Hi everyone,
Here's the assignment for Wednesday.
1. Please finish watching the movie, here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vt4d9m57jmmx83/Grand%20Island.mp4?dl=0
2. Then read "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin.
3. Make a post here on the blog; the objective is to analyze or reflect about the end of the novel in relation to the short story and the sociocultural context that surrounded both text productions. You could answer the question, how does the novel and short story relate in connection to the sociocultural context that surrounded the narratives?
You could also focus on he cinematic representation of the novel. Did it enhance or limit the literary world of the novel? How? Also, does the multimodal nature of the movie help viewers build a better understudying of Edna's spiritual and intellectual struggle?
Focus on any of these questions and write a post of at least 300 words.
4. Once you have written the post, you must read two posts of two of your classmates and react to their comments.
The grade will be assigned from 1 to 5 and will take into consideration, the quality of your posts (clarity and depth of argument, good language use, and knowledge of the subject). The main post will be worth 3 points and the replies 1 point each.
The assignment will be available until Wednesday 11:59 p.m. After this time, the blog will block, disabling possibilities to add comments.
José A.
Here's the assignment for Wednesday.
1. Please finish watching the movie, here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vt4d9m57jmmx83/Grand%20Island.mp4?dl=0
2. Then read "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin.
3. Make a post here on the blog; the objective is to analyze or reflect about the end of the novel in relation to the short story and the sociocultural context that surrounded both text productions. You could answer the question, how does the novel and short story relate in connection to the sociocultural context that surrounded the narratives?
You could also focus on he cinematic representation of the novel. Did it enhance or limit the literary world of the novel? How? Also, does the multimodal nature of the movie help viewers build a better understudying of Edna's spiritual and intellectual struggle?
Focus on any of these questions and write a post of at least 300 words.
4. Once you have written the post, you must read two posts of two of your classmates and react to their comments.
The grade will be assigned from 1 to 5 and will take into consideration, the quality of your posts (clarity and depth of argument, good language use, and knowledge of the subject). The main post will be worth 3 points and the replies 1 point each.
The assignment will be available until Wednesday 11:59 p.m. After this time, the blog will block, disabling possibilities to add comments.
José A.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think both text productions are expressions about women’s repression in the Victorian Era because on the one side, we have this story of The Awakening which since the very begging shows to us that women have to do what their husbands command them; and on the other side, we have The Story of an Hour which is not too far of the same theme of repression in women but with the difference that in this occasion the author leave it implicit, for example, when Mrs. Mallard think about freedom after her husband’s death. This for me implies suppression of her freedom by the way she faced the news.
DeleteOn these order of ideas, I want to point out that both women had not a perfect way out to scape of their marriages; for one hand Edna did not want to stay neither her husband and kids nor her “true love” Robert, despite she really loved him; she only want to be free and the way that she figured out was through suicide. On the other side, Mrs. Mallard wanted the same thing: be free to herself not to anyone, the difference was she did not suicide but she passed away because of her heart trouble. One cause of the women’s death was because of the society where they lived, Victorian Era, was about women as abnegated wives and mothers who could not play other role in it; both wanted to be independents.
Finally, I want to add that despite I liked the novel, the movie did not help me to understand Edna’s spiritual and intellectual struggle because it had poor edition and also in the movie they present a reverse on the characters (Edna is not repressed as in the story, and Leonce’s character is less indulgent). I also think that the book illustrated very well Edna’s struggle because it is very descriptive and that allows us to glimpse clearly what happens in each scene, with certain exceptions. In my opinion, the movie it was not necessary to understand the story.
I agree with the classmate Carolina Valderruten about her perception about the book, how women in that era were neglected in social behavior, how they should be abrogate and totally committed with their families leaving aside their dreams, their senses etc. At the same time, I also agree that the movie gave another context or perception about the book, however it is remarkable to understand that it is a book adaptation and it will take some sketches of the book but it is also part of the movie director to provoke that amusement and thrill at that time, so that it is why personally understood the husband behavior and the victim adaptation to Edna's role. Also I not agree in the book perception, in my opinion, I totally heated and abhorred it, in some cases I perceived lack of developpement, to engage even more the reader, I felt it really yellowish and banal, probably it could be such a hit at that time but as I said before I totally dislike it.
DeleteI agree with you Carolina, about what you say that in Victorian Era, women just can play the role of wives and mothers. As we can see in the awakening, Edna wanted, to put it in some way, “to get out of the closet”, she hated to be considered as a Leonce's possession. she wanted to be free of worries, and that includes the way she didn't feel somehow as a mother, because she didn't like to care of her children as if that office was the only she could. As you said Edna and Mrs Mallar wanted to be independents woman, talking about Edna’s case she wanted to serve in other things that weren’t just to serve to their family. Another thing that I like was the sociocultural context that you gave about Victorian Era, was very accurate, by the manner you contextualized with the novel.
DeleteWhile reading both The Awakening and The Story of an Hour I noticed how Kate Chopin relates death to freedom.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe she felt particulary opresed by men, as in both of the stories men are not portrayed as vicious monsters but as very human, inocent-like characters. Even One-dimensional and short minded, but not as opresors. During The Awakening, for example, Kate Chopin emphacised on the fact that Leonce adored her. Also, despite his unorthodox ways around women, Robert was never portrayed as an evil character, Of course, traditional gender roles play a strong part in their cosmovision, making them expect certain things from Edna, like being a good mother and being submisive, but there is still no emphasis on the male characters being vicious opresors. On the other hand, The Story of an Hour also says the portagonist's husbend loved her. It even describes him as a kind man. To stop bitting around the bush, what I'm trying to say is that the freedom, so present in Kate Chopin's story-telling, is not a freedom from men, but from life itself. Edna could have made a change on her miserable existence; get a fresh start somewhere else, but instead she choose death as a relief from her life. Same goes for Mrs. Mallard. The fact that her husband had died was not what made her fill wiith a joy that would kill her, but the fact that she might had full control over her life.
Chopin seems to use death as a metaphore for freedom and control. You see, taking your own life is a radical decision that only you can control; when Edna choose to kill herself she was in full control of her decision and could also escape from life. Now, in the case of Mrs.Mallard, she did not choose death, but that doesn't take away the fact that in the last minutes of her life she felt in full control and the happiness of it was what killed her.
About the movie, I sincerely think it was abismal. Not only the terrible acting, but the script took the book completely out of context. It made Leonce seem like a douche and Edna like an adulterous terrible one-dimesional character. The transitions and changes on the storyboard turned the whole sense of the book into a dumb chick flick. It was a whole lot of nothing. More and more poorly-used pathos, trying to make the audience hate Leonce and adore Robert, as if relationships were that easy. In the book one actually gets to understand each character's point of view, but in this movie one could barely percieve Edna's. I give it a 2/10 only for having the courage to film it. The book deserved better.
