The Awakening Critical Essay

1. Robert Treu writes an essay in the spring of 2000 to discuss Edna's death. True says that the ending of the novel, The Awakening, has many different meanings.  Is it really a suicide or an accidental over estimate of her swimming abilities?
2. The novel ended with a cliff hanger.  All the readers can do is guess what will happen to the children and Edna's husband. The novel never straight forward told if Edna's death was a suicide.  It hinted suicide because the novel said Edna gave up.  This could mean that she could no longer tread water anymore and drowned.  Edna necessarily did not set out to the sea with intentions of death.  She could have just over estimated her swimming ability. There was another theory in the essay that explained the whole incident symbolically. The sea was supposed to represent reality. Edna kept swimming to escape from her reality; she wanted to leave her family behind. The sea can also represent rebirth. The sea gives Edna a new life.  This could mean that Edna did not die but escaped from her present life style and was reborn; Hence the title, The Awakening.
3. I feel this argument was poorly presented.  There was way too many words that just made the essay drag out.  The author should have been straighter forward to get to his point. The author also used too much outside references instead of using the novel to support his thesis.
4. I agree with the Robert Treu's idea of the sea giving rebirth to Edna. This would explain the reason for giving the novel the title of The Awakening.  Edna only wanted to escape her current life of responsibilities and commitment.

                                                                                                                                                                                      

"The Story of an Hour"

In the story, "The Story of an Hour", by Kate Chopin, there is a lot of irony. A recent wife was told she lost her husband. The woman was thought to be very depressed but in reality she was relieved and almost joyed. At that time the woman was having almost the happiest days of her life. When the doctors told the wife it was a mistake and her husband is really alive, the wife got very upset and died of a heart attack. The ironic thing is that the doctors and other people believed the woman died of joy with the good news. This is also very ironic because the death of any family always brings out feelings of deprecation. This story has a little bit of feminism behind the words of the story.  When males are superior to females then it is considered feminism. The woman was very excited to be free since her husband supposedly died.  This shows that her husband ruled over her and was the dominating and superior figure in the relationship.  Since the male figure ruled over the female figure then this story can be considered feminist.

The Yellow Wallpaper

In the Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman, the main character definitely has some mental issues.  I feel that she thinks she is perfectly fine, but the people who care for her know she will pull random and unexpected stunts at various times.   There are multiple clues that can help support this theory.  The fact that the woman is watched and locked in her room hints the woman is not trusted.  Also there are bars on her windows and her bed is immovable  She even did pull a random and unexpected stunt by locking herself in her room and ripping all the wallpaper off the walls.  The male figure that cared for her was so surprised and shocked that he fainted. In this short story there is also a more common theory.  That would be feminist theory.  This theory is when males are superior to females. In the story the crazy character is a female and the Husband or a male had to take care of her.  I also believe there was no mistake that there was a woman trapped in the wall and not a male trapped. I think that the main character had to tear all the wallpaper down not just because of the pure hatred for the color but for the freedom of the woman.  Women have been living in a male dominated society for thousands of years.  I believe the author wrote this story to show that its women’s time to become free and equal to men.  So, the author made the main character free the female figure that was always stuck in the wallpaper.  I enjoyed this short story because there was a lot of analyzing needed since there was a ton or meaning put behind the pages.  I believe the author was trying to support women’s rights and change the world with this story. 

Symbolism of Ethan Frome

The critical analysis essay that I read talked about the extreme amount of symbolism in the novel, Ethan Frome.  The author, Edith Wharton, included extensive meaning behind all of the symbolism in this novel. This criticism explains with great depth about each symbol. The writer of this essay, Carol J. Singley, wrote her response to the novel in 1997.  Some of the symbols she found relevant to talk about included the following:

• ·         Landscape
• ·         Seasons
• ·         Climate
• ·         The “L” part of Ethan’s home
• ·         The cat
• ·         The pickle-dish

These parts and pieces included in Ethan Frome have tons of meaning behind them.  This meaning allows us to call them important symbols. The Landscape, season, and climate of Starkfield all go together to describe a miserable and snowy setting.  These features of the setting can help describe Ethan’s emotions throughout the novel.  “Harmon Gow does not say that Ethan has been in Starkfield too long but too many winters.”(Singley)  this quote is directly from the essay and is important because it helps show how the winter has a negative effect on Ethan Frome.  Another important point behind the symbolism is that all images of warmth and fair whether come from memories in the past.  Ethan is stuck in the cold and is unable to go back. The “L” part of Ethan’s home represents the heart of the home. The fact that his “L” has been taken down serves the purpose that there is no more heart left in the home.  There is a very large and important connection with the cat to Zeena. When the cat destroys the pickle dish, we can infer that Zeena destroyed the meaning behind the dish.  Ethan’s marriage to Zeena is the meaning behind the dish.  The breaking of the Marriage can be blamed on both Zeena and Mattie since Mattie got the dish down and the cat knocked it off the table. These very few symbols were the more significant ones that stood out from the novel and from the critical essay.