Kate Chopin's the Awakening

Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Portrayal of the character Edna Her foils Setting- feminist mvment, etc. Style
Intended to help the reader understand the character of Edna her actual beliefs
external/internal influences Tone Helping the style, the tone also helps
the reader understand the rest of the characters Mr. Pontlierre (Critical Essay
quote) Mademoiselle (Speech about bird with strong wings. V. Conclusion


    Edna Pontlierre experiences a theme of self-discovery throughout the entire
novel of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening.   Within Edna's travel through self
discovery,   Chopin successfully uses tone, style, and content to help the reader
understand a person challenging the beliefs of   a naïve society at the beginning
of the twentieth century.   Chopin's style and tone essentially helps the reader
understand the character of Edna and what her surrounding influences are.   The
tone and style also helps the audience understand the rest of the characters
throughout the novel.   The entire content is relevant to the time frame it was
written, expressing ideas of the forthcoming feminist movement and creating an
awareness of what was happening to the women of the early nineteenth century.
    When "The Awakening" was first published,   its popularity wasn't that of
modern day.   In fact, it was widely rejected for years.   Within the context, it
is considered a very liberal book from the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The ideas expressed within the content concern the women's movement and an
individual woman searching for who she really is.   Ross C. Murfin in his
critical essay   "The New Historicism and the Awakening",   shows how Chopin uses
the entity of the hand to relate to both the entire women's issue and Edna
Pontlierre's self exploration:

"Chopin uses hands to raise the issues of women, property, self-possession, and
value.   Women like Adele Ratignolle, represented by their perfectly pale or
gloved hands, are signs mainly of their husbands wealth, and... [continues]

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