This is Carolina Benítez, BTW. :)
DeleteI agree with Carolina in the fact that both stories take freedom as a major topic I also feel the same thing, but related to how Chopin created innocent-like characters, I disagree because I do think that those male characters submit their wives because that was how Victorian Era worked, for example in that time women had not any rights, nor to vote, nor to sue or even to have their own property. So, in my opinion Chopin wanted to demonstrate this problematic in both stories. But I respect your opinion is just another point of view.
DeleteI agree with both classmates about the freedom as a overstated topic, also I agree about Carolina Benitez perception of the movie which was totally lame, as she said it before, the main objective of the movie was like defending Edna's behavior due to the irrational husband attitude also, picturing her as a totally victim. However as I think that sort of movies do not copy each and every single line of the book, directors should take into account the main parts and provoke issues in the spectators, I think that it might be the answer about the lopsided perceptions about the characters. But it is important to re-state that it is my opinion and I totally respect my classmates opinions too.
Delete* Carolina Bonilla G.
DeleteHello, Caroline.
I agree with you in the metaphore you establish among death, freedom and control, because certainly death is a way of being free and give control to what you think is lost. However, when you say "she was in full control of her decision", I wouldn't be that sure, because, you know, she had many many things on her, many new feelings and experiences and a thousand eyes on her practices, it was not about having control, I would say the opposite, maybe she was into the abyss and she got no satisfaction, maybe it was so hard she couldn't see other possibilities because life itself wasn't giving them.
On the other hand, I agree with your comments about the movie, the acting and the script, because it was out of tune! Also, the comparison between the two man, I think they exactly made it like that, with the simil of the good one and the evil. Besides, what you say about the characters' perception is what I profoundly criticize from that movie, they are really depersonalized.
And... the "grade" you gave, it was creative :) I liked it.
Thanks, Caroline.
hahaha I love the way you say that the movie was out of context because I actually perceived the same thing. It totally tries to change the figure that people have about Edna, Leonce and Robert; but it didn't work.
DeleteI really appreciate that you pointed out that husbands were not pictured as monsters in any of the stories, but more as short-sighted, even ingenuous, people. Indeed, the way that Leonce was portrayed in the film bothered me a lot since they were trying to justify Edna's behavior through Leonce's outbursts of anger when none of these have anything to do with how the book describes Leonce's behavior. Also, I do agree with your statement of death as having control of the own life. Definitely, both stories could have ended in different ways, but killing the characters show how they could become owners of their lives.
DeleteCarolina,
DeleteI like your reflection about how men are depicted in the book and the movie. Men are shown as naive about the submissive ways in which they treat women. This makes sense to some extent, some people can´t really see that what they do is mistaken because it is very natural to them. So, thinking that Edna was rebelling against the status quo of the society of the time makes more sense than thinking that she was rebelling against men. They were just part of a system. There is also the explanation that Chopin did not want to be so much critical of the men of the time because of the sociocultural context of the Victorian Age, mainly dominated by masculine ideologies.
Kate Chopin, born in Saint Louis, Missouri in the United States was a writer who became famous only years after her death due to the rejection her works received when released. The society of the nineteenth century would not pay attention to Chopin’s work, and considered it rather immoral and insolent. Stories that spoke of women feeling relief and happiness from the absence of their husbands were imaginable at the time.
ReplyDeleteTwo examples that can relate regarding this aspect are “The Awakening”, and “The Story of an hour”, very different respecting length and development but very similar on their ends: They both depict women that find their freedom and their happiness after they are relieved from the pressure, the power and the subjugation of their male counterparts and of the pressure of having a family responsibility.
Edna (protagonist of The “Awakening”) finds her autonomy and the path to express herself right after her husband travels to New York and her children go to her mother’s house. She moves to a little house of her own and finds herself loving the men she wants to without feeling wrong. “The Story of an Hour” shows this awakening in a different way: Mrs. Mallard has her husband in war and receives the news that he is dead. Right after that, she goes to her room and sits before a window that fills her with fresh new air as she feels the freedom taking control of her body, the relief and the liberation invade her soul and she steps up of the chair owning control of the situation.
However, both stories portray an ending that goes a little off the expected path: Death. For many it is a very sad ending, however, I would believe it to be a rather beautiful culmination –if it were actually better developed in the stories, specially “The Awakening”-. For the Buddhists, life is all about suffering and the only way to stop this continuous grieve is to achieve detachment from earthly life. I think death in both stories is taken much more as a culmination of a liberation process than a tragic final faith for an audacious and daring character to society.
Death. The termination of all biological and earthly functions of the body. A bold and intelligent way to bring characters that are desperate for liberation to the peak of their search. Edna lets go of everything, her husband, her lovers, her friends, her passion for drawing and her children. She lets go of them without stopping to love them and caring for them: She gave her life, but not herself. Mrs. Mallard’s end, though very similar as for the means of her death, hers was more vivid, bright and reassuring: Hers was exalting, she was a victim of “the joy that kills”, she acknowledged her new free state and took hold of it so tight and so happily it killed her before even realising her husband was actually alive.
I agree with you, when you contrast the two different situation of both women in each story because you try to express as the husband's possesion unchain agony and desperation on them. Two women who lived different life situations. However, on the other side, they share the same common point that was that they want to be free. Completely free of all posession and opression of her husbands. So, the only way that they could find was the death.
DeleteI am with you in the notion of death as a culmination and the way you show Edna was actually in some way death already, before even drowning. And I don't know how was it for you, but for me the end of Mrs. Mallard was dead funny.
DeleteThe awakening novel and the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin are two text productions that emphasize and reflect the life’s role of married woman of the past time.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to accentuate in the similar aspects that delimited the two narrations in the end part. For example, I can see as the woman is regarded as a person who started to ask about her own essence. That means a woman who is exploring in what consist the human being. For this reason, both women start to perceive everything that surrounded her world. They find a beautiful world outside of her homes. They felt the air and they are conscious of the pass of the time. The most important thing is that they recognize the superficiality of his life. Secondly, in the women are prevalent the presence of deepest feelings such as the loneliness, the fear and insecurity. They are women that start to fight with their feelings and the strength of their thoughts. In addition, one of the things that keep on calm to them is the sound of melodies, the melodies of the songs or the twitter of the sparrows outside. Third, in both narrations is really discussed the concept of freedom and as the body and soul are two elements that have a significant link. Finally, in the two stories, the women wanted to find a solution to all this agony and fear that pervades their bodies, but the unique door for them is the death. A kind of uncertain death where they found the essence of her human being and the most relevant aspect is that of this way they reached the freedom of their souls.
