Blog 5

In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, is focused in the late 1800’s where Kate tells the struggles women had during this time period. They were not only battling themselves, but society as well.

       Edna, being a mother and a wife, has many responsibilities placed upon her by her husband and society in general. There are many stereotypes that society places on women who are mothers in the fact that they are supposed to give everything they have for their kids and put everyone in front of themselves. In The Awakening, Edna is faced with these stereotypes and she doesn’t want to give into them. She does not want to sit at home with the children and be the typical housewife to her husband. She wants to go off and do her own thing and be her own person, without the stereotypes attached. Edna does not want to be with her husband, but living in this time period, there was a social pressure to marry a rich husband and have kids. Edna does a great job of explaining her true feelings by saying, “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose.” (Chopin 102) Edna clearly says she doesn’t want to give in to what society wants. She wants to be with who she wants to be with and she doesn’t want to be owned by any man or disposed of by any man.

       I think this is why she killed herself in the end of the novella. She felt like she was faced with no other alternative. At that point in her life, she had nowhere to turn. Robert was gone, she didn’t want to be with Mr. Pontellier, her kids, she felt, were better off with her parents. She moved out and into her own house, but she still felt like she belonged to Mr. Pontellier, and she was being scrutinized by society and her peers for having an affair and not wanting to be a mother. Yes, she was happy for that little bit of time but she realized that her husband would soon return, Robert went back to Mexico and left her behind, and she would soon need to return to motherhood. The pressure of men and the society in which Edna lived in is what I think drove her to suicide. Society and men have a funny way of boxing women in and expecting so much from them. Soon, some women become so constricted within the walls of men and society, they simply stop breathing.

Gilded Age or Gilded Cage?

In “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton, many themes appear throughout the book. The one that I feel is the biggest theme is the economic status of the women involved. There is a huge push on women by society at this time that they needed to find a rich husband to marry within a certain age, or they would face poverty.

This social pressure that Lily Bart faced is what I believe drove her to kill herself. She was told by society and her friends that she needed to be beautiful and find and marry a rich husband to ensure her spot within the social elite. No matter who proposed to Lily, she always found a way to make the marriage not work. She wanted to be independent, and didn’t want to depend on a man to buy her nice things. Women at this time who married rich men, were more or less around to show off how rich the man was. They were given nice clothes and fine jewelry and strut around town hanging on the arm of their husbands. Women were there for show and Lily didn’t want to be an object.

Not wanting to obey by societies rules, but wanting to fit into the social elite class, I feel is what drove Lily into having no friends and no husband in the end. I also feel that this is why she killed herself. She didn’t have anyone left and when she saw the life she could have had with Seldon if she would have accepted him in marriage in the beginning of the book, she felt depressed and saw that she might never have that. Lily might not have felt she had much to live for anymore. At the end, she says, “But the terrible silence and emptiness seemed to symbolize her future-she felt as though the house, the street, the world were all empty, and she alone left sentient in a lifeless universe.” (Wharton 250)

It really isn’t right that Lily resorted to suicide at the end, even if she felt like she didn’t have anything to live for anymore. It’s sad the type of pressure society can put on women to conform and do things perfectly and when women don’t hold up to those standards, they are shunned. Some resort to suicide and this is one of those sad stories.