Tone essay
Emotions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, desires, and beliefs all play dominating roles in shaping the character of people, and no one can have the exact same character because everyone possesses special qualities that make them unique. Throughout Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, Mademoiselle Reisz, the artist who symbolizes freedom, and Adele Ratignolle, the housewife who represents the ideal, devoted spouse, serve primarily as foils of each other while sharing some similar characteristics. While Mademoiselle Reisz belongs to the group of "artist-women", Adele represents the "mother-women" (Justus 73). These two women represent foils of each other because Mademoiselle Reisz loves music while Adele loves her family. Adele, the ideal housewife, thinks of life through a narrow tube bounded by the views of society, and she makes Edna feel as if she were packed and sealed into a box and would never be able to come out. Reisz thinks outside the box, and looks at life through an abstract angle in which society has no value. Thus, the image these two women portray in society contradicts greatly.
Also, both Adele and Reisz face the same society, and each one has to live in the same circumstances. Without the binding rules of society, life would be full of honesty and truthfulness. While Adele wears a mask each and every day, Reisz reveals her true inner self. Ratignolle considers horse racing too detached from her family life so she does not attend while Reisz would never be present in a place where she does not want to be. Mademoiselle Reisz plays music because Edna takes pleasure in it, and Reisz cares about Edna because she displays qualities that differ from everyone else in society. Mademoiselle Reisz tries "to reach Edna's spirit and set it free", but Adele Ratignolle tries to weaken it (Chopin 106). Despite all the differences and similarities between Adele and Reisz, their presence in the novel does influence some aspects of Edna's life. Situations in society are the same for both characters, but their ways of interpreting them differ. Justus says that, "There is little comfort for Edna in either Madame Ratignolle or Mademoiselle Reisz. "For Adele, complacent satisfaction-never being alone-comes from having no identity beyond her given roles; for Reisz, the ambiguous satisfactions of having her own identity is the result of always being alone" (73). On the other hand, Adele attempts to stop Edna from her transformation, and she warns her about her new awakening. Hobbies such as horse racing are not important to both women. Adele represents a perfect mother who fulfills her duties towards her family throughout the novel. Adele never thinks of herself as a person beyond a mother or a wife which causes her to have no real identity beyond what she has been given because she sees herself through other people's eyes instead of her own.
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Acceptance Essays