According to the cinematic representation of the Awakening movie, I have to say that it was really helpful because I could contrast the hypothesis of the visual images that I had on my head about the characters. Also, I have to admit that I felt a little bit impressed with Leonce’s character because it was not really well defined in the book in comparison with the movie. Another thing that I would like to say is that the multimodal nature of the movie helped viewers to build a better understudying of Edna spiritual and intellectual struggle when in the movie it was shown some pictures of the Edna’s thoughts. In the pictures I could perceive the accurately memories and feelings that she was feeling in several moments of the story. Also, I think that was really interesting the color of the costumes on the characters. The white color was really predominant in the clothes and in the cottages and the piano’s melody that reflected the Edna’s feelings.
I totally agree with you Briyith, I think that the end of both stories is sad and somehow dissapointing because as you said "the women wanted to find a solution to all this agony and fear that pervades their bodies, but the unique door for them is the death" so is kind of shocking to the reader to find that the main characters couldn't fulfill their dreams. I also think that the cinematic version of the book gave us a better "image" of the characters specially the Leonce's appearance and the costumes also provide the "high society" the novel took place, but I also have to say that perhaps because of the time the movie was filmed, I didn't perceive better Edna's spiritual and intellectual struggle, for me the movie was "flat".
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DeleteRegarding Briyith's reflection on the relationship between "the awakening" novel and "the Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, I must say that I agree. I especially like her conclusion saying that with their deaths, Edna's and Mrs. Mallard, "they reached the freedom of their souls", I think that this is exactly what both women were trying to achieve. Their reasons of dying were different, one of sadness (Edna), one of joy (Louise) but both found peace in their souls shedding their bodies.
DeleteRegarding her reflection on the movie, I agree that I also could contrast both novel and film production in relation to the characters; both were very significant to understand them and to complement the idea of them. I actually did not completely understand Edna’s spiritual and intellectual struggle, neither in the book nor the movie, I believe this is something the reader (of both novel and movie) had to deduct because, at least for me, it was not explicit or specific, but as Briyith said, multimodality helps to create a wider image of this emotional spectrum.
About Briyiths and Laura's comment i have to say that i agree when they quote "the women wanted to find a solution to all this agony and fear that pervades their bodies, but the unique door for them is the death" it was kind of sad and frustrating at the same time. However, I was very disappointed of Edna's decision to kill herself, through all the book Edna, for me, seemed like a very strong out of the box person at the time, but then she took the easy way to run away from her problems and sadness. I was hoping she would fight for her desire of being free and to be with the person who she really loved.
DeleteBriyith,
DeleteI agree with you that one of the things that the movie emphasized was the image of the girl walking through the meadow that Chopin uses in the novel; however, I think that the movie is more successful in making it a theme on the movie than The Awakening. The movie wants to contrasts the period of life when Edna felt less oppressed, if not free. The time when she was a dreamer which marriage took away.
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ReplyDeleteOne of the most striking features in both, the book and the short story, it’s the matter of fact of “freedom”. As a matter of research, the main explanation about the writer focusing about the “freedom” terminology, it is because she experienced that herself, not as the matter of being bored by her husband, it was due to the social pressure that it was inflected to women at that time. It is not free that the Kate Chopin wrote about that topic, she perceived herself the segregation that society inflicted to her, just for tasting other paths other experiences. I maintain that Edna and Louise are the main embodiment of Kate Chopin perception of the life women had to deal in order to satisfy a social ideology.
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason to believe what it was expressed lines before which is: the author perceived uncomfortable moments as when she tried to be walking alone in the street as Edna did it one time in the book, so Katie was victim of prejudging comments and irrationalism by the neighbors. Thus, I perceived she used the writing as a strategy to be hearing for someone.
At the same time, Chopin was dealing with her mother’s death and she utilized that moving moment to “awake” herself to show how women were treated, like slaves or social puppets; women should do all what her husband thought that it was appropriated, they have to be caring their children and being locked up and awaiting until husbands arrived, while they were private of some things that men did at that time.
To end, a lot of people claim about the equality of the sexes, it is important to understand, that it was the main purpose in the authors writing; she wanted to show a modern female perception about the life, how women had should been better treated and how it was important to understand their emotions, their fierce encounters with life and their breaking out impulses, how women should had taken their decisions too without waiting the marital or society approval.
I agree with you, Santiago, about that Chopin wanted to show the awakening not just of these two women but Victorian women, which as we know in that time women's life was not easy; I also think that this author demonstrated that perception on those stories that women can do whatever they want without society approval. But I disagree that those stories being about Kate Chopin's life, maybe she wanted to express those thoughts to the society in general not because those things actually happened to her, but maybe I am wrong. This is just what I think.
DeleteI agree with Santiago, Kate chopin was trying to show the reality of women at the time, a person who didn't have any kind of value more than than taking care of a house and kids without having a right to refuse, soemone who didn't need anything else but material stuff, money, a huge house, commodities, bit nothing of attention or love. However I wouldn't say that she is writing about her life more than being general about certain issues that were current at the moment.
DeleteI like the last sentece you used: "how women should had taken their decisions too without waiting the marital or society approval." because it simply summarizes the way women had to act taking into account a male filter that would aprove or not their decisions or thoughts and I think that this takes place when Chopin creates that victorian houses as golden jails were women were soul prisioners but received wealth not for their satisfaction because it was due to accomplish men's prosperity.
DeleteI think the important thing is when the book was placed because it was in the VIctorian Era in which woman didn’t have the rights they have nowadays, then according to this I see, somehow, in The awakening something feminist because Kate Chopin was trying throughout the book expressing herself as a woman who can make her own decision despite having an engagement; besides the freedom which she was looking all the time.
ReplyDeleteIn both stories I guess Chopin was portraying her own life, according to her biography her father passed away when she was young and we can see it in the story “The awakening” when she expressed their no-closed relationship; besides once Chopin got married she started to question the church authority because of her liberal ideas. She thought women were dominated by the church and its idea of what a women and and men must do.
Moreover, in The Story of an hour is like the same because after Mrs Mallard's husband death she could found the freedom. I don’t know if she had troubles while she was married but, according to her biography she got married so young and had six or seven children which, I think, could be hard for her, handling her children without a man because her husband died by a fever in 1882 and having this ideas in her mind of being free; so I guess this book was her catharsis because somehow she could write something that at that moment women couldn’t say because of the intolerance of people.
Well, I guess she started the feminist movement because at that time feminism didn’t exist as a cohesive movement or genre.
I agree with Nicolas when he wrote “ I think death in both stories is taken much more as a culmination of a liberation process than a tragic final faith for an audacious and daring character to society”! because it is something symbolic, and I guess she was trying to be heard because she learnt society will not tolerate her questioning, but the funny thing is books are meant to last, so that was she did, Chopin wrote about this issue and even if people at that time couldn't understand, now women agree with her, so her idea of freedom will be in every single person mind even if they don’t agree.
