Despite naming her story A New England Nun (which "treats the pervasive theme of psychic oppression and rebellion of women"), the nun in the title is a reference to a woman who waits for something like love or God, in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's opinion, with varied results. Her main character Louisa Ellis who is "prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun" after waiting for 14 years for her betrothed to return to her, only to overhear him declare his love for someone else, and then turns him away on their wedding day, so he can be with the woman he really loves. She has waited for nothing, when she could have been out living life and finding someone to love her back.
Freeman herself went to seminary but "left after a year in which she resisted the school's pressure on all students to offer public testimony as to their Christian commitment." She reminds me of Emily Dickinson, rebelling against organized religion and writing about it: "The constraints of religious belief, and the effects of these constraints on character formation and behavior, is one of her chief subjects."
Although she does write about religion, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman is "best known for her depiction of New England Village Life." She paints the sounds and night atmosphere of the New England countryside in A New England Nun : "The twilight had deepened; the chorus of the frogs floated in at the open window wonderfully loud and shrill, and once in a while a long sharp drone from a tree-toad pierced it." In her story The Revolt of the Mother, Freeman describes a old couple living in the countryside: "She looked as immovable to him as one of the rocks in his pasture land, bound to the earth with generations of blackberry vines." Her description is amazing and her usage of metaphors and symbols are entwined with good storytelling.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
25 Images
For an assignment for my art class, we were asked to gather 25 images of art in five different mediums that we liked. here are some of the ones I liked:
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Awakening
Kate Chopin once said: "There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water" (Murdock and Hahn), but Kate Chopin and her writing have been proven to be the exception to the rule. Kate Chopin is a wonderful writer whose writing is very fast-paced, detail oriented and visually descriptive, where as her subjects are controversial and leaves a lasting impression on her readers, because of the tidbits of her own life she leaves imprinted in Edna in the pages of The Awakening.
The Awakening is Chopin's "best-known work" and "focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women" ("Kate"). The novel "depicts a woman's search for spiritual and sexual freedom in the repressive society of late-nineteenth-century America" ("Chopin"). Although her work is about women's issues such as feminism and naturalism, "Kate was neither a feminist nor a suffragist, she said so. She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never doubted women's ability to be strong" (Fox-Genovese).
Chopin writes about Edna's "marriage to Leonce Pontellier" being "purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate." (21). She also writes about Edna's husband Leonce "looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage" (3), which is typical of the time period Edna and Kate lived in. Like Edna, Chopin was married to a wealthy man who was known in society, which was reflective in her writing: "In 1870 she married a wealthy Creole cotton magnate, Oscar Chopin, and moved with him to New Orleans. For the next decade, Chopin pursued the demanding social and domestic schedule of a wealthy New Orleans wife, the recollection of which would serve as material for The Awakening" ("Chopin").
Chopin writes about sexuality when describing a moment between Edna and Robert, the object of her affection: "Her seductive voice, together with his great love for her, had enthralled his sense, had deprived him of every impulse but the longing to hold her and keep her" (142). In Kate Chopin's writing, her "frank treatment of female sexuality broke new ground at a time when married women held no legal rights over their bodies and when few other female or feminist writers hazarded openly to explore women's sexual desire" (Heilmann 88).
Chopin wrote about Edna Pontellier's struggles with identifying herself and finding her place in society: "One of these days, I'm going to pull myself together for a while and think--try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am. I must think about it" (91). It's hard for Edna to known herself as anything but a mother and wife, especially when her husband, Mr. Pontellier "reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" (26-27). "While reading The Awakening remember that it is a kunstleroman, 'a tale of a young woman who struggles to realize herself - and her artistic ability' and remember that Chopin, as well as Edna, was on a quest for artistic acceptance" (Wyatt).
Kate Chopin's own social life is reflected into the social settings she writes about Edna Pontellier enduring in The Awakening: "She used to have these Thursday afternoon soirées and all the poets and the writers and the editors and people who happened to be in town were there. She sat there like the Grand Dame she was and entertained them" (Chopin, David). Chopin also wrote about the city of New Orleans, where grew up and where "Young Madame Chopin took long solitary walks around the city, as does Edna in The Awakening" (Toth 16).
While Chopin finds her place in the world by writing, her character Edna finds herself by swimming in the ocean: "How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! how delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known" (Chopin 115). "Edna's midnight swim is much more than a victory of physical condition. It establishes her sense of self-ownership, physical, mental and spiritual, which in turn triggers two fundamental insights that determine her progression from a disengaged wife to an autonomous subject" (Heilmann 87).
Chopin wrote about suicide in The Awakening, where her main character Edna drowns herself in the conclusion of the novel: "Chopin details the suicide act as a sensuous act of skin against air and water" (Joslin 85). Although Kate Chopin never tried to commit suicide, she did have many deaths in her family and "these unhappy incidents combined to create a strong skepticism of religion" (Wyatt).
Many biographers agree Kate Chopin was ahead of her time: " She was very important as one of the earliest examples of modernism in the United States or, if you wish, the cutting edge of modernism in American literature" (Fox-Genovese). She was not well accepted in her time period: "The content and message of The Awakening caused an uproar and Chopin was denied admission into the St. Louis Fine Art Club based on its publication. She was terribly hurt by the reaction to the book and in the remaining five years of her life she wrote only a few short stories, and only a small number of those were published. Like Edna Pontellier, she paid the price for defying societal rules." (Wyatt).
Kate Chopin wrote about many subjects dealing with women such as marriage, sexuality, identity, society, death, which she dealt with in her own life, and is reflective in her own work and imprinted into the story of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening. By writing Edna's story, Chopin leaves the readers with a lasting impression after they have read her work and reflection of who she was as a human being.
Works Cited
Chopin, David. "Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening." PBS Interview. June 23, 1999.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Gen ED. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol C. New York: W.W. Norton. 2007. 535-625
"Chopin, Kate - Introduction." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec Project Editor. Vol. 127. Seattle: Gale Cengage, 2003. eNotes.com. 2006. 4 Apr, 2009
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. "Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening." Interview. PBS. June 23 1999.
Heilmann, Ann. "The Awakening and New Woman Fiction." The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin. Ed. Janet Beer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 87-105.
Joslin, Katherine. "Kate Chopin in Fashion in a Darwinian World." The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin. Ed. Janet Beer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 73-87.
"Kate Chopin Biography." The Kate Chopin International Society.
Ker, Christine. "Ahead of Her Time: An Overview of the Life and Works of Kate Chopin." Empire Zine.
Murdock, Wendy, and Harley Hahn. "Quotable Women- An Archive of Memorable Quotes By Women."
Toth, Emily. The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin. Ed. Janet Beer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 13-27.
Wyatt, Neal. "Biography of Kate Chopin." 1995
The Awakening is Chopin's "best-known work" and "focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women" ("Kate"). The novel "depicts a woman's search for spiritual and sexual freedom in the repressive society of late-nineteenth-century America" ("Chopin"). Although her work is about women's issues such as feminism and naturalism, "Kate was neither a feminist nor a suffragist, she said so. She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never doubted women's ability to be strong" (Fox-Genovese).
Chopin writes about Edna's "marriage to Leonce Pontellier" being "purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate." (21). She also writes about Edna's husband Leonce "looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage" (3), which is typical of the time period Edna and Kate lived in. Like Edna, Chopin was married to a wealthy man who was known in society, which was reflective in her writing: "In 1870 she married a wealthy Creole cotton magnate, Oscar Chopin, and moved with him to New Orleans. For the next decade, Chopin pursued the demanding social and domestic schedule of a wealthy New Orleans wife, the recollection of which would serve as material for The Awakening" ("Chopin").
Chopin writes about sexuality when describing a moment between Edna and Robert, the object of her affection: "Her seductive voice, together with his great love for her, had enthralled his sense, had deprived him of every impulse but the longing to hold her and keep her" (142). In Kate Chopin's writing, her "frank treatment of female sexuality broke new ground at a time when married women held no legal rights over their bodies and when few other female or feminist writers hazarded openly to explore women's sexual desire" (Heilmann 88).
Chopin wrote about Edna Pontellier's struggles with identifying herself and finding her place in society: "One of these days, I'm going to pull myself together for a while and think--try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am. I must think about it" (91). It's hard for Edna to known herself as anything but a mother and wife, especially when her husband, Mr. Pontellier "reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" (26-27). "While reading The Awakening remember that it is a kunstleroman, 'a tale of a young woman who struggles to realize herself - and her artistic ability' and remember that Chopin, as well as Edna, was on a quest for artistic acceptance" (Wyatt).
Kate Chopin's own social life is reflected into the social settings she writes about Edna Pontellier enduring in The Awakening: "She used to have these Thursday afternoon soirées and all the poets and the writers and the editors and people who happened to be in town were there. She sat there like the Grand Dame she was and entertained them" (Chopin, David). Chopin also wrote about the city of New Orleans, where grew up and where "Young Madame Chopin took long solitary walks around the city, as does Edna in The Awakening" (Toth 16).
While Chopin finds her place in the world by writing, her character Edna finds herself by swimming in the ocean: "How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! how delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known" (Chopin 115). "Edna's midnight swim is much more than a victory of physical condition. It establishes her sense of self-ownership, physical, mental and spiritual, which in turn triggers two fundamental insights that determine her progression from a disengaged wife to an autonomous subject" (Heilmann 87).
Chopin wrote about suicide in The Awakening, where her main character Edna drowns herself in the conclusion of the novel: "Chopin details the suicide act as a sensuous act of skin against air and water" (Joslin 85). Although Kate Chopin never tried to commit suicide, she did have many deaths in her family and "these unhappy incidents combined to create a strong skepticism of religion" (Wyatt).
Many biographers agree Kate Chopin was ahead of her time: " She was very important as one of the earliest examples of modernism in the United States or, if you wish, the cutting edge of modernism in American literature" (Fox-Genovese). She was not well accepted in her time period: "The content and message of The Awakening caused an uproar and Chopin was denied admission into the St. Louis Fine Art Club based on its publication. She was terribly hurt by the reaction to the book and in the remaining five years of her life she wrote only a few short stories, and only a small number of those were published. Like Edna Pontellier, she paid the price for defying societal rules." (Wyatt).
Kate Chopin wrote about many subjects dealing with women such as marriage, sexuality, identity, society, death, which she dealt with in her own life, and is reflective in her own work and imprinted into the story of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening. By writing Edna's story, Chopin leaves the readers with a lasting impression after they have read her work and reflection of who she was as a human being.
Works Cited
Chopin, David. "Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening." PBS Interview. June 23, 1999.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Gen ED. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol C. New York: W.W. Norton. 2007. 535-625
"Chopin, Kate - Introduction." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec Project Editor. Vol. 127. Seattle: Gale Cengage, 2003. eNotes.com. 2006. 4 Apr, 2009
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. "Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening." Interview. PBS. June 23 1999.
Heilmann, Ann. "The Awakening and New Woman Fiction." The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin. Ed. Janet Beer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 87-105.
Joslin, Katherine. "Kate Chopin in Fashion in a Darwinian World." The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin. Ed. Janet Beer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 73-87.
"Kate Chopin Biography." The Kate Chopin International Society.
Ker, Christine. "Ahead of Her Time: An Overview of the Life and Works of Kate Chopin." Empire Zine.
Murdock, Wendy, and Harley Hahn. "Quotable Women- An Archive of Memorable Quotes By Women."
Toth, Emily. The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin. Ed. Janet Beer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. 13-27.
Wyatt, Neal. "Biography of Kate Chopin." 1995
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