American Feminism in Literature (late 1800s) Kate Chopin The Awakening “The Story of an Hour”

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American Feminism in Literature (late 1800s) Kate Chopin The Awakening “The Story of an Hour”

Transcript of American Feminism in Literature (late 1800s) Kate Chopin The Awakening “The Story of an Hour”

Page 1: American Feminism in Literature (late 1800s) Kate Chopin The Awakening “The Story of an Hour”

American Feminism in Literature (late 1800s)

Kate ChopinThe Awakening

“The Story of an Hour”

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Women Know Your Limits

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Feminism

Women break free of the “Romantic” mold that had come to define their gender in popular fiction

Instead of female characters fulfilling the secondary roles assigned to them by male authors, women (and their particular struggle) are given center stage and an interior life by a new and emerging group of authors: women

While writing in authentic, often local colors, they also portray the universal struggle for female independence—sometimes openly but often quite subtly given the cultural climate

Sarah Orne Jewett’s A Country Doctor (1884) lays foundation

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) is a watershed moment

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Social Norms for Women• Emphasis on female purity • ideal of the "true woman" as wife, mother, and keeper of the

home. • the home was the basis of morality and a sanctuary free from

the corruption of the city. As guardian of the home and family, women were believed to be more emotional, dependent, and gentle by nature.

• This perception of femininity led to the popular conclusion that women were more susceptible to disease and illness, and was a basis for the diagnosis of insanity in many female patients during the 19th century.

• Rather than being viewed as a bad and immoral woman, honor and reputation could be maintained by the diagnosis of a medical condition and commitment to an asylum.

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He Thinks He’ll Keep HerWhat does it mean to be a “kept woman”• 19th century upper and middle class women

were completely dependent on their husbands and fathers, and their lives revolved around their role as respectable daughter, housewife, and mother.

• With so little power, control, and independence, depression, anxiety, and stress were common among women struggling to cope with a static existence under the thumb of strict gender ideals and unyielding patriarchy.

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Those Crazy Ladies

Hysteria and Madness•Heredity, environment, gender, class, and 'sinful' behavior were commonly identified as causes of mental illness. •Classification of insanity, treatment methods, and asylum design were based on these same principles. Physicians believed that they could cure patients if they could alter the physical environment by removing a patient from the city, or by stopping a then unacceptable behavior or by surgically removing parts of the body or brain.

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Dr. S. Wier Mitchell

Remain in bed for 6 weeks to 2 monthsNo sitting up for the first 4-5 weeksNo sewing, writing, reading, or the use of one’s hands other than to clean the teethBowels may be passed while lying downPatient may be lifted onto a lounge for an hour in the morning and again at bedtime and then lifted back into a newly made bed

REST CURE

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Not to make light of mental illness

• Women did suffer from depression, anxiety, and the likes that in fact are recognized mental illnesses.

• However, those who spoke out against their defined roles were often deemed as having a mental problem.

• Authors such as Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, or Susanna Kaysen all attempted or committed suicide which may very well be a reflection of the struggle to break free from gender stereotypes.

• Kate Chopin’s Edna Pontellier certainly struggles with breaking free from social norms, those expectations for wife, mother, woman.

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The Awakening and “The Story of an Hour”

• How specifically does the heroine rebel against social conventions in The Awakening and “The Story of an Hour?

• Why does her rebellion manifest specifically? • Which of her actions seem most shocking to

her community?• What is the “joy that kills”? • From both works, summarize what is Chopin

asserting.