DeleteI also agree with Carolina when she wrote “Finally, I want to add that despite I liked the novel, the movie did not help me to understand Edna’s spiritual and intellectual struggle because it had poor edition” because for me the movie lacks of material, it is sad that movies spoil books that show the real story, but even if there’s no enough time to develop the story at least they could play with the music or something because sometimes I felt the movie wasn’t portraying what the book said.
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ReplyDeleteI have to say that for me it was so interesting how Kate Chopin showed a reality that at that time it was really difficult to women to face. Chopin’s narrative expresses somehow a truth that was happening to more women that we can think of in that moment, she describes it so well taking into account that at the time the novel and the short story were published, it was “not allowed” to express that way some sociocultural aspects such as the infidelity. Both narratives “The Awakening” and “The Story of an Hour” are really connected, like, both main characters are women “Edna” and “Louise” that are passing through a moment in their lives where both of them want to be free of being the possession of their husbands; both Edna and Louise find a relieve when they finally feel that they are no longer by their husbands’s side, like when Edna moves from their house to the pigeon house to start a new life and when Louise looks through her window and whispers “Free! Body and soul free!”.
ReplyDeleteI think the author was brilliant in the way that she “killed” both main characters at the end of the stories because as a reader while you were following the stories in a moment you could tell that finally, the desires and dreams of these battered-by-their-husbands women would come true, like for example that Edna would end happily married to Robert, but no, the author closes giving a shocking and with not much details final to the protagonist’s lives, meaning that perhaps at that time in the sociocultural environment that surrounded the novel and the short story it was prohibited to women to think like that, to have desires after marriage, to talk about women’s sexuality, and the confusion and contradictions in women’s relationships with their husbands, and it was better to die than deal with the social pressure.
Laura, I think you're right when you said that the novel didn't has an expected final, because as a readers we were waiting for the love story between Edna and Robert. As you say maybe in that time was unappropriated go saying things as: "desires after marriage, to talk about women’s sexuality, and the confusion and contradictions in women’s relationships with their husbands." I have to say that I hadn't though the things in that way, but now you mentioned it, I think than your argument has a lot of sense. Principally, taking into account the moment that people, especially women were living, a time where infidelities were inappropriates, a time where a woman just could ensure the safety of her family, that include obviously her husband and children, finding death as a unique solution of freedom. We clearly have this example in both Kate Chopin stories.
DeleteI really like Laura's reflection. As Laura, I also believe that "The awakening" and “The Story of an Hour” are very connected. Both main characters are women who were revealing against all this cultural suppression for women, who were seeing as possessions, and they both end with their desired freedom in their souls by releasing their bodies.
DeleteI also agree that it was a very good rhetorical strategy to kill Edna and Louise. It seems that society was so oppressive for them that they desperately NEEDED to end up with this. For me, it was interesting that Chopin made a distinction between soul and body freedom, stating that soul freedom was more valuable regardless the body. According to this, Kate Chopin was trying to give a strong message about women, that they can make their own decisions and that they are their own owners no matter what they had to do to accomplish that, as Laura said "It was better to die than deal with the social pressure"
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Delete* Carolina Bonilla G.
DeleteHello, Laura.
I really agree with you in the fact you mentioned about the conditions women had at that time (what has not changed that much nowadays) and I also think that the writer was smart at giving that end to the two stories. However, when I disagree a bit is facing the way she wrote the ends, I mean, she could have played with her literary resources, doing it deeper and creating a frame of sensations, but what she did was writing the final words to death, with an abrupt transition; personally I was jumping on the chair and I expected more.
Another thing I totally agree with is the one you wrote about freedom, the wishes those women had to be free and the hard they were living; besides, I like when you say there was a bunch of sociocultural pressure, what could have affected the writing process, because she couldn't be as opened as we can now, that's true!
Finally, as you and Daniela said,"It was better to die than deal with the social pressure", I think that phrase is the open door to the awakening, going to the Motherland and finding a place to rest your bones.
Thank you, Laura :)
ReplyDeleteThe awakening and the story on an hour have almost the same line, the same narrative.
Both stories were produced between 1894 and 1899. At that time, women were not considering as much important as they really are, their roll on the society was very limited and undervalued. These stories make the reader think about the social-condition of the woman years ago. Is really interesting to see, how Kate Chopin (Author of the stories) express, as an unknown roll what women wanted to reflect, what they were feeling at the moment. They were in the middle of their own family and exposed to the judge of the society
These stories are connected to the sociocultural context of the moment, explaining, principally, that women could not decided the person they would like to have, because behind there was the economic value and prestige. Chopin, wrote on a way that everybody could noticed the absence of something else on these women (Adele and Mrs. Mallard) different of a house, money, family. Moreover, feelings in human beings are something really complicated and sensitive to deal with. At the moment when Edna had the opportunity to share time with Robert, she felt different than when she was with her husband, who somehow loved her, and in some other cases, when she was in her house, she preferred to be totally alone, trying to look for that freedom that she did not have. Now, I can say that Mrs. Mallard loved her husband, but when she knew about her husband’s death, she felt kind of free and the doors of her life were open to allowed new experiences arrive to her. Symbolically, Chopin makes us to think about an unhappy marriage, a thwarted one.
In conclusion, the writer of both stories found out a way to get and to understand the real meaning of freedom in a society that could not see the huge value of women in it by the death. Edna could not continuous with the weight of being a “slave” of her house and not a mother, a wife, a woman, taking herself into the sea. Mrs. Mallards after at moment of being free because of the new of her husband’s death, came back to the reality that he was still alive, so that her heart stopped that feeling of freedom for ever by heart trouble because she saw him alive after having heard that he was dead and also, because of the desire of living with happiness.
I agree with you, Kevin.
DeleteChopin creates a sociocultural background that puts women in order to satisfy men's will by not being considered for sharing their own opinion or thoughts, situation that conducted some women as Edna and Mrs. Mallard to a deadly awakening because if they would have expressed their voice they would have been judgedn in such a negative way.
Both novels, “the awakening” and “the story of an hour” created by Kate Chopin showed how strong can be the influence of having a possessive and oppressed life. In this case of two woman whose search an only purpose: to be free. Both cases finishing with Edna and Mrs. Mallar death.
ReplyDeleteWe can see first, the way how Edna Pontellier was unhappy with the life she was leading with her husband. Although he loves her, he wanted that she were in a certain way a submissive person that obey only to him, being somehow his appreciate possession, a woman who devoted her life to family. With this, we can observe the principal reasons of Edna’s decision to find freedom. This object plays a roll very important in this woman, giving that in this way, Edna stared to search for an harmony life, where nobody could say to her what to do or not. Carrying everything as what she though was an appropriate solution: Death
By the other side we find Mrs. Mallar story. Where the woman recently passing by her husband death decide to live by herself, a live where her body and soul were free, a live free of possession. We can see as a result of freedom, Mrs. Mallar death, no in the same way that Edna Pontellier, but in a similar occasion. Both of them wanted to give up to their live as a significance of freedom.
