Social Background of The Awakening

-


Social Background of The Awakening by Kate Chopin



Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf Coast at the end of the 19th century, The Awakening has been described as a case study of 19th-century feminism. The central theme of the novel is self-ownership. Self-ownership signified a woman’s right to have control over her own body and identity. The heroine of The Awakening longs for this kind of bodily autonomy.


The Significance of 1899

The Awakening takes place during a time when a woman was still considered her husband's property. Louisiana, where the novel takes place, was a largely Catholic state and governed by Napoleonic law. And the Napoleonic law robbed women of all their rights.


Napoleonic Code

The Code stated, “A husband owes protection to his wife, a wife obedience to her husband,”

  • An adulterous wife got two years in prison while an adulterous husband got a modest fine.
  • A wife could only sue for divorce if the husband attempted to include his mistress in the family household.
  • Women were forbidden from entering into legal contracts, nor could they be a party to lawsuits or testify in court.
  • Wives couldn’t engage in commerce without a husband’s written permission, and all property in a marriage was the husband.

Simply put, the Code was sexist, which reflected Napoleon’s own sexism. To quote Napolean himself, “Women should not be looked upon as the equals of men, … They are, in fact, only machines for making babies.”

The Awakening, which took place in Louisiana, reflected on the Creole Culture during the nineteenth century. The Creoles were the descendants of French and Spanish colonists of the eighteenth century. They were Catholics and believed in strong and conservative family values,

Like the Napoleonic Code in France, the Louisiana Code stated that Creole women were their husband’s property and an image of their wealth. In highly conservative Louisiana, women were expected to behave as stereotypical Southern belles, pure of heart and chaste in action. The patriarchal family was the foundation of society.

In the novel, Edna is defined as the wife of Leonce Pontellier and mother of Raoul and Etienne Pontellier, instead of being her own, self-defined individual. In the world of Edna Pontellier, one can either be defined by men or live a life separate from the rest of society. “Women [can] either become wives and mothers . . . or exiles” (Papke 39). The “four cardinal virtues [were] piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Put them together and they spelt mother, daughter, sister, wife—woman” (Welter qt. Papke 11).

Many male reviewers condemned The Awakening primarily out of fear of the very real shifting in the social order. Through her own intensely personal agenda, her rejection of the mother-woman role, exploration of her sexuality with men other than her husband, and indifference to the opinions of mainstream society, Edna Pontellier became a role model for women. The strong conservative bent of society found Edna’s ambivalence toward motherhood and overt sexual desire obscene, and the book swiftly went out of print.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scholar Gipsy critical analysis

-
Image
 The Scholar Gipsy analysis  "The Scholar Gipsy" by Matthew Arnold, revolves around the seventeenth-century Oxford story taken from philosopher Joseph Glanvil's The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661). The poem is a take on the conflicts that prevailed in seventeenth-century Victorian Society. This period was a time of confusion and doubt. People grew more fascinated by the modern encroachments sprouting in their society. Developments in science questioned the very base of people's religious beliefs and many were put into a trance of scepticism. The publication of Charles Darwin’s monumental work ‘Origin of species’ released the Victorian conflict of ‘religion vs science Arnold has based this poem on a story from Glanvil’s work where he tells the tale of a poor Oxford scholar who left his University life and his studies behind to join a band of wandering gipsies. The Oxford Scholar is mesmerised by the wonders of mysticism practised by the gipsies and decides to learn every
Read more

Origin of English Drama

-
Image
The Beginning Drama originated in classical Greece. Athens, the cultural centre of Greece produced three genres of drama: Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr. The famous dramatists of this time were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comic writers Aristophanes and, from the late 4th century, Menander. From Greece, the drama entered the Roman empire. Three Dramatic Unities  The Greek and Roman critics recommended three dramatic unities which must be observed by a good dramatist. They are Unity of Time, Unity of Place, and Unity of Action. Unity of Time implies that the action in a play should not exceed the limit of twenty-four hours; Unity of Place means that the scene should not change too often from place to place, and the Unity of Action means that the Tragedy and Comedy should not be intermixed. Origin of English Drama The origin of the drama is deep-rooted in the religious predispositions of mankind. The same is the case not only with English drama but with dramas of other nations
Read more

The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Summary and Notes

-
Image
                                    The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Summary "Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact" - Arnold In his seminal work, the “Study of Poetry” Matthew Arnold opines that one should evaluate poetry by comparing and contrasting it with a piece from a high classic. According to Arnold, poetry is worthy of high destinies. We can notice in our society that many of the religions, principles, rules, creeds, and dogmas are all becoming questionable and broken over time. In the case of poetry too, many find it difficult to evaluate the true essence of good poetry. Arnold wanted to treat poetry as something worth higher value-capable of higher uses and called to higher destinies. He quotes lines from Wordsworth to define poetry, it is“the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science”; poetry is “the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge”. All our beliefs like religion and philosophy are but the shadows an
Read more