Cultural Constraints on a Woman in Kate Chopin’s The...

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening depicts a womans struggle to find and assert herself within the cultural constraints of late 19th century America. Edna Pontellier’s journey is chronicled throughout the novel as she experiences a new sense of independence and expression of freedom that’s paralleled by her corresponding sense of conflict and despair through a series of fractured and convoluted relationships among friends, family, and societal customs. The term awakening is defined as the act or process of waking from sleep. Like her name â€Å"Pontellier†, which means â€Å"one who bridges,† it implies that Edna is in a transition between two worlds but not fully embedded in either. Edna is one whose mission is to begin the process of bridging two worlds: a world where women become wives and mothers or a world where women are exiled for their expressed individualism. The women at Grand Isle relinquish their individual identities: â€Å"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 (Chapter 4).† The role of mother-woman was typified through Madame Adele Ratignolle. Adele Ratignolle is described as being a fairly talented pianist whose personal act of creating music is performed for the sake of her children: â€Å"She was keeping up her music on account of the children, she said; because she and her husband both considered it a means of brightening the home and makingShow MoreRelatedThe 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. 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