Finishing I have to say that the movie doesn’t show all the descriptions that the book give us. It’s true that it helps to recreate some places where the story take place, but no really about Edna's spiritual and intellectual struggle. In the book we imagine or feel and likewise recreate somehow her spiritual and intellectual struggle. For example, with the descriptions the author offer, as the nature and its sounds, the environment between the people, and the context where actions are taking place, allowed to have a better impression of her existential, boring and solitary feelings and thoughts. Obviously that kind of things are revealed in the movie, but in a superficial way that compared with the book, it’s the closest thing to nothing.
I agree with you Claudia, I think that you're totally right when you say that both stories are about "how strong can be the influence of having a possessive and oppressed life. In this case of two woman whose search an only purpose: to be free" I think that was the purpose that Kate Chopin had in mind while writing her narratives, she wanted to show a reality that was hidden behind many women across the world ignoring age or social status, this reality that many people were afraid to talk and face at that time.
DeleteI also agree with you when you said that the movie didn't help us to understand Edna's spiritual and intellectual struggle, I was expecting a lot more of the cinematic representation but as you said some things were reveleaded "in a superficial way that compared with the book, it’s the closest thing to nothing."
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DeleteI totally agree with you Claudia, yes the movie is important because in some way it helps to understand certains places, but the real and spiritual struggle that Edna lived was totally shelved and for me that is the most important issue in the book her revelation in that time.
DeleteWhen she decided to took her life by herself and to stop being a possesion for her husband as was in that time, it was charmingly describe by Chopin and sadly that doesn't happen in the movie so for me is like a totally waste of time, being that the whole movie lose it sense when the main character could no express or transmit the feelings that are proclaimed in the book.
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ReplyDeleteFor me, the movie enhances the literary world of the novel. I believe that, here, multimodality plays a huge role to accurately bring alive the Kate Chopin’s book with its characters and their lives.
ReplyDeleteVideo, tone of the voices (when the characters were angry, happy, sad, disappointed, frustrated), music (Mademoiselle Reisz music and soundtrack), body language (glances, facial expression, proxemics, grins), scenarios… they were all mixed together in a way that the narrative was well portrayed and, therefore, better understood.
For example, the last scene, for me, was perfectly recreated. The music (the one Mademoiselle Reisz plays for Edna as a requirement of Robert), the memories as images of people who she loved and who she cared about, the way she was filmed swimming, the landscape… all was edited in such a way that the farewell was very touching. In the book, we could not see it in this way.
Sometimes, the literary world is better only in letters and with what those letters create in your imagination. But, as I explained before, in this case, I believe it was very helpful to expand what was in the book with images and sounds. It brought it alive and it is better understood. For me, the novel was not too explicit with characters emotions or actions but, thanks to the movie, I could figure out a lot of the moments in the novel that I did not reach to recreate in my mind at all or at least properly.
Also, the movie helps to recognize better some sociocultural aspects of the novel such as the clothing, the houses, the people’s diversity (with their accent and their behavior), the lifestyle, the hairstyles, the cars, etc. This is very important to place the novel in an historic place and time in order to bring credibility to the events. This was not also as well shown in the written text as it was in the movie.
To conclude, I believe all these semiotic resources in this movie were very helpful for comprehending narrative.
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DeleteI agree with Daniela's reflection because she shares the sames ideas and opinions about the importance of the multimodality in both stories. I like the way in the which Daniela has into account the most relevants language aspects of the movie such as the tone of the voices, the melody of the piano, the body language, the character's feellings, etc. Also, one important thing is that she recognizes as the last scene of the movie was perfectly recreated and as the edna's images led to create a more developed impression of her feelings and memories. Finally, Daniela contrasts very well, the relationship and similarities between these two stories
DeleteHello Daniela,
DeleteI agree with you, because, after all, those aspects given by videos (tone, music, backgrounds) play a huge role in the reader or viewer mind. It helps him a lot to recreate the main events of the story and, at certain points, it helps him approache and feel way better the actions, the emotions expressed, everything.
Still, it can give us a very different image of what we already had in mind, driving to surprises and, sometimes, disappointments, as in characters, for example.
Even so, I'm with you. There are a lot of things that the movie used to make us comprehend better the narrative of the book.
Daniela,
Deleteyes, there are shortcomings to the cinematic adaptation of the novel, however, as you establish it, the movie does help understand some elements of the context that Chopin takes for granted because she was writing for people of the epoch. For example, describing the way people dressed at the time was beside the point. Scenes such as the one with Edna listening to Mademoiselle Reisz while going to the depths of her soul find another representation in the movie, simply because as much as a book intends to describe what the music sounded like, it is impossible to convey it. The multimodal nature of an audiovisual composition enhances these meanings.
As both "The Awakening" (1899) and "The Story of an Hour" (1894) by Kate Chopin were written during the same time they depict and represent women and men's behavior settled by social stereotypes that pushed both genders to achieve: women had to behave submissive to their husbands who had to ruled them always, taking them out the right to express their selves.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, the narrative of the Awakening puts Edna as a married woman who has everything for being happy according to social rules: money, health and a family, however, she truly dislikes her lifestyle and starts to seek her own happiness: being herself, decision that involved breaking the accepted conduct. So, taking advantage of her children and husband’s absence she decided to move to a little house afforded by her incomes where she could be herself, not receiving visits, focus on her painting and confessing her feelings to her truly love Robert, previous event to her death, which took place when she entered to the sea not with a deadly intention, just to do something she liked.
On the other hand, The Story of an Hour’s narrative presents and develops Mrs. Mallard’s personality the same as Edna: a woman that seemed to be controlled by her husband whose death came with no social expected reactions that conducted her to isolate from society in order to awake herself and became free not taking into account that it was a path to death.
Finally, both stories put an antagonist before the deadly awakening arrives, for Edna, Madame Ratignolle alerted her by saying “Think on your children” and for Mrs. Mallard her sister repeated once and another to open the door because she was making herself ill. Society makes always the same by sending constantly messages to prevent the not social approved events, which in this case created a deadly awakening for both women. This way, Kate Chopin connects the awakening with death.
Aranza,
Deleteyes, Madame Ratignolle played the devil´s messenger. She destabilized Edna with her statement “Think on your children.” Because of her, Edna left Robert despite him begging her not to go. Edna acted against her own logic of leaving everything for love. If she was leaving her kids and husband and all luxuries, why wouldn´t she care missing Ratignolle´s call?
