Edna sits in the rocker outside and weeps, "She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life" (Chopin pp)
pursues her right to self-expression and cannot feel wicked for doing so. (Allen 230) Society may ask that the woman feel wicked for expressing herself, but Chopin is one who shows the consequences of such self-repression
Secondly, she claimed that these material circumstances had a profound effect on the psychological aspects of writing, and that they could be seen to influence the nature of the creative work itself. (Barrett 5) The writer is not an abstract but a real person who must make a living in this world, and therefore material conditions are important
The predicament in which Edna finds herself is evident in the opening passages -- she is first like the colorful parrot which hangs outside the door, warning others away, a woman in a cage who has not heeded this warning. The husband sees her after she has been in the sun and looks "at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage" (Chopin 4)
But Edna seeks a feminine, maternal language that is represented as existing outside of patriarchy; therefore she never finds a voice that functions in the everyday world she inhabits. (Cutter 88) The book itself caused Chopin more problems, for after the Awakening appeared in 1899, "it was condemned as vulgar, morbid, and unwholesome
Justus writes, Edna is caught between the claims of "mother-women" and those of "artist-women," between the sensual aspects of Creole women, who adjust to society by celebrating their procreative powers, and the brittle independence of liberated artists, who resist their culture's sociological limitations with their own kind of creative powers. (Justus 111) The two choices are represented in the novel by Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, the latter being the artist who has only half-awakened and who puts on more of a show of artistry than she manages to be an artist
Whenever an individual chooses to deny her potential for continued growth and experience in a Kate Chopin story, she must do so only after a consideration of alternative actions, and when she does so she must be allowed to make the choice herself, unencumbered by the pressures of individuals or society. (Rocks 117) Rocks would thus seem to come down on the side of Edna as the triumphant woman who makes her own choice in spite of rather than because of social pressure
Emily Toth notes the critical discussion around Chopin in the 1990s and notes how some saw her as a precursor to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and after. Readers in the 1980s saw her as "an independent woman who moves out of her husband's house, lives on her own, and makes a living from her art" (Toth xx)
Adele Ratignolle, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Edna. Adele is described as having "no words to describe her save the old ones that have served so often to picture the bygone heroine of romance and the fair lady of our dreams…[with] blue eyes that were like nothing but sapphires" (Chopin 51)
For instance, we're told, "She began to look with her own eyes; to see and apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to 'feed upon opinion' when her own soul had invited her" (Chopin 124)
. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life" (Ibsen 195)
During the course of her journey, Edna breaks away from the socially acceptable behavior expected of women at the time. As a woman, Edna was expected to marry "and take part in [her] husband's interests and business" (Appell)
Edna is able to achieve social freedom by defying her family's wishes and marrying a man they did not approve of. Chopin writes, "[Edna's] marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident…He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her…Add to this violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic," which Chopin contends was enough reason for Edna to marry Leonce (Chopin 22)
Additionally, "women were not…allowed to be educated or gain knowledge outside of the home because it was a man's world" (Appell). Chopin's characterization of Edna's awakening is somewhat reminiscent of the freedoms she personally experienced while growing up alongside strong, independent, and trailblazing women who continuously defied conventions and did not let society dictate what they could or could not do (Wyatt)
Ben Franklin wrote of George Whitefield: He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refus'd him their pulpits, and he was oblig'd to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers (Brannan 1998)
These preachers heavily stressed that an individual's salvation experience was of greater value than official church sanction. These preachers claimed that all people of faith were equal in God's eyes, a direct refutation of the Congregationalist idea that God bestowed favor upon man in life as well as in Heaven (Kidd 2007)
Up to that time, a Congregational minister was a kind of public employee. His responsibility was to be the town's spiritual leader, "He guided his parishioners as a shepherd tended his flock, functioning as a symbol and focus of religious purpose within his community (Kirsch 1980)
The established plutocrats found the new religious movements threatening, and thereby controversial. This paper seeks to address the Great Awakening as a controversy between the existing, moneyed classes and the "local traders, artisans and the laboring poor (McCormick 2007)
One of the most threatening elements in the Baptist religion to the reigning landowners was that Baptists accepted slaves and freed blacks into their fold. As a result, Baptism also questioned the ethical reasoning behind slavery, which was threatening to the core of Virginian society (Scruple 1810)
In the previous, Calvinist and Puritan-dominated ethos in Virginia, religious rectitude was demonstrated by honor, display and wealth. Since the lower classes could not compete with these parishioners, they reached for a different kind of expression of piety and religious belief, which included loud professions of faith, rapture, and devoted following of effective religious teacher (Spangler 2001)