The awakening 4
The awakening 4The Awakening
I believe that Kate Chopin, author of The Awakening, uses the plot, characters, setting, and the themes in order to get your point of view across to the reader. Each one of these elements makes the story easier to understand through Chopin’s use of them. The plot is needed in order for it just to make sense. The characters give the story a personal feeling, the setting lets you imagine the events happening in your head as you read this novel, and the themes finally let you know what the author was trying to let you know while reading the story.
The plot of this book is somewhat simple in the beginning, but turns a little awkward once you actually get into the novel. The main character is Edna Pontellier. A young southern woman that has been brought up in the way that most southern women were brought up in the Victorian age of the late 19th century. She was taught to be a good daughter, good wife, and finally a good mother. When the story begins she is all of these things. Then she meets a young man by the name of Robert. He turns her life upside down as she begins to feel a passion for him that she has never felt before in her entire life, not even for her husband that she thought she loved. When Robert goes away, she misses him dearly and begins to change her life’s priorities, such as not staying home on Tuesdays as most women did and were expected to do so. She also changes her mindset away from trying to get the world’s approval and just does what makes her happy at that time. She does things such as moving into a smaller house while her husband is away to show this. She even states in the novel: "I don't want anything but my own way. That is wanting a good deal, of course, when you have to trample upon the lives, the hearts, the prejudices of others but no matter." Robert comes back towards the end of the novel and Edna tells him the way she feels. He decides that he will not let her divorce her husband because if the shame it will bring on her and her children especially. When Edna realizes that she can never be truly happy in her life she takes what she believes to be the only way escape She swims out to sea until her strength was gone and she drowned herself.
There are many characters in The Awakening, each with their very own personality. The first is the main character, Edna Pontellier. As I stated before, she is a young southern woman that does what most other southern women did of that time period. She cooked and cleaned, took care of the children and just ran the household. Her husband, Mr. Pontellier, plays a rather small role in the...
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