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI have to say that in my opinion after reading the “story of an hour ” and “the awakening” taking into account the historical sequence that the texts have and the socio cultural factors that were implicit at the moment the author wrote them, kate chopin relates the action of dying as freedom for the women specially. She tries to reveal the frustration that women at the time may have felt because they weren't able to have their own will and thinking, showing how society and even women themselves didn’t recognize the value that they had and the importance of their rolls in society. On the other hand, in both narratives you can see how the main characters, Louise and Edna, were being used by their husbands to which they had a resentment emotion that they didn't really show but that you can perceive at the moment of liberation. However, the action of dying is shown in very different perspectives in each one of the texts. In the awakening , Edna killed herself in order to run away from the miserable life that she was having next to her husband and the judgmental thoughts of society plus knowing that Robert, the man who she loved left her. On the other one the woman die because of the joy of feeling free, even thought there are two completely different reason in each one of the narratives, at the end those women got their will of release themselves and be happy.
DeleteAbout the movie I didn't really see the purpose of watching it. It wasn't clear enough about several things. Firstable the scenes cut out very suddenly and they pass from one event to another with having some kind of smooth transition and also the camera arrangements, the actors, some footage confused the whole theme of the movie. I have to say that even though i didn't like the movie or the book the whole topic as itself was important and interesting.
In conclusion I can say that Kate Chopin was trying to show by her narratives the reality of many women at the time who may have been feeling the same way but because how the rules of society worked at the moment they didn’t revealed any kind of frustration or dislike to the life that they got. It was the voice of women who couldn’t talked and who felt like “slaves” without any opportunity to do something important or relevant with their lives. She created an “alter ego” of all these women and their way to get freedom and happiness.
I agree with you Gloria when you say "Kate Chopin was trying to show by her narratives the reality of many women at the time who may have feeling the same" I think that both characters "Edna" and "Louise" were a perfect reflex of the era that novels were written and they both end in the same way that maybe most of the women end in that time because living a life full of oppression is not easy. Through the reading of these texts I started to imagine how difficult was be free not only of our body also of our soul because both characters were looking to enhance their lives in a different way but with the same goal that is “freedom”.
DeleteAnd for the movie I also agree with you when you said that the scenes were cut suddenly from one event to the other, as I said in my comment the movie left out the whole environment all the nature’s descriptions that Chopin put in her book like if it was so important for Edna in her search of freedom that I feel very sad because that is the essence of the book and the movie don’t catch these aspects. Finally I think that this happen because the scenes were so flat and fake that left everyone like if they were really losing their time.
For every single writer in the world description is an important issue. I think that’s one of the main characteristics of Kate Chopin writings or at least that was my impression after have been reading the novel “The awakening” and the short story “The story of an hour”. I think that when a writing is adapting to the cinema lost in some way their charm.
ReplyDeleteDespite that the movie “Grand Isle” contain many of the events included in the book, in some way the film doesn’t contain a lot of description that is in the novel causing the loss of that essence characteristic in the writings of our author.
For me is sad see how in the movie many of the feelings of our main character “Edna” are not expressed like in the novel. For example when they are in Grand Isle is important the “whispering of the moon” also “the roar of the ocean” those components on the book in some way served as inspiration for the freedom that Edna was looking for, but we don’t see the real importance of those relevant components on the movie. On the other hand, when they returned to the house and in the book she started her revelation with her feelings to the surface, and she really started to form her “awakening” looking for her independence becoming for everybody even her husband a “crazy” woman. Kate Chopin does an amazing description of everything not only what was happening inside her also outside but this in the movie doesn’t happen. I mean despite this scenes are in the movie; for example the part when she broke the glass vase, I felt that scene so tasteless and insipid that I did not find the real inspiration of revelation that I felt while I was reading the book.
Yes ! I think that the movie is different ,not follows truly the brook. I was disappointing by the movie because I have a totally different vision and perception about Edna, in the movie she is the victim, her husband was problematic and aggressive, while in the book he was kind and comprehensive. I think she didn't have strong reasons to be so miserable in life, actually she had everything ! and she was like super ungrateful in the book. but the movie supports her decision, and that's not fair
Delete*Carolina Bonilla G.
DeleteVivi.
I agree with you when you say that the film makes the book lose essence and doesn't show the actual feelings of the characters, that's a right inference. Nevertheless, not even the book had a good description, in my opinion, it lacked imagination and creativity in some turning points of the story and, evidently, it was heavily reflected in the movie.
Though I don't agree at some point with your thoughts on the book description, I liked the comparison you made between the oeuvres. Thanks, Vivi. :)
I do agree that the film did not really get the essence of the novel at all. In fact, I think it was poorly planed, there was not character development nor contextualization. When I finished watching the movie, I tried to think about it without taking into account what I had read in the novel and I realized that if I would not had to, I would have been quite lost in like the first half hour. Characters come and go, there are some locations that they never introduce, there are some people speaking french, others speaking english. It might have been quite confusing if I were not aware of the context that I got from the book. So, I consider there were a lot of things to improve in the film in order to make it more attractive to the audience.
Delete*Carolina Bonilla Gutiérrez
ReplyDeleteHello, my friends.
For this enjoyable task, I have divided my mind, to make it better. So, I have three main points:
a. In regards to the connection between The Awakening and the short story, I would say that, firstly, it reflects the cultural practices of the epoch, with the lines of repression but introducing a light into the mud: the imagery of some women “awakening” from the misery lived at home, and more than that, from the inner pressure. Both Edna and Mrs. Mallard are the symbolism of what seeks freedom somehow and waits until the murkiest circumstances to awake, representing how far is too far and how hard is to construct freedom (because freedom is a whole construction and change of discourse in those texts).
b. On the other hand, literary use in the short story and the book is quiet similar, using the features of music, at the event Edna heard the voice of sea or Mlle. Reisz’s melodies, and the song Mrs. Mallard heard while suffering her drama; likewise, representative animals appear, like the mocking bird in the book and the sparrows in the Story of an Hour. Lastly, the two oeuvres allude to universal spaces to recreate the stage, through literary keywords: Soul, mystery, change, freedom, awakening and death; besides, they show a real creation by senses and feelings, which makes those texts very alike.
c. Finally, making a comparison between the book and the movie, I'd say that the last one completely depersonalizes the real impetus of the characters, mostly in Edna’s case. First, that movie tends to be more passionate than the book from the very beginning, with Edna being a furious cat toward Robert and other men. Also, the movie looks like the dim slasher flick of what is written and said as simple as it seems, with a recited script (like when the doctor appears in Ratignolle’s). It lacks a further performance, with the characters living what we had in the book, the spiritual awakening and the images of it, because in a movie we should be creative, having all the elements: sound, color, gesture, people, live, magic; they should have colored the film with magic, with the spiritual background and a purer development.
To conclude and as a very personal comment: For me, it is preferable not to watch the movie, because I don’t resist the anguish Edna suffered when she plunged into the water by her very last hour and her pale face giving up, knowing there wouldn’t be another day or sun to look straight at. Also, those texts made me thing that we deserve more than what we have and we should run for it, run and run; and also that we are so empty and so weak that sometimes life is a puzzle whose solution is…to awake: resist or rest.
