The Novel Kate Chopin The Awakening and the Short Story by Kate Chopin Essay

The Novel Kate Chopin The Awakening and the Short Story by Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour - Essay Example Sometimes cultural expectation or social conditions make people behave in a typical manner. Kate Chopin’s short story ‘The Story of An Hour’ and his novel ‘The awakening’ are two works in which the social conditions or the cultural expectations compel people to escape to the world of freedom (Petry, 1996) (Koloski, 1996). The protagonist of the novel ‘The awakening’ longed to take herself away from the expectations of her society (Telgen and Hile, 1998). While reading between the lines of ‘The awakening’, readers can find that the most crucial incident, the suicide of Edna (at the end of the book) is a consequence of her attempt to escape from everything and to tear herself away the social expectations to which she was strongly bounded to (Ewell, 1986). Her mentality was one of despair in which she does not wanted to live in the way she was supposed to be. Reading thorough the mind and sole of Edna, we can see that the decisi on that she has taken at the end was the one and only solution for her to escape from the internal struggles she suffered. She had violated the line that marks the norm of the society (and its conventions) of the late 1800s (Telgen and Hile, 1998). Edna’s despair that she will not be able to live in the ‘expected’ manner, leads to her take her own life. ... Edna was actually becoming free (recognizing her selfhood) attaining freedom and victory that was denied to her by Robert. Edna is a woman who should have born couple of centuries later; she would never fit in the life of the 1800s. Robert’s demand for Edna to be his wife, a ‘mother-woman’, following all the social conventions and followings, were unacceptable to Edna. As far as she was concerned, such a submission to his desires is a denial of her identity. Edna was unable to face this reality and she opted not to live rather than being submissive to the followings. She does not want herself to be locked inside the societal cage in which men others wanted her to reside. Her outlook and personality made her unfit for the life of her times. Edna’s life became quite unsuitable for the role her lover, husband and what the society demanded for her. Edna’s personal desire of freedom was denied in all her relationships, her father, her husband and even Rob ert (Ewell, 1986). Everybody denied her wish to live in her freedom and wanted her to submit her ‘sense of self’ in the role she was expected to play. Edna refuse to play these roles and her sense of self was too strong and very precious for her. "Edna's sense of self makes impossible her role of wife and mother as defined by her society; yet she comes to the discovery that her role of wife and mother also makes impossible her continuing sense of independent selfhood" (Chopin, 1982). She was found to be moving into the water and swimming away from the shore where she would remember "Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul" (Chopin,