Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Awakening- Minori Wisti
I thought it interesting to relate the different female characters in The Awakening to the ideas of the New Woman articulated in Patterson's book. Mademoiselle Reisz is a kind of new woman, apparently without a husband or children, who pursues music, her own passion. However, people find a distaste for her, for example the grocer on her old block who described her as "the most disagreeable and unpopular woman who ever lived in Bienville Street." Reading the first chapter of Beyond the Gibson Girl, Reisz reminds me of the kind of woman that caused people to encourage maternal roles in women, who felt that "maternal devotion" as well as "the marital fidelity necessary to insure rightful paternity" were threatened. Edna is seen transforming into her own kind of new woman, acting out on her own individual desires, giving up her Tuesday evening callers and going out whenever and wherever she pleases. Mademoiselle Ratignolle, on the other hand, is representational of what an "ideal woman" of the time might be. She adores her husband and children, is dainty, and is even always wearing white in the novel, perhaps a symbol of her cleanliness of fitting perfectly into her role.
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I love how you took the idea of the New Woman in "The Awakening" to the next level choosing to focus on how Chopin captures these women in different settings and phases in life. I agree that Chopin captures this well within the three characters and also ties in well how society and others felt about their actions. The New Woman obviously received criticism from the outer world, which was a factor we discussed in class.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Madame Ratignolle is quite the opposite of Edna. She even mothers Edna a bit by asking Robert to stay away. She is trying to protect Edna's purity, and I think that she sees how Edna is straying from her "role" in the society. She also notices how Edna doesn't fit in with the creole women, so she tries to help her to fit in more nicely.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Madame Ratignolle is quite the opposite of Edna. She even mothers Edna a bit by asking Robert to stay away. She is trying to protect Edna's purity, and I think that she sees how Edna is straying from her "role" in the society. She also notices how Edna doesn't fit in with the creole women, so she tries to help her to fit in more nicely.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily on your approach to to looking at "The Awakening". I myself also looked at each woman and how they were represented in the society at that time how how Edna so eagerly wanted to be "The New Woman". I found it interested that Edna and Adele, despite their extreme differences in what they wanted out of life were such good friends. It seems as though the more Adele talked about her home life and the more Edna was around it, the more she wanted out, but she did not judge Adele. I just thought it was interesting and I enjoyed reading your post on your take!
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