Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening

Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Kate Chopin created Edna Pontellier, but neither the character nor her creator was divorced from the world in which Chopin lived. As a means to understand the choices Chopin gave Edna, Margit Stange evaluates The Awakening in the context of the feminist ideology of the late nineteenth century. Specifically, she argues that Edna is seeking what Chopin’s contemporaries denoted self-ownership, a notion that pivoted on sexual choice and â€Å"voluntary motherhood† (276). Stange makes a series of meaningful connections between Kate Chopin’s dramatization of Edna Pontellier’s â€Å"awakening† and the historical context of feminist thought that Stange believes influenced the novel. For†¦show more content†¦Indeed, Stange correctly notes that one of the arguments for feminist’s rejection of birth control technology is that motherhood, even though â€Å"voluntary,† was vital to women’s pool of influence within their social circl es and the wider world. It was the roles of hostess, wife, mother, and sexual partner that gave women their own power, and their husbands standing within the community. By casting off the duties that come with being Mrs. Pontellier, Edna is devaluing the â€Å"currency† with which her husband buys respectability and esteem. By withholding sexual and social favors, Edna ruptures Leonce’s privileged comfort and establishes herself as femme seule, literally providing for herself with an independent income (282, 286). Stange argues that this development in the novel is tied to the Married Women’s Property Acts, which seriously diminished the breadth of women’s status as femme couverte Stange suggests that Chopin’s choice of Kentucky, home of the most liberal of these Acts, as Edna’s birthplace is a deliberate link between contemporary feminist advances and Edna’s experience, and â€Å"thus Chopin connects Edna to the feminist drive for w omen’s property rights† (281). Stange’s point is well-taken, although Chopin might also have chosen Kentucky for its fine history of championship horse-breeding, thus providing Edna with a background that then would give her an important social, and financial, outlet. In any event, this practical freedom of self that EdnaShow MoreRelated Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening808 Words   |  4 Pages Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Margit Stange makes a series of meaningful connections between Kate Chopin’s dramatization of Edna Pontellier’s â€Å"awakening† and the historical context of feminist thought which Stange believes influenced the novel. Part of understanding Edna’s motives and Chopin’s thinking are Stange’s well-chosen references to the contemporary ideology that shapes Edna’s thinking and her choices. Stange argues that Edna is seeking the late-nineteenth-century Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Margit Stange makes a series of meaningful connections between Kate Chopin’s dramatization of Edna Pontellier’s â€Å"awakening† and the historical context of feminist thought which Stange believes influenced the novel. Part of understanding Edna’s motives and Chopin’s thinking are Stange’s well-chosen references to the contemporary ideology that shapes Edna’s thinking and her choices. Stange argues that Edna is seeking the late-nineteenth-century conception of self-ownership, which pivots on â€Å"voluntary motherhood.† Edna’s awakening, her acquisition of self-determination, comes from identifying and re-distributing what she owns, which Stange argues is her body. For example, Edna’s†¦show more content†¦Originally, Stange believes, Edna asserts her sense of self-ownership by refusing the role of mother-woman. While she never does embrace that role, indeed has difficulty explaining to Adele or herself pr ecisely how she envisions herself as mother, she comes to realize that refusing the role is not making motherhood voluntary, only a more arbitrary condition that robs her of control (284). She shifts her focus to controlling what made her a mother in the first place. As sole owner of her body, Edna comes to see her sexuality as something that she can withhold or give as she sees fit (281, 283-84). This, Stange argues, is the essence of self-ownership. The right of a woman to determine her maternal status by choosing when she will become pregnant lies in her right to choose when she will have sex, considering her needs apart from her husband’s wishes (276-77). Despite the seeming contradiction, late-nineteenth-century feminists did not doubt that women must become mothers; they argued simply that any woman had the right to determine when motherhood commenced. Stange points out that, because women’s sexuality was tied inextricably to motherhood, this became what a  "woman makes available orShow MoreRelated Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening1350 Words   |  6 PagesMargit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Kate Chopin created Edna Pontellier, but neither the character nor her creator was divorced from the world in which Chopin lived. As a means to understand the choices Chopin gave Edna, Margit Stange evaluates The Awakening in the context of the feminist ideology of the late nineteenth century. Specifically, she argues that Edna is seeking what Chopin’s contemporaries denoted self-ownership, a notion that pivoted on sexual choice and