"The Awakening" and "Madame Bovary"

Paper Summary:

This essay shows that Madame Bovary's entire experience is by way of approaching her own obscurity and, indeed, her own demise and her death as an individual. It discusses how the depiction of Madame Emma Bovary's adulterous behavior, beyond the racy fascination readers dipped into as Emma's desire for "self-obliteration" was carried out, was totally unacceptable for the 19th century, and along with her other foibles, indicates a serious dance with transgressions. It then looks at how Edna, the main character from "The Awakening", certainly transforms the image of the stereotypical female of the 19th century from a modest, obedient wife and mother into a woman having an affair and breaking all the rules.

From the Paper:

"Before examining further Edna's breaking away from Darwin's ideas, it is worthy to point out that Darwin saw civilization as evolving largely because "a woman's modesty curbs the male's eagerness to couple", Bender continues (488). But Bender also quotes Ruth Bernard Yeazell as saying, as a critique of Darwin, that "females are at once less lustful and more discriminating than males" [and] the satisfying conclusion to Darwin's story preserves the ideals of motherhood and the modest woman who knows nothing of appetite or sexual desire.
Are we talking about women with no appetite for sexual desire? Not in Chopin's characters. She clearly follows a pattern of both accepting and rejecting Darwin, which Bender only scratches the surface with. Chopin is likely embracing Darwin through the many images of the sea that connect Edna with evolution, if you will. "Edna is a post-Darwinian woman-animal who had evolved from the sea in a world without gods", Bender explains."

More papers on "The Awakening" and "Madame Bovary":

• Comparison Essay # 106294 : "Feminist Revision"
• Book Review # 105230 : "The Awakening" and The Life of Kate Chopin"
• Term Paper # 58830 : "Anachronisms in Their Own Time"

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