Hello Caroline,
DeleteI agree with the similarities you found between her two works and the "symbolism" used in some of the chapters. It is a good way to show, as you said, the practices of the epoch, like showing how was the context in that time. It was a good way to represent the facts, even if sometimes she was just going again and again to the same points already given. Also, it was hard to find an actual difference between one story and the other, due to the elements and the main idea it wanted to show. Finally, acording to what you said about the movie, I agree and I don't at the same time, because the movie could not cover all the ideas of the author of the book; it couldn't go beyond, due to time and some other things. However, the movie was just another way to show the story, and it helped a lot to build an environment in which we have more precise images of everything, things we couldn't picture very well by our own.
Caroline,
DeleteI enjoyed reading your analysis. Particularly, you do a good comparison between the symbols that Chopin draws in both texts. This to some extent proves that her style was consistent, which is true because her career as a writer was short.
In first place, I think that both the novel and the story try to focus on the oppression that women lived by the time the novel was written. All along the stories, she tries to show the reality of how things were for people in that time, even if people were not able to see what was happening around them. With her literature, she wanted to go beyond and analyze why society had this thought and still why they were not doing anything against it. Taking the characters of the “Awakening” as stereotypes, we could see and create an image of the context that helped us to understand what the intention of Kate Chopin was with her work. In certain points, she gave the readers the elements of analysis, step by step throughout the chapters, in order to make them reflect, but thinking on the audience of those times, evidently, to create and make the change, maybe. The narratives and the way she approaches to the subjects, in both stories, always aims to that, even if people were not able to understand it.
ReplyDeleteIn second place, regarding the movie, as usual, the cinematic adaptation of the novel limit big part of the content, because it is not easy to retell a whole book, more than 150 pages in just two hours of a movie. However, there are a lot of aspects and specific details shown in the movie that definitely are avoided in the remake, details that helped the reader to understand better several aspects of the time in which the novel was written. The main problem with adaptations is that they have to focus in just one aspect of the whole book, because of time, as I mentioned before, so there are a lot of information given by the authors that is lost, even if they do their best effort to keep everything the most important points, what the author wants to show to the audience. Nevertheless, in certain points, the adaptations help the viewers to create an image more precise of the characters, the events, the environment of the story and things like that, that also aid them to understand better the book. Even so, give the readers a precise image also limit them, in terms of may be what he watch in the movie is something really different of what he had already in his mind. Also, in movies the personality of the characters are influenced by the way they look, so they have to choose specific people in order to fulfill the expectations, but it is quite hard to find the right one if there are a lot of aspects that build a character in novel, not just a face an attitudes. In the end, I think movies of books help the reader to understand better some aspects that the author could not express with words, but still it limits big part of the story, because everything has to happen in a few time.
Finally, what I have to say is that, in some aspects, she made a good job by creating the book, and it could have work by that time, but she could have done it better, in order not to make her work boring and avoiding information that just helped to fill the pages. Also, I think that movies help the reader to understand just some aspects of books, because images will always aid to build a context with more details, but we need to take into account that there is a lot of information in books lost in those images, and the reader is limited with something concrete, while he was more free to create a new world with the ideas and words given by the authors of literature.
- It was the nineteenth century in the U.S. When Kate Chopin begun to write to support herself and her young family, after her husband died. She was immediately successful. She was the author of the awakening and the story of an hour, supposedly they were about people she had known in Louisiana, but I think she clearly shows her nonconformity about her own life, both stories are so similar and I think is not a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteAt that time women were like men’s possessions, they have to stay at home, to bring up kids, to have good reputation and to behave properly. Now we called that moral and values and if you don’t have moral then you will be judge by society, especially woman, the difference is that now we are free to choose the reputation we want to have.
In the book the awakening Edna pontellier didn’t love her comprehensive husband, she wanted to be “free” of him, her vision of freedom was ridiculous for me, she could stay at home resting, taking care of her kids, painting, cooking, doing wherever she wanted; but instead, she wished to be the lover of several men and even now that is consider promiscuity and is not well accepted in society; but most of women have the idea that being promiscuous is part of feminism or freedom.
On the other hand we have the story of an hour and I think this story is more solid than the awakening. We don’t know the situation of Louise Mallard and her husband, we can suppose that he hurt her or he was a terrible husband, etc. I think Louise had a different idea of freedom like take a rest of chores, maybe travel, and enjoy the seasons of the year, more simple things. I think she was older than Edna and she was more involved with the housework and bring up kids, I think she was tired of duties and she thought about the idea of take a rest of that. She didn’t kill herself because she couldn’t stay with other man, she just died of happiness.
Finally we can deduce the idea of freedom of Kate Chopin, for me she considers the “oppression of men” or marriage like a karma or a huge problem and death was the only way to get away from that, from the “problems” of Edna Pontellier and for Louise Mallard to take a rest, because at that time they couldn’t do something more, women were punish or rejected in society for act different.
Hello, Melissa. I agree with you in the idea of Chopin portraying her own feelings through her stories. She clearly had a more liberal mind than women of the time and it was an issue self-evident in her writing. I get what you mean by "ridiculous" regarding to Edna's conception of freedom. I know how funny it is Edna wished to be "free" by expecting the man who loved her to give up on sacredness which then meant respect and true love, and just be with her, knowing that this would eventualy entail that she could leave him or just be with someone else simultaneously...
DeleteFirst of all, I would like to remark how Kate Chopin’s literary works “The Awakening (1899)” and “The Story of an Hour (1894)” both show us a different perspective of the women’s role in the American society from the Victorian Era, during the 19th century. Mrs. Chopin put major efforts during her narration to enhance how some women actually had feelings despite the belief that being married and having children were the only things that all women needed to feel accomplished in life. The author was quite polemic in her time, even censored, because she did not follow the tradition and good manners of the époque.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find quite interesting from these stories is that in both of them, “death” is the ultimate stage of being freedom, death becomes the place where all social pressures and prejudices end up and women stop being property of society’s impositions in Chopin’s mind. I think that Chopin liked to kill her protagonists intending to portray it, at first, as a punishment of their misbehavior, but also exalting in deep the nature of the death itself as it belongs to all of us indifferently, women or men. Women became owners of their lives through their deaths.
Finally, as a personal comment, I must say that the film does not enhance the literary world of the novel at all; on the contrary, it makes it worse. As it happens frequently when a book is adapted to a film, most of the narrative is lost due to the restricted world of films. Having to maintain a pace, taking into account the audience’s desires, and profiting time and budget, do not allow films to recreate what the actual book describes. In this very case, the lack of context really spoiled me the film; I felt like none of the characters were well introduced nor well developed, having me indifferent towards what happened to them.
