The Escape of a Modern Housewife in Kate Chopins The...

The Escape of a Modern Housewife â€Å"She could only realize that she herself – her present self – was in some way different from the other self† (Chopin 67). The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a compelling story of a woman who is awakened from the miserable duties of a housewife and mother to a woman who falls in love and finds herself. This story is not to judge a woman for having an affair with her husband, but it is to make the reader fall in love with this woman named Edna and go with her on her journey of finding herself. Edna is an extraordinary character in The Awakening, and it makes the reader see the basis of independence, and also giving the reader his or her own journey and reflection of their own life throughout the novel. The†¦show more content†¦Robert’s love changed her life and makes it complete, and without him there would be no awakening for her. Life and death are based on this novel, figuratively Edna awakens from her dull, dep endent life to and independent, always changing life. This is an example of the first time Edna awakens from her dull life: â€Å"For the first time she recognized anew the symptoms of infatuation which had felt incipiently as a child, as a girl in her earliest teens, and later as a young woman† (Chopin 75). Literally the novel deals with death when Edna commits suicide and figuratively she’s already dealt with death by being married to her husband before she awakens into a new life. â€Å"She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before† (Chopin 47) is a quote that pertains to an implicit and explicit belief. The quote’s literal context tells you that Edna wanted to swim in the ocean farther than any other woman had ever done, and she became taunted with the idea of doing so. But the figurative context of this quote is that she wanted to escape the duties of being a wife and mother, she no longer wanted to be a modern woman. There was a difference in her thinking than others, and she was determined to find it and be independent no matter what her mental strength was. In this quote â€Å" â€Å"Good-by –Show MoreRelatedKate Chopin s The Awakening1685 Words   |  7 Pagesresponsible for domestic duties and have little involvement in society. This created a heavy oppression upon females and as a result forced many of them to remain entrapped in a male dominant society, in fear of being outcasted. In the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin depicts how Edna’s defiance of Victorian ideal and ignorance of gender roles allows her to achieve emancipation from the male-dominated society. The Victorian Era was a time that determined the duties and roles of an individual solely basedRead MoreThe Pursuit of Human Freedom in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre1749 Words   |  7 PagesIn Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre, one of the most prevalent and recurring themes and ideas relates to human freedom. The main characters in the two novels, Edna Pontellier and Jane Eyre, both long for social, religious, and sexual emancipation among other things – freedom from the constraints of Victorian society, which have rendered them dependent and inferior to men. While it is true that both protagonists of their respective novels wanted emancipation, their living