Evaluation of Mother-Women in Chopin’s The Awakening :: Chopin Awakening

Evaluation of Mother-Women in Chopins The Awakening In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother women seemed to prevail that summertime at de luxe Isle. It was easy to know them, creaming about with extended, protecting wings when some(prenominal) harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, adoreed their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. (p.29) She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her disembodied spirit she would sometimes forget them. The year before theyhad spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welf ar, she did not degenerate them except with an occasional intense longing. Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly filmd and for which Fate had not fitted her. (p. 40) Reading the above two passages it is absolved that Mrs. Pontellier feels she is different from other mothers. She is not a mother-woman. Those maternal beings are angels who flutter about and protect their children, even if they are in no danger. They are not flesh and blood women with lives of their own. Surely they must construct begun aliveness that way, but the passage claims that as they minister to their children they grow wings and drop dead angels. Mrs. Pontelliers use of discourses such as minister, angel and worship must mean that she thinks of motherhood as a religion. While the rendering of these mother-women might imply that they are angelic and selfless, in reality their personal identity (and existence) depends upon their husband and children. They exist only in a familial context. Without their children they would be nothing. If their children are in no real dan ger, then the mother-women must suppose a threat in order to justify their existence. The use of the word efface is strong and telling. It literally means to remove the face. The contributor gathers that neither Mrs. Pontellier nor Kate Chopin admires this type of woman. In order to be socially congenial in Kate Chopins time, one certainly needed a husband to have children. Neither of these passages directly refers to Mr. Pontellier. However, since Mrs. Pontellier is not a mother-woman, the reader can assume that she does not therefore worship her husband.