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The Awakening | The Female Artist in Kate Chopin's The Awakening: Birth and Creativity

In the following excerpt, Carole Stone examines the growth of Edna's artistry and autonomy.

Many recent critics of The Awakening fail to see Edna's growing sense of power and control as signs of progress toward a new self-definition. They view her as a woman deluded by romanticism who is unable to make a conscious choice, such as the decision to become an artist, because her instincts are regressive.…

In this essay I will argue that Edna's memories of her childhood, her immersion in