Hello Sergio
DeleteI liked your idea of how you think Kate Chopin gives the ultimatum of death to her characters in order to exaltate the actuate of an indiscriminatory natural process: how death does not select over women or men. It takes them equally as beings owners of the lives they are abandoning.
On the other hand, I totally agree on your conception about the extensive contrast of the film and the book. I think that the film devalues the character's profundity and their personalities and that gives a whole new sense of meaning to the story.
Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteIn both productions: The awakening book and the short story “Story of an hour” I think we, as readers, can perceive the author’s conception about women feelings of fullness: A joy that the heart’s owner of the exhilaration can’t even resist. A rejoice caused by the feeling of freedom the woman is reaching all by herself. For Kate Chopin’s projection, that independence, that lightness of the being comes with a fatalistic fate, the death.
I think that those two women, Mrs. Mallard (Story of an hour 1894) and, specially, Edna Pontellier (The awakening 1899) were both that bird spirit whose wings get bigger and stronger as the desire of taking flight grows up. But those entities had no sky where to sail freely because of the time they were part of. For Mrs. Mallard, her body’s force couldn’t held the gladness of her soul at the idea of being free, and, for Edna Pontellier, the elevation of her mind crashes with the reality she feels oppressed with, with the patterns that predominated the world view of that epoch.
In the case of Edna Pontellier, I consider that death was not only an accurate solution to her story, but it was that detachment that releases her of the opposition of thought she was dealing with. At the end, I perceived that she felt disgruntled because of Robert’s cowardice and Mme. Ratignolle’s pressure, then Edna felt she didn’t fit and found her happiness and freedom being left alone and being despoiled of her clothes as a sign of rejection towards the moral prejudices.
There’s no doubt, for me, that the sociocultural context that surrounded those narratives forced, in some way, those ends to be established: they show how the revolutionary mind has its extermination in an epoch they’re forced to be silenced. Nevertheless, Kate Chopin gives her characters the determination of affirming themselves as individuals through the abnegation of living in a world where they’re not understood.
Finally, regarding the movie, I would like to make some brief points about it. I think there’s a disharmony between the book and its audiovisual representation: Grand Isle. The only name provides a new sense of meaning to the story and, as we watch the film, we realize there’s no such a substantial awakening from the protagonist as there is in the book, she just has a passional and lascivious awakening. I think that the movie takes away Edna’s reasoning of freedom and independence and it silences her thoughts whose are just represented by dreams that are not quite approximated to her disagreement of the sociocultural parameters and intellectual struggle. Focusing on the multimodal nature of the film, we can perceive how an important aspect of the story or an Edna’s reflection that could have been developed are chopped off throughout a change of the scene that vanishes the image and becomes a white shot. I think that it is like all the important reflections are silenced and are an empty idea, a vacuum in the film.
Esli Ponce
ReplyDeleteGood evening, fellows. Here are my thoughts.
As a matter fact we could say Kate Chopin was a very perceptive and thoughtful woman. Considering the sociocultural environment she was living in 150 years ago, she was a daring female with a mind that was audacious enough to think outside the box: a person who could hold a judgment that did not adjust to the moral standards stablished back then, which doomed individuals to their roles in a very restricted way.
According to the plot; in both of the stories, Chopin creates a character whose behavior does not fall upon patterns created by society, taking into consideration that it could mainly be the representation of her own nature; given her courage to simply write and build such realities in those narrow, oppressing times for women. It is sad, however, the way she seems to discover death as the turning point of the stories: either the own character’s (Edna) or the death of the object of its subjugation (Mrs. Mallard’s husband).
Literarily; she largely uses, as most of the novelists, analogies to dimension the character’s feelings and to give those emotions a size, a tangible perspective: As she used the sea, the birds, the fields to project Edna’s wandering situation, and the trees, the air, the pieces of blue sky seen through the thick clouds to represent Mrs. Mallard’s emergence.
None of the stories seem to give a solution for otherwise-minded women whatsoever, other than struggle or “death” insomuch neither, Edna nor Mrs. Mallard, get to have an actual happiness. The first one suicides and the second has a hope of freedom blurred by the realization of cruelty from her side by feeling the way she did.
This only reveals the intensity of the complaisance women had to consecrate to men and the disregard that even some women displayed, toeing the line Society had drawn for them and pushing them to feel content with the clasped role it had assigned them to.
Gabriela Calderón
ReplyDeleteHello,
In both stories, we can see that in the 19th century, a woman is a person and a property being controlled by her husband, not due to custom or tradition, but by law. The thinking was that “husband and wife were one person, and the husband is the person.” Most of them were trapped in terrible marriages, which brought the condition of married women into the public’s eye.
For example, regarding the book ‘the awakening’, that was set in 1899, at a time when the Industrial Revolution and the feminist movement were beginning to emerge yet were still overshadowed by the prevailing attitudes of the nineteenth century.
Once Edna, the main character of the story, embarks upon her quest for independence and self-fulfillment, she finds herself at odds with the expectations and conventions of society, which requires a married woman to subvert her own needs to those of her husband and children.
In the stories we can see the problem of independence and solitude. For Edna, they were almost inseparable. The expectations of tradition coupled with the limitations of law gave women of the late 1800s very few opportunities for individual expression, not to mention independence. Expected to perform their domestic duties and care for the health and happiness of their families, Victorian women were prevented from seeking the satisfaction of their own wants and needs. During her gradual awakening, Edna discovers her own identity and acknowledges her emotional and sexual desires.
Besides, in ‘ The story of an Hour’ , we can notice the problems of the Inherent Oppressiveness of Marriage and the Forbidden Joy of Independence. For women, in this case for Josephine, independence is a forbidden pleasure that can be imagined only privately. She felt free when her husband died .She begins to realize that she is now an independent woman, a realization that enlivens and excites her.
So, we can assume that these 2 women (Edna, Josephine), were trapped in an oppression by their families. And the only solution to get out of it was the forbidden joy that disappeared as quickly as it came, but the taste of it was enough to kill themselves.
To understand the “desire” of Chopin to kill her main characters in both stories I had to read her biography. So I could confirm my perceptions about the writer itself, being that while I was reading her I felt she was describing her view of life, her own feelings about being a married woman at that time, and I felt too how writing was very liberating for her since she could bring to life situations that were unthinkable for a married woman to live in that century. Then I realized that freedom was his most treasured belonging, even she took her idea of freedom beyond the boundaries of death, beyond all the prejudices, beyond the rules of society. She was never afraid of saying what she thought, although she did it through her novels and stories and although most people believed that they were only fictional ideas of a distant future.
ReplyDeleteBoth stories are connected with the topic of unwanted marriage, something very common at that time, they are also connected with women´s submission and devotion to family. Expected to perform their domestic duties and care for the health and happiness of their families, Victorian women were prevented from seeking the satisfaction of their own wants and needs. Those stories describe how many women have to pretend being happy only for “what people may say”.