Madame Ratignolle In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In Victorian society the gender role of women was to be seen as a graceful entity who solely looked after the home affairs. Throughout this period, their freedom of expression was limited because they usually followed this unwritten code regardless of how they actually felt. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Madame Ratignolle is the epitome of how a woman was expected to act and dress. However, the words used in the passage that describes Madame Ratignolle suggest that her appearance is shaped by society and she follows their guidelines not her own. The way a woman dresses in literature is often important to who she is. The way someone outwardly appears to others is often an indication of how others view her character. Madame Ratignolle is
Madame Ratignolle’s dress is described as pure white. White is color that is associated with cleanliness and innocence. This illustrates the belief that she is the idealistic woman of the Victorian era. The use of pure further indicates the perfection that Madame Ratignolle is assumed to posses. However, Edna is shocked by Madame Ratignolle’s willingness to relate details on a matter of childbirth, which was seen as taboo in that time. This shock contradicts the description of Madame Ratignolle, suggesting that her innocence, symbolized by the purity of the white dress, is merely the image, given to her by society, that she adopts
The inside alliteration in fluffiness of ruffles creates a light tone to the way Madame Ratignolle is being described. Both fluffiness and ruffles seem lighthearted and simplistic, which takes away some of Madame Ratignolle's sense of self. The playfulness of the words gives a sense of fakeness. Since these words are used to describe how Madame Ratignolle is portrayed, they make her appearance less credible. They show that the appearance she is given is not her true self and is merely a facade given to her by