Women in Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3 (B), University of Stuttgart (Anglistics/American Studies), language: English, abstract: Looking at the situation of women some centuries ago, one can hardly deny that women had permanently been discriminated: Neither were they allowed to take part in political life, nor did they get a proper education or were granted any kind of selfhood. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, wives were still regarded as 'the objects of others rather than as the free subjects of their own fates' (Fox-Genovese 35). Looking at the situation of women nowadays, things obviously have improved: At least in industrialised countries women and men virtually are on equal footing regarding work, politics and even childcare. One can only try to imagine the immense changes that must have taken place in society, and the effects those had on both, men and women. Yet those changes did not just happen by chance, they required strong, self-confident women who recognised themselves as individual human beings, who committed themselves to the tough struggle for their personal freedom and were prepared to make various sacrifices. Some were successful, but there are also countless examples of women who didn't make it. Kate Chopin´s 'The Awakening' deals with the transcendentalist theme of women's self-discovery and its consequences on the example of its protagonist Edna Pontellier. Set in the late-nineteenth-century New Orleans, Louisiana, it provides the reader with a 'considerable range of women's behaviour during an era in which women were frequently categorised as similar in instincts and interests' (Solomon 119) and thus serves as a prime example for the analysis of the multiple roles that were open to the women of this time. Although Chopin was neither a particularly political nor feminist writer, it is important to understand the political and social circumstances of that time; for that reason the novel's historical context will be dealt with initially. The next step will be to focus on some minor female characters and their roles as well as their acceptance in society , followed by the final characterisation of Edna Pontellier.