Summary:
A comparison of the Victorian era novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Both novels portrary the minds of individuals engaged in thinking freely and out of the ordinary for society, and both successfully exposed the Victorian Era's rejection of adulterers.
The uncivilized aspects of marriage in The Awakening and Jude the Obscure were written in order to expose the Victorian era's faults through adultery. The true feelings of Edna Pontellier and Jude Fawley were written by their respected authors to undermine Victorian society. Each novel was condemned due to the lack of restraint and the apparent free thinking. Not until many years later after they were written, were these novels appreciated for their impure thoughts of love and adultery. For this reason, these novels will continue being read in order to fully understand and appreciate the once boorish and clandestine thoughts of adultery.
During the time of which these novels were written, one's social status was of high importance and to commit adultery was seen as the epitome of a person on the bottom of the social ladder. Edna Pontellier is afraid of being considered a lower class while experiencing a rebirth and an awakening. When Edna first steps in the water, it is as though she became a new person, opposite of the normal woman of her time. As her revivification occurs, she emerges from her humdrum semiconscious status as a devoted wife and mother to a state of total consciousness, and discovers her own individuality and desires for emotional and sexual satisfaction. She does in order to escape the society she finds herself shackled into. Edna's thoughts of adultery with Lebrun and Arobin as well as her fear of the possibility that her unfaithfulness would be discovered by the community were circling in her mind. These emotions Edna feels in her mental state expose the suppressed female mind to society by revealing the vulgar thoughts of infidelity.
Jude the Obscure also portrays the mind of a person thinking freely and out of the ordinary. After the community became of aware of the fact that Jude Fawly committed adultery with his cousin, they were shunned from the community. The public seemed to be scared of them and their children as if they were the bubonic plague. This type of excommunication is simply unnecessary and Hardy exposed this through the eventual demise of Jude. It is evident that Jude's aspirations of becoming a scholar were ruined after he married the charlatan Arabella, but when he was eschewed; his fate was then determined by society. The likelihood of Jude becoming a scholar at that point was very little. Hardy used Jude's misfortunes to expose the flaw of society's profound effect on the lives of the individual.
Although the two novels exposed society through different perspectives of a man and a woman, the two revealed similar information regarding the world they live in. Chopin and Hardy successfully exposed the Victorian Era's rejection of adulterers in The Awakening and Jude the Obscure. The free thinking in each novel showed the side-effects society imposes on the people deemed sinful. The most horrific side effect exposed is without a doubt, death. Since social approval was vital to one's well being, when Jude and Edna committed adultery, they endured psychological trauma such as fear of society and death of loved ones. This mental distress eventually leads to the suicide of Jude's children because of their feelings of neglect. In addition, Edna began feeling that she is not worthy of being a mother for not wanting to see her children. Such disturbing thoughts circled within her mind and eventually lead to her suicide, at the same location that was reborn in, the water. The fact that these types of horrible deaths were even thought of by the authors is very interesting. Chopin and Hardy must have knowledge of these forms of death occurring, and due to the grisliness of the deaths, it would not be spoken of in general conversation. So, these authors exposed these horrible incidents to the Victorian world.
Even though, Jude the Obscure and The Awakening highly disregarded and disapproved of for their free and wild thinking, the two significantly changed society. Because of this tremendous impact on society, these books attract present day readers because they were completely different then other literature of the Victorian Era. By exposing the truth through the wild thinking of Edna and Jude, the public could learn the faults of a strict society and understand not to eschew people considered unsociably normal. This lesson most certainly impacted the general public but also impacted other writers, to expose the faults of their society for the betterment of society.
This is the complete article, containing 735 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
