The Awakening Historicism Analysis - 968 Words

A New Historicism Analysis of The Awakening Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a story written in the late 19th century about a woman named Edna becoming independent and finding herself in a time when women had little to no rights and people saw them as the property of their husband. This is a new historicism literary criticism, analyzing how what was going on in the time period influenced this novel. Racism, sexism, and feminism were all going on at this time and therefore influenced it greatly. During this time period, people still owned slaves and racism was still going on. Growing up, Chopin’s family and friends had slaves. Later, her husband was even in a white supremacy group (â€Å"Kate Chopin†) . With such direct past ties to racism, it†¦show more content†¦In this time period, women were basically the property of their husbands. Therefore, Edna represented these real-life limitations. Back then, a woman’s sole purpose was to get married and to care for her husband and children. This robbed them of a significant amount of individualism. For example, women weren’t seen to be strong enough to have free will and do things on their own. Chopin enjoyed walking through the city by herself, but society didn’t accept this at the time (â€Å"Kate Chopin†) . Chopin commonly presented this principle throughout the novel. All women were chaperoned by men when leaving the house. In the beginning of the story, Edna never leaves the house without her husband Là ©once, her friend Robert, or another man. Also, society discouraged women to live an independent lifestyle. It was very uncommon and shamed for women to fend for themselves, rather than relying on their husband. Edna demonstrated this by her reliance on her husband early in the novel. This brings up another example of history that is present in this story. Edna’s husband provides her a luxurious Creole lifestyle. This gives the reader a glimpse into social classes of the time. Lastly, women weren’t supposed to prioritize art above much, if anything, especially their family. Obviously, Chopin broke this rule, as she spent a significant amount of her time on performing arts, and her strongest form of art, writing (â€Å"Kate Chopin†) . Throughout the story, the lack of female artists and Edna’sShow MoreRelatedWolffs Analysis of Chopins The Awakening647 Words   |  3 PagesWolff’s Analysis of Chopin’s The Awakening In her essay Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in Kate Chopins The Awakening, Cynthia Griffin Wolff creates what Ross Murfin describes as a critical whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. (376) By employing a variety of critical approaches (including feminist, gender, cultural, new historicism, psychoanalytic and deconstruction) Wolff offers the reader a more complete (albeit complex) explanation of Edna PontelliersRead MoreFullers Leila2374 Words   |  10 PagesMethodological Introduction New historicism is premised upon an ideological attempt to wed the practice of history and literary criticism. In this type of textual analysis, the literary work is juxtaposed with historical events (characteristic of the time period in which the work was produced) in an effort to understand the implications within the text. This line of inquiry serves to recover a historical consciousness which may be utilized in the rendering of literary theory. Poems and novelsRead MoreAn Analysis Of The Other Towards `` The Subject Essay1984 Words   |  8 Pagesreal historical background to represent three main types of citizens and their lives. From the different perspectives, â€Å"Doctorow shows how politics, economics, and social class deeply impinge on individual lives by applying the theories of New Historicism to his novel† (Chen 28). Finished and published in 1975, Ragtime narrates some divided but connected stories of immigrants, WASPs, and African Americans. There are confl icts as well as connections between the three groups, but they also reveal the