Kate Chopins novella, The Awakening Essay -- English Literature

Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening In Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening, the reader is introduced into a society that is strictly male-dominated where women fill in the stereotypical role of watching the children, cooking, cleaning and keeping up appearances. Writers often highlight the values of a certain society by introducing a character who is alienated from their culture by a trait such as gender, race or creed. In Chopin's Awakening, the reader meets Edna Pontellier, a married woman who attempts to overcome her "fate", to avoid the stereotypical role of a woman in her era, and in doing so she reveals the surrounding society's assumption and moral values about women of Edna's time. Edna helps to reveal the assumptions of her society. The people surrounding her each day, particularly women, assume their roles as "housewives"; while the men are free to leave the house, go out at night, gamble, drink and work. Edna surprises her associates when she takes up painting, which represents a working job and independence for Edna. Leonce does not appreciate this. The reader sees how he assumes what she should be doing from this quote on page 57: "Mr.Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain tacit submissiveness in his wife. But her new and unexpected line of conduct completely bewildered him. ... Then her absolute disregard for her duties as a wife angered him." Leonce says himself, "It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier [meaning a studio for painting] days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family." This quote is rather symbolic as it uses the word "emplo... ...men surrounding her succumb to in life. By defying these "laws" Edna makes clear the morals that all the other women value; the satisfaction of their husband, the acceptance of society, and the conformity to stereotypical roles of a woman. In The Awakening, Edna is used as a tool to emphasize the surrounding society's assumptions of a woman and the morals that they value. Often, a character is set apart from their culture for this sole purpose, to stress a point the author wants to make. In this case, Chopin wants to show the reader how male dominated society has been, how quickly women succumb to their "roles", and how easily people can be shaped to consider a different and all too meaningless set of morals. Edna is strategically alienated in the novella so as the reader can discover society's assumptions and moral values of the era and up until today.