Opression of Women in Literature

A detailed Summary of Opression of Women in Literature

The following paper is in regard to Mary Wollstonecraft's novel Maria, or the Wrongs of Women and Kate Chopin's novel titled The Awakenings. The two stories have a similar plot and both discuss the oppression of women in the institution of marriage. This paper will include how the two main characters in each story, Maria (in Maria) and Edna (in The Awakenings) challenge the oppressive ideology by finding a new love and how they also encountered problems as long the way.

"It was when the face and figure of great tragedian began to haunt her imagination and stir her senses. The persistence of the infatuation lent it an aspect of genuineness. The hopelessness of it colored it with the lofty tones of a great passion." (Awakening's, 1026) A passion that ultimately lost its novelty and was allocated to the shelf that held obscure yet relaxed delightful remembrances. The tragedian keeps fellowship with a visiting cavalry officer and an engaged gentleman. Though, in reality, the gentleman is probably no longer engaged, he will remain so in the mind of Edna Pontellier: one of the images of the infatuations of a "little miss."(1026) With respect to her marriage to Leonce Pontellier, Edna is inhibited, not with

the man himself, but with the concept he represents. When leaving Mississippi on Leonce's arm, she defied her family's wish that she marries a non-Catholic. Cast to that equation a healthy dose of flattery from her intended and their union is as good as cemented. This is how Edna comes to be ensconced in the inescapable institution of marriage. One would presume that the speaking of the vows would discontinue her youthful allure, but that is not the case. Both the holy bounds of wedlock and the remonstrations of society hail to constrict her. Edna Pontellier experiences one last great infatuation. However, this beat upon her soul reverberates into a feeling that far surpasses what she had previously thought to be "the climax of her fate." (1026) The single-tired fantasies of her youth are replaced with a sentiment that matures in nature as her awakening proceeds. Edna realizes that her marriage is not making her happy anymore. She no longer wants to be treated as property. "You are burnt...he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage," (1014). Edna is upset; every thing she's longed for has become nothing but a joke. She soon begins her so-called "feminine protest" by not responding to her husband's questions. "She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her." (1017) She begins to find herself by realizing her position on earth as a human being, rather then a piece of her husband's property. This realization is done by the feelings her had for Robert. Robert it seems made her feel human. "In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her." (1022)

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Approximate Word count = 3147
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English