Life in the Iron Mills
Both Life in the Iron Mills and The Awakening represent the tragic death of an artist. Rebecca Harding Davis describes the life of Hugh, an aspiring artist confined to his role as a lower class mill worker. Kate Chopin portrays Edna Pontellier as a talented painter similarly confined by her role as a wife and mother. Both Edna and Hugh possess an artistic talent that leads them to question the meaning of their existence. Each character seeks to represent truth or emotions that transcends their contemporary social setting. Edna's search for passions and Hugh's longing for expression and beauty lead them both beyond the social confines of their times. As a result, the strict societal role by which they define themselves shatters, leaving Hugh and Edna to look beyond the accepted roles of men and women of the time to search for their true identities. Both Life in the Iron Mills and The Awakening end with the seemingly tragic death of the artist. Yet, both Hugh and Edna obtain a brief true happiness by themselves becoming artistic creations that transcend their contemporary social worlds.Edna and Hugh use their art as a form of expression. Hugh creates his grotesque sculpture of a woman ravaged by hunger to express a deep need that
Edna expresses her own sensuality in her painting. For Edna, painting represents a fulfillment of her own desires. The images and emotions she feels flow naturally from heart to hand and brush. Edna steps outside her role as a wife within this context because she satisfies her own wants, rather than living to fulfill the needs of her children and husband. Edna fails in attempting to paint a likeness of Madame Ratignolle, the epitome of the role of a perfect wife. She becomes frustrated with herself and smudges the painting. Motivated in much the same way as Hugh when he crushes all of his sculptures, Edna finds herself unable to link her need for passionate fulfillment with the portrait of a woman she considers an ideal wife. Hugh, frustrated by his failure accurately to express his hunger for beauty because he is thwarted by the hellish iron mills, crushes his works as well. Both Edna and Hugh find that their medium for expression, be it korl or canvas, fails to fulfill their needs. he cannot communicate in words. While attempting to explain the appearance of the statue, Hugh says, "I dunno... It mebbe. Summat to make her live, I think, like you. Whiskey ull do it, in a way" (Davis, 33). Hugh fails to communicate verbally the need and hunger for life in his statue to his boss and the doctor. Rather, everything Hugh ever wished to express found a voice in his sculpture. His search for beauty and happiness as well as the utter frustration resulting from his fruitless search find their way into the statue in a way words could never express.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1706
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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