Life in the Iron Mills
Both Life in the Iron Mills and The Awakening represent the tragic death of an artist. Rebecca Harding Davis describes the life of Hugh, an aspiring artist confined to his role as a lower class mill worker. Kate Chopin portrays Edna Pontellier as a talented painter similarly confined by her role as a wife and mother. Both Edna and Hugh possess an artistic talent that leads them to question the meaning of their existence. Each character seeks to represent truth or emotions that transcends their contemporary social setting. Edna's search for passions and Hugh's longing for expression and beauty lead them both beyond the social confines of their times. As a result, the strict societal role by which they define themselves shatters, leaving Hugh and Edna to look beyond the accepted roles of men and women of the time to search for their true identities. Both Life in the Iron Mills and The Awakening end with the seemingly tragic death of the artist. Yet, both Hugh and Edna obtain a brief true happiness by themselves becoming artistic creations that transcend their contemporary social worlds.Edna and Hugh use their art as a form of expression. Hugh creates his grotesque sculpture of a woman ravaged by hunger to express a deep need that
In this "world" of true beauty, roles do not define men, and possession of money and wealth mean little. Both Kate Chopin and Rebecca Harding Davis challenge their readers to question their identities and the roles they inhabit. Both authors maintain that this is the only path to true happiness. Edna suffers a similar fate in her search for passionate fulfillment. Mademoiselle Reisz says the artist must possess the courageous soul that dares to defy. Each character seeks to represent an object of feeling that transcends his or her social role. Rather, Hugh finds a moment of contentment in watching the colors of the sunset play on the water below a bridge. Whiskey ull do it, in a way" (Davis, 33). As a result, Hugh remains unfilled in his desire for beauty since the role in which society places Hugh leaves his life devoid of any true beauty. It is this world that the artist in Hugh seeks to enter and find his identity. Before entering the sea, Edna rids herself of all the social confines by removing her clothing. The question who they are and their very existence. Yet, her artistic talent teaches her to look beyond the social or material world for an answer. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex" (Chopin, 103).
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Acceptance Essays
