Motherhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening
Because of her close relationship with Adèle, Edna learns a great deal about freedom of speech and innovative ways to express herself. This new-found knowledge releases Edna from her previously narrow-minded ways and bottled-up emotions and desires. Edna's sexual and spiritual desires surface distinguishing a separation between her pursuit of happiness and her responsibilities as a mother and wife. Because she feels like she is so burdened, she does anything she can to attain freedom, and to her, it doesn’t matter if she is sinful and goes against her Creole upbringing to get there. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna fights against the societal and instinctive structures of motherhood that coerce her to be defined by her title as wife of
…show more content…
It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. (1259)
This celebrated the end of the “mother-woman” ideology made way for the movement towards the “New Woman.” The “New Woman” could take on the same meaning as the “New Negro” because women were no longer viewed as the gender in society that were of lesser value than men and were clearly demonstrating their ability to become self-sufficient.
Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the more profound meaning of the novel is discovered through a number of important symbols. These symbolic elements help establish the connection between Edna’s world and her eventual awakening. Chopin illustrates,
In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight—perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any
It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. (1259)
This celebrated the end of the “mother-woman” ideology made way for the movement towards the “New Woman.” The “New Woman” could take on the same meaning as the “New Negro” because women were no longer viewed as the gender in society that were of lesser value than men and were clearly demonstrating their ability to become self-sufficient.
Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the more profound meaning of the novel is discovered through a number of important symbols. These symbolic elements help establish the connection between Edna’s world and her eventual awakening. Chopin illustrates,
In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight—perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any