The Awakening

Kate Chopin's, "The Awakening," undoubtedly stirs controversy, which is indeed the point. Motherhood, although not the only controversial topic depicted, is the most heated in the novella, in my opinion. And maybe it is only because I can relate to Edna's personal struggle as a woman and mother trying to find herself.

The difference is, my struggle is/was nowhere near as difficult in today's society, as it was for Edna in the late 1800's. Motherhood was, and still is to a degree today, forced upon you in those times and came with unspoken, but also written, rules that had real and damaging consequences if you didn't conform. Much like slavery and just like Lily Bart in " The House of Mirth," women are not looked at as individuals with autonomy. We were looked at as property, just like slaves(and Lily Bart).

What's interesting is, if you were to ask anyone today if it were okay, or at least politically correct, to say that African American's are property and not individuals who deserve a free life, you would be shunned. Because we have learned that it is not okay and immoral. And the thing is, if you were to ask that same question regarding women, you would receive the same response.

Therefore, with this insight, why does it appear to be okay for people, especially women, to take from this book, that Edna was selfish, bad, immoral and being a terrible "mother," as if she had no rights as a human being to live her life as she saw fit? It was perfectly okay for a man to act in this manner and also African Americans, who were legally(and I stress legally only)allowed, according to the written law to be "free" and not property. Slaves, technically, had more rights than women.

So people at that time, since then, and still today, criticize Edna's character as acting inappropriate, immoral and wrong in every way, because she was the "mother" of the children she never wanted and was forced(due to lack of birth control and the role society forced upon her)to have. But these same people, and much more so today, are more than happy to declare their feelings that African Americans should be free, have the same rights and/or at least should not be "property."

That is completely contradictory and very ignorant and disturbing, for women especially, to say that it's okay to be property and forced to follow social rules, but not slaves. I could almost understand that kind of ignorance then, but certainly not now, after all we've learned through history.

The House of Mirth

In Edith Wharton's novel, "The House of Mirth," Warton reveals Lily Bart as the incredibly beautiful, main character. She describes Seldon's take on the breathtaking Lily, "He had a confused sense that she must have cost a great deal to make, that a great many dull and ugly people must, in some mysterious way, have been sacrificed to produce her" (Wharton, 7). I really feel like this beauty was Lily's curse and played a large role in her demise.

Lily was very indecisive, in particular, when it came to relationships with men and whether or not to follow the social norm, which is to find a wealthy husband who can support you and your leisurely lifestyle. However, that is only if a life of wealth and leisure is your one and only goal(which society deemed to be in that time); I don't think that's the case with Lily. Being socially accepted is something almost everyone wants and Lily is no exception but, for her, that meant to give up her freedom as a woman-her independence-and the chance of ever having true love. This just seemed too hard for Lily to overcome: "She would not indeed have cared to marry a man who was merely rich; she was secretly ashamed of her mother's crude passion for money" (Wharton, 30). I think this is the reason she makes such reckless decisions throughout the entire novel-again, mostly when it deals with encounters with the opposite sex. Men give her exactly what she leads them to believe she wants, only to turn down and/or completely sabotage the offer and sometimes the entire "relationship." I think Wharton says it best, ". . .but she had a fatalistic sense of being drawn from one wrong turning to another, without ever perceiving the right road until it was too late to take it." (Wharton, 101)

Lily knows she has envious beauty that most of her peers only conceive as a "gift," and if she were any less attractive she would not have these great advantages, which I do think she wanted. It seemed Lily wanted to have her cake and eat it too. However, towards the end I think she realized what she truly desired was a true, loving relationship and family. This is evident as Wharton describes how Lily thinks about Nettie and her family:

                     "The poor little working-girl who had found strength to gather up the fragments of her life, and build herself a shelter with them, seemed to Lily to have reached the central truth of existence. It was a meagre enough life, on the grim edge of poverty, with scant margin for possibilities of sickness or mischance, but it had the frail audacious permanence of a birds nest built on the edge of a cliff-a mere wisp of leaves and straw, yet so put together that the lives entrusted to it may hang safely over the abyss." (Wharton, 248)

I think she felt almost ungrateful(of her "god-given" beauty)if she did not perform in the same way as all the other "privileged" women of her time. Knowing that any woman would die to have her looks and the opportunities they supplied her with, made it all the more difficult to step out of the box. And the fact that she would be ostracized for it added additional pressure to conform as well-this is why her beauty is like a curse. If she was unattractive the decision to go against society's rules probably would've come much easier to Lily and maybe she would still be alive. Unfortunately, Lily would never overcome her one fatal flaw; even as the most stunning of her society, she was lost and utterly depressed with a life she felt no control over: "If only life could end now-end on this tragic yet sweet vision of lost possibilities, which gave her a sense of kinship with all the loving and foregoing in the world!" (Wharton, 249)