The Awakening :: essays research papers

The Awakening   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, two supporting characters, Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, represent two distinctively different females of the Victorian Age. Madame Ratignolle serves as society's idea of the ideal woman. 'There [is] nothing subtle or hidden about her charms; her beauty [is] all there, flaming and apparent: the spun-gold hair that [neither] comb nor confining pen could restrain; the blue eyes that [are] like nothing but sapphires; two lips that pout, that [are] so red one could think of cherries or some other delicious crimson fruit in looking at them.'; Her beauty is complemented by her extreme devotion to her family. They come first in her life. She is the quintessential mother-woman. '[Mother-women] [are] women who idolized their children, [worship] their husbands, and [esteem] it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.'; She gave up her individuality by taking marriage v ows and became one half of the Ratignolle family. 'The Ratignolles understood each other perfectly. If ever a fusion of two human beings into one has ever been accomplished on this sphere it [is] surely this union.'; Madame Ratignolle has surrendered to her husband's world as proper wives at the time were expected to do. She obeys her husband and assumes the responsibility of keeping him satisfied. 'She would not consent to remain with Edna [when] Monsieur Ratignolle was alone, [because] he detested above all things being alone.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While Madame Ratignolle is the ideal Victorian woman, Mademoiselle Reisz is 'a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who [quarrels] with almost everyone, owing to a temper which [is] self-assertive and a disposition to trample on the rights of others.'; When Edna asks the proprietor of the neighborhood grocery store if he knew where Mademoiselle Reisz had moved, the man answers that 'he [thanks] heaven that she had left the neighborhood, and was equally thankful that he did not know where she had gone.'; Mademoiselle Reisz is in no way the beautiful Aphrodite that Madame Ratignolle is. She is an old woman who is past her physical prime, although the reader gets the impression that, during her prime, her looks still left something to be desired. The community snickers at her because she wears 'false hair'; has poor taste in fashion. Mademoiselle Reisz has always lived on the top floors of apartment buildings, which takes her far away from reality and the prob lems of others.