The Importance of Setting in The Awakening Essay -- Chopin Awakening

The Importance of Setting in The Awakening  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   Setting is a key element in Chopin's novel, The Awakening  Ã‚   To the novel's main character, Edna Pontellier, house is not home. Edna was not herself when enclosed behind the walls of the Pontellier mansion. Instead, she was another person entirely-- someone she would like to forget. Similarly, Edna takes on a different identity in her vacation setting in Grand Isle, in her independent home in New Orleans, and in just about every other environment that she inhabits. In fact, Edna seems to drift from setting to setting in the novel, never really finding her true self - until the end of the novel.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Chopin seems highly concerned with this question throughout her narrative. On a larger scale, the author seems to be probing even more deeply into the essence of the female experience: Do women in general have a place in the world, and is the life of a woman the cumbersome pursuit to find that very place? The Awakening struggles with this question, raising it to multiple levels of complexity. Edna finds liberation and happiness in various places throughout the novel, yet this is almost immediately countered by unhappiness and misery. Even at the end, the reader is still left with the question of whether Edna has truly found a setting in which she can finally be herself.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many readers would argue that Edna finds this niche in her seaside vacation home on Grand Isle. To Edna, the sea is a wide expanse of opportunity and liberation from the constricting socialite world of French Quarter New Orleans. Chopin's lavish descriptions of the sea give us an insight into its powerful effect on Edna:    The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whis... ...e Awakening." 1899. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969. 881-1000. Delbanco, Andrew. "The Half-Life of Edna Pontellier." New Essays on The Awakening. Ed. Wendy Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. 89-106. Gilmore, Michael T. "Revolt Against Nature: The Problematic Modernism of The Awakening." Martin 59-84. Giorcelli, Cristina. "Edna's Wisdom: A Transitional and Numinous Merging." Martin 109-39. Martin, Wendy, ed. New Essays on the Awakening. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990. Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969. Showalter, Elaine. "Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book." Martin 33-55.

A debate over ABC Family Values

The article is based on the analysis of a Walt Disney Company owned ABC TV series;     Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Secret Life of the American Teenager† and attempts to relate its scenes and theme to the present day common teenage sexual encounters and early pregnancies. The authors attempt to question the shift to   programs   that are sex based by the ABC TV given that   Disney   not only has themes, in their view, are out of place on a channel with But â€Å"Secret Life† has the word â€Å"family† in its name but also has   a chaste image (James & Chmielewsk, 2009). By venturing into teenage sex series, Disney which presumably ought to promote family values and fight sex before marriage, appears to have undergone a kind of revolution.The series reportedly show playing on bed, a father enquiring about daughters’ sex life and revelation about a father molesting his son. ABC Family also plans to show a comedy about a young woman rejected by a boyfriend after h aving his baby, keeping in mind that its programs are known to advance youth innocence (James & Chmielewsk, 2009).In a rejoinder however, the Disney-ABC Television Group argues that they are just being genuine and responsive to the life experiences of their audiences in attempt to mirror what is happening in the society (James & Chmielewsk, 2009). However, this comment has generated concern about the paradigm shift from the â€Å"family programming,† to contemporary series despite a sensible reason to appeal to the younger viewers; a situation necessitated by research findings.I think that the â€Å"Sex Lives of the American Teenager† a timely series by ABC owing to the increasing cases of teenage sexual experiences, early pregnancies and child molestation. These, are social ills which contravene Disney’s family values hence the series serve to educate the public. At the same time, ABC has ensured that each episode ends with an advisory that encourages parents a nd children to talk before it's too late, an idea which I believe illustrates the very message that the explicit teenage scenes tend to depict.Reference:James & Chmielewsk. (2009, February 1).A Debate over ABC Family Values. Retrieved February 4, 2009.Available Online:

Gender Roles In Shakespeares Ophelia And Hamlet - 1258 Words

While the stage was seen as a way to break the barriers of gender norms during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare both defies these gender norms by creating characters in Hamlet, both male and female, that do not seem to be able to apply reasoning to their abilities and enforces the concepts of gender roles by writing Ophelia as a quiet and subordinate woman. The Great Chain of Being dictates that logic and reasoning are the defining factors that separate animals from humans. However, both Ophelia and Hamlet, two of the leading characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, seem to comply with the idea of reasoning, and thus, reinforcing the ideas set forth by the Great Chain of Being. According to Carolyn Merchant’s The Death of Nature:†¦show more content†¦Laertes tries his best to convince Ophelia that â€Å"if [Hamlet] says he loves [her],/ it fits [her] wisdom [...] to believe it† (1.3.24). By this, it could be assumed that Laertes is predicting that it would seem likely that Ophelia would fall under the impression of Hamlet loving her, regardless if it was true. As her brother takes his leave, Ophelia tells him that she will lock his warnings in her mind with Laertes holding the key to this memory. In this instance, Ophelia’s place in her family is shown as being the lesser of the siblings. Her father tries to convince her that â€Å"when the blood burns, how prodigal the soul/Lends the tongue vows† (1.3.116). By this, Polonius’s words reinforce the idea that Ophelia’s ideas of Hamlet are led by passion rather than logic. If she were to be thinking logically, it is assumed that she would not have been confuse d about the meaning of Hamlet s words that were said to her in their moments of passion. Ophelia’s agreement with her father that she will not believe Hamlet’s words of passion led to the push of Hamlet becoming obsessed with his hatred of her. In the scene following Ophelia’s realization of the falsehood in Hamlet’s words, Hamlet’s confrontation with what he believes is the ghost of his father propels him to what might be seen as madness. One of the questions that is constantly brought forth in regards to Hamlet, is whether or not Hamlet is truly mad or if he is merely playing the part. AreShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s Hamlet - A Fatal Flaw953 Words   |  4 Pages Everyone in Hamlet has a fatal flaw. However, some of the characters, such as Gertrude and Ophelia, have little to no control over the conflicts that arise, and their flaw is their inability to make decisions for themselves. These two women are unable to resolve problems by themselves because they are females, and during this time period females were not given any type of authority. 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