"The Nullification of Edna Pontellier" Summary and Feedback

The article I chose to read was Katherine Kearns essay, “The Nullification of Edna Pontellier.” Frankly, I didn’t really understand what Ms. Kearns was trying to prove in this essay, because the majority of the essay was larger words, which confused me to no end, and her writing seemed all over the place. It didn’t seem like she stayed on topic very well, because the whole purpose for her writing this essay, as stated in the italicized summary, was to show how the ocean symbolized birth and death.

Throughout the entire essay, Kearns only mentions the ocean a few times. For most of the essay, she writes about the effects of language and of what characters in The Awakening are representative. Kearns whole essay focuses on the effect of the “mastery of the ‘I’” has on Edna. Basically, she states that Edna transcends during her first swimming scene from a female perspective of just simple obedience to a male perspective of taking control. However, she argues that Edna takes an immediate descent because she doesn’t have what is required to “stay afloat,” and that Edna makes the conscience decision to drown rather than swim. She uses this quote from Treichler about the novel, “to be alive is to sleep and dream,” but “to awaken…is to die.”

Kearns also makes the argument that Chopin is like a mother to Edna, contradicting and limiting her throughout the entire novel. I think that this was a pretty neat way to look at the content. To Kearns, Chopin gave Edna no other option but to make the decision to drown. And in returning to the sea, Edna was trying relive her initial ascension.

In my opinion, I think that the argument could have been presented a little clearer, maybe using simpler words. However, I do like some of the ideas that were presented, the ones that I could understand that is. It’s neat to think that Chopin could be the overall mother-figure to Edna, always contradicting her ways and eventually forcing her to her death. I guess it’s rare to place the author affecting the characters in a story because most of us just write the authors off as simply stringing words together and creating the story.

Though I like this perspective, I don’t necessarily agree with Kearns on this idea. However, agree with the idea of the ocean being a place of birth and death. That argument makes complete and total sense. The ocean is where Edna found her ascension, but also where she made her decision to drown since she was ascending to nothing.

Overall, the essay was interesting, yet quite difficult, to read. If I had to do it over again, I don’t know if I would pick the same essay.     

"The Story of an Hour"

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was a very enjoyable short story in my opinion. For a short story, there was a lot of detailed imagery. Kate Chopin has a great sense of her surroundings, and the way that she puts them to paper is wondrous. I’ve commented about this a couple times in my journal already about her imagery in The Awakening. I’ve stated in the first entry that her writing is quite comparable to that of Fitzgerald’s in The Great Gatsby.

On another note, I think that the plot twist in “The Story of an Hour” was interesting. One would think that a woman would be upset that her husband was dead, but Chopin doesn’t write of what was considered “the norm” in her days. In the story, it doesn’t state anywhere that Brently Mallard was an abusive or overpowering husband, and yet Louise Mallard felt that oppression had been lifted after getting the news. She was oppressed by society’s stereotypes and expectations of her. 

Chopin seems to follow this theme frequently, though I can’t state that for certain since I’ve only read “The Story of an Hour” and The Awakening. However, both of these works follow the tale of a young female protagonist that feels that they are oppressed by something. Both are married, and both have the come-and-go feeling of love for their husbands.

If authors write from what they know, which I do firmly believe, then is this feeling of oppression something that Kate Chopin felt herself? Did she not like the idea of married life and following the expectations of society? After skimming through a biography, it seems possible, but probably unlikely. The biography stated that The Awakening was actually based off of a woman that Chopin had known of in New Orleans. It also says that Chopin’s husband, Oscar Chopin, “‘allowed’ her unheard of freedom.” Maybe she wasn’t as oppressed by society as the women in her stories, but skimming through one biography doesn’t make me completely sure of this.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Review

Reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was difficult, to say the least. The story itself went by swiftly; I had no problem getting through it in a short period of time, but the concept of it was challenging to understand.

In my opinion, though I’m not a psychiatrist like John or the protagonist’s brother, I believe she has some sort of mental illness. From my knowledge gained by Psychology with Mr. Cayea this year, I think that she may have schizophrenia. She’s having delusions of a woman being trapped in the wallpaper, raging and stirring chaos behind the patterns at night, and “creeping” about in the daytime.

Putting the unnamed protagonist in such a room only seemed to worsen her condition, because she was able to analyze every detail of that wallpaper, sitting for hours on end just staring and analyzing. There, she was able to lose herself to her delusions without anyone to really stop them from occurring. And when everyone else denied that there was anything wrong with the room or the wallpaper, she remained fervent in her belief that there was in fact something within those patterns. The symptoms (the delusions and stubborn belief that the delusions are true) point to schizophrenia.

Personally, I think that the protagonist’s husband or brother should have done more to help her condition, rather than just placing her in a room for three months. I’m not sure what the time period of this story is supposed to be, but it seems like it was at least one hundred years ago. Either way, the existence of anti-psychotics probably was not, but even so, I think that the protagonist could’ve felt better just talking about what was going on in her mind without anyone turning her away. They also probably could have simply moved her from the wallpapered room. She asked numerous times, and quite honestly, I think she knew better than her husband on that point.

Overall, I think that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an okay read. I think that the events leading to the end were better than the ending itself, because the ending was puzzling. I’m not really sure what is happening to the protagonist in the end. She may be having a break down, but with the way it’s written, it seems like she’s possessed by the woman from her delusions. It just doesn’t make sense to me, and I think that really takes away from the story for me personally.

Ethan Frome Critical Essay Blog

The essay I read for this assignment was, “The Two Faces of Mattie Silver” by Gary Scharnhorst. In this critical essay, Mr. Scharnhorst gives his opinion on what Mattie’s true intentions are throughout the novella Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

Scharnhorst comments on how other readers view the book as a simple, tragic love story, similar to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, he says that when Mattie Silver is analyzed and viewed from the perspective of a “temptress,” the story becomes completely different. From Scharnhorst’s perspective, Mattie Silver never actually loved Ethan Frome. Instead, it was all feigned emotions played by a desperate woman, heightened by the lovesick imaginations of her pursuer. “He was never so happy with her as when he abandoned himself to these dreams” (Wharton, 45).

To Scharnhorst, Mattie simply tried using Ethan to get what she wanted: To stay in Starkfield with a roof over her head. The essay’s author brings up the fact that Mattie only shows mock interest in Ethan when she feels that Zeena is displeased with her, and will ultimately remove her from their home. To back this claim, Scharnhorst uses some examples from the text, such as the passage found before Mattie suggests suicide to Ethan:

“‘Is this where Ned and Ruth kissed each other?’ she whispered breathlessly, and flung her arms about him. Her lips, groping for his, swept over his face, and he held her fast in a rapture of surprise" (Wharton, 178).

In my opinion, this argument was presented very well. The essay was organized, and there were plenty of points to back up the thesis that the author presented. Quite honestly, I do agree with Mr. Scharnhorst’s opinion. The evidence is written clearly throughout the novella. Even before reading this essay, I had had my questions of Mattie’s love for Ethan and if it was even true. After reading this essay, I can honestly say that I do not think that Ethan’s love reciprocated.