Comparing Blanche Dubois And Kate Chopin's The Awakening
1275 Words6 Pages
Tennessee Williams and Kate Chopin attempt to draw sympathetic reactions in the portrayal of their unconventional main female characters Blanche DuBois and Edna Pointellier. There is a strong set physical and emotional ties that link these two women. For one their Louisiana setting places the women so close together in reality, yet it seems as though they are worlds apart. Another tie that binds Edna and Blanche is their struggle with societal appearance, one only struggles because she cares too much, and the other brings upon struggle because she does not want to care. The strongest unifying characteristic shared between the two women is their self-will and desire, without it there would be no power struggle internally or with their counterparts,…show more content… It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin, p.12). At first anyone would think this Victorian ideology is picturesque, but Chopin instead uses her writing to draw sympathetic emotion towards the absolute opposite. Just like theSpanish birds in the gilded cage at the beginning of the story Edna, is property, she is not understood by those around her, and yearns to be set free. Edna Pointellier longs for nothing more than to abandon her matriarchal duty and dive into a world where desire consumes her life. "I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me” (Chopin, p.52). As the reader you begin to question your morals once you find yourself feeling sorry for…show more content… “In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa” (Williams, p.28), this quote from a Streetcar Named Desire, seems fitting enough to have been said by Mr. Pointellier being that he pushed Edna to the very path that lead her to desire and discovery. “I love you, only you; no one but you. It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream” (Chopin, p.113-114), Robert feeds into Edna’s desires, he teachers her how to truly express passion both physically and verbally. “The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to “feed upon opinion” when her own soul had invited her.” For moments within the story, Robert presence represents everything Edna wants in her new life; freedom from the pressures of conforming to society, thus ushering a new era of Edna. Chopin successfully grabs readers sympathy when, Robert