produced a type of "realistic" fiction, but it was not realism exactly. It created a mode of representation that is detailed, detached, and obejctive. Naturalism assumes that humans have almost no power over what happens in a situation; things happen to people; they are at the mercy of a variety of external and internal forces. Naturalist novels present subjects as objective, without commenting on the morality or fairness of the situations. Also, characters are presented as pessimist, that life, in general, is an inescapable trap. In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, naturalism is employed to show how the Victorian era was inherently patriarchal by using Edna Pontellier as a victim to enforce the political, social, and psychological oppression of women in society. Throughout Edna's journey, she struggles to conform with the role of being a mother and wife. The accepted mother-woman in Edna's society were "fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood," (Chopin 51). However, Edna is not able to be a such a woman with her rejection towards that title. Her children, Raoul and Etienne, are self-disciplined due to Edna's lack of being a "mother-woman". "If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother's arms for comfort; he would more likely pick himself up, wipe the water of out his eyes and the sand out of his mouth, and go on playing,"(Chopin 50). This shows how Edna was never there to comfort her children when they fell or got injured, Raoul and Etienne would pick themselves up instead of instinctably crying out for their mother. Furthermore, Edna has to be pressured in order to affirm that she had the best husband, other than admitting it herself. "And the ladies... all declared that Mr. Pontellier was