Does love have a barrier? These questions arise personally after reading the novel ‘The Awakening’. To quote E. Jones, “Moral attitude towards others is substituted for an attitude of love”(5). The quote describes more of Edna who is a mother and a wife to one of the wealthiest Creole men in New Orleans, and during her time period having a family is part of societal expectations. Edna’s character abandons her role as a mother and wife; she breaks moral values and standards because of the intimate love affair she shares with Robert, therefore leading to the struggles she faces in the novel where she failed.
I assume that she wants a divorce from her husband but because of the role that society has placed on her, but she is unable to get one because she is very dependent on him. It sounds to me that she is jealous of her male friend who is looking for another wife. It was him and his situation that she was thinking of that brought her to the conclusion that she herself wants a wife. Her situation leads me to believe that during this time in history women were not meant to show signs of aggression, jealousy, or anger because it was a mans world. In Brady’s eyes a wife is a basically a slave at home who cannot have a life of her own.
Similarly, Lairds sister also felt her mother was not trustworthy: “ My mother I felt was not to be trusted.”(Munro 50) Lairds sister was unwillingly forced by her mother, to stay in the house all day and fill countless jars with various fruits, instead of being outside in the fields with her father doing the work she loved. Narrators having trouble with their mother is one of the three comparable conflicts which appear in both short stories. Secondly, in both short stories the narrators are unwilling to pursue their given career. In the story
The Creole society of that time did not take affairs lightly. It was possible that they would be looked down upon for the rest of their lives or even disowned from their families. He is also surprised and somewhat threatened by her newfound independence. When Edna gets home from Madame Adele’s house, she finds a note from Robert saying that he loves her deeply but their relationship cannot be. Edna stays awake literally and figuratively; the awakening Robert has begun in her consumes her as she comes to some harsh realizations.
John separates Jane from the rest of the Reed children due to her relying on the Reeds to keep her well as well as her being an orphan. Not only is Jane being discriminated against by John but also his mother "Mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg". This demonstrates how, even though Mrs Reed is Jane's aunt, she is still tormented by her and her children as Mrs Reed allows them to bully Jane. The fact that Jane is an orphan and is separated from her 'family' reflects the society she lives in and how she has no power against the upper class and patriarchal male just like her having no power in the Reeds household. Women and children were treated the same in the Victorian era; they were to be seen and not heard.
Good Country People In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People “, the relationship between Hulga/Joy and Mrs. Hopewell is not a good mother and daughter relationship. both could not see themselves as who they really are. Mrs. Hopewell lives in a world of clichés and mottos which she believes as truth and hope with simplicity. Meanwhile Hulga/Joy who is very anti-social and has a cynical attitude toward people believes that her mother is too simple-minded. Both fail to recognize and see each other for who they really are.
Being week and vulnerable makes people uncomfortable so we use the mask as a shield to hide what we do not want other people to see. In American Beauty, Lester and Carolyn do not tell their neighbors and friends that they are having marital trouble because they do not want people to know. They hide their true selves behind their mask of a perfect, loving family. The Burnham’s have assumed this identity of normalcy that is maintained by Carolyn and Lester in the outside world, when at home they are not really normal and no longer a happy family. On the outside, the Burnham family appears to be your average American family.
The evil that I felt was portrayed in Charlotte Temple is not the independence Charlotte wants, but the realization that she can’t get her independence happily without the financial and emotional assistance that others can give her. She even admits her confinement to being reliant on others after the letter from her parents. She says, “I will not wound the hearts of those dear parents who make my happiness the whole study of their lives…"(Rowson 46). This evil element of trying to discover her own independence taunts Charlotte throughout the text. Charlotte Temple, by Susannah Rowson was popular in the 19th Century simply because it was just that; simple.
Nora Helmer, in Henrick Ibsen’s A Doll House seems like a naïve character that doesn’t have knowledge of the outside world and the importance of life. She sounds like a happy person that hasn’t gone through hardship, and doesn’t know how to make the right choices for herself. When she starts to realize that life shouldn’t be like this, we see that she isn’t as happy as she seems. Ibsen uses her husband Torvald Helmer to criticize Nora Helmer’s choices. Ibsen has an intelligent way of criticizing the choices Nora makes by using Torvald to insult her decisions.
‘My father must have woken from his bewitchment’ implying that there are some lines that cannot be crossed. Gender roles also falls into her parent’s life, it was uncommon for a woman to take charge of her household instead of her husband another social value questioned. Julie’s actions can be compared to the naturalist tenet that humans have no free will or very little of it due to the environment and heredity that determine the choices that they make. Her mother didn’t conform to society and its norms and neither does Julie clearly shown by her indiscretion with Jean. So it’s almost as if here recklessness was passed down to her from her