Kate Chopin’s The Awakening - The Feminist Awakening Essay

The Feminist Awakening Women’s rights have evolved over time; beginning with being homemakers and evolving to obtaining professions, acquiring an education, and gaining the right to vote. The movement that created all these revolutionary changes was called the feminist movement. The feminist movement occurred in the twentieth century. Many people are not aware of the purpose of the feminist movement. The movement was political and social and it sought to set up equality for women. Women’s groups in the United States worked together to win women’s suffrage and later to create and support the Equal Rights Amendment. The economic boom between 1917 and the early 1960s brought many American women into the workplace. As women began to join†¦show more content†¦During the feminist movement many female authors began to write novels about female emancipation. In these novels, the protagonist experiences enlightenment where she discovers that she is living an inco mplete life that society has oppressed her into. Before the movement, society forced women into roles that were inferior to men and they were thought of as men’s property. Harold bloom states, â€Å"The direction of The Awakening follows what is becoming a pattern in literature by and about women†¦toward greater self-knowledge that leads in turn to a revelation of the disparity between that self-knowledge and nature of the world† (Bloom, Kate Chopin 43). Moreover, Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal challenge more than a social struggle, which contradicts her literary works. According to Harold Bloom, â€Å"Chopin’s novel was not intended to make a broad social statement but rather that it indicates that Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal matter†(Bloom, Bloom’s Notes 58). In the past, the novel was banned because of its connection to the feminist movement. One of the main aspects of the feminist movement is breaking away from society’s limits and expectations. Before Edna could break free, she first had to experience an awakening. In her awakening, she had to realize the role of women in the universe, the role that society created for women, â€Å"†¦beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Chopin 17).Show MoreRelatedEdna Pontellier as a Feminist in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening765 Words   |  3 Pagesto fight back against the norm. This never-ending war is responsible for major advancements in the social order, but not every story is so successful. In Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Awakening†, Edna Pontellier finds herself fighting this very battle that, although begins with a positive outlook, ultimately ends in her demise. Throughout â€Å"The Awakening†, Edna is immersed in a constant clash with society over the significance of the difference between her life and her self. To Edna, the question of whetherRead More feminaw Feminist Reading of Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay1056 Words   |  5 Pages A Feminist Reading of The Awakeningnbsp;nbsp; The Awakening is not new to me. However, in the class when I read it before the instructor refused to entertain a feminist criticism. The theory presented was that Edna knew what kind of man she was marrying and all these things she went through: her friendship with Madame Reisz leaving the house, entertaining her friends at the party, her situation with Robert and Arobin were all selfish efforts toward the ultimate freedom which is death. Read MoreKate Chopin s Life And Feminism1281 Words   |  6 PagesKate Chopin’s Life and Works- Feminism Kate Chopin, born on February 8th, 1850, was a progressive writer in the midst of a conservative and unequal time. She exposed the unfair undertones of society in such a way that made people outrage and condemn some of her works. However, in the early 1900s, her works were examined again and people started to listen to her ideas. One of these main motifs that Chopin’s works kept bringing up were feminism and equality. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, a radicalRead MoreEssay about Feminism in The Awakening986 Words   |  4 PagesIn the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin the critical approach feminism is a major aspect of the novel. According to dictionary.reference.com the word feminism means, â€Å"The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.† The Awakening takes place during the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds, in New Orleans. The novel is about Edna Pontellier and her family on a summer vacati on. Edna, who is a wife and mother, is inferior to her husbandRead MoreThe Unique Style Of Kate Chopin s Writing1603 Words   |  7 PagesThe unique style of Kate Chopin’s writing has influenced and paved the way for many female authors. Although not verbally, Kate Chopin aired political and social issues affecting women and challenging the validity of such restrictions through fiction. Kate Chopin, a feminist in her time, prevailed against the notion that a woman’s purpose was to only be a housewife and nothing more. Kate Chopin fortified the importance of women empowerment, self-expression, self-assertion, and female sexuality throughRead MoreKate Chopin s Literary Creativity And Women s Independence1097 Words   |  5 Pages Kate Chopin has become one of the most influential feminist writers of the century. From Chopin’s literary rejection of The Awakening, the rejection sparked a fire in Chopin’s feminist side. Chopin began writing short stories that would become society’s lead in literary creativity and women’s independence. Kate Chopin’s biography is astonishingly intriguing and the importance Chopin plays to the feminist literature genre is exceptional. Critics either rave Chopin’s work or completely destroy itRead MoreThe Awakening: An Emergence of Womens RIghts in the Late Nineteenth Century1330 Words   |  6 PagesThe Awakening: An Emergence of Women’s Rights in the Late Nineteenth Century Kate Chopin’s The Awakening addresses the role of women within society during the late nineteenth century. The novel is set in South Louisiana, a place where tradition and culture also play a vital role in societal expectations. The novel’s protagonist, Edna Pontellier, initially fulfills her position in society as a wife and as a mother while suppressing her urges to live a life of passion and freedom. Edna’s relationshipRead MoreKate Chopin and How the Feminist Movement Inspired Her Writings1666 Words   |  7 PagesKate Chopin and How the Feminist Movement Inspired Her Writings Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote novels as well as short stories. Her work was extraordinary and some of her greatest work was based on the feminist movement. Kate Chopin became known throughout the world as one of the most influential writers during the feminist movement. She has attracted great attention from scholars along with students, and her work has been translated into many different languages. Kate Chopin wasRead MoreResearch Paper on Kate Chopin and the Feminism in Her Works2066 Words   |  9 PagesApril 2012 Kate Chopin: Feminism in Her Works â€Å"Love and passion, marriage and independence, freedom and restraint.† These are the themes that are represented and worked with throughout Kate Chopin’s works. Kate Chopin, who was born on February 8, 1851, in St. Louis, was an American acclaimed writer of short stories and novels. She was also a poet, essayist, and a memoirist. Chopin grew up around many women; intellectual women that is. Chopin said herself that she was neither a feminist nor a suffragist;Read MoreWolffs Analysis of Chopins The Awakening647 Words   |  3 PagesWolff’s Analysis of Chopin’s The Awakening In her essay Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in Kate Chopins The Awakening, Cynthia Griffin Wolff creates what Ross Murfin describes as a critical whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. (376) By employing a variety of critical approaches (including feminist, gender, cultural, new historicism, psychoanalytic and deconstruction) Wolff offers the reader a more complete (albeit complex) explanation of Edna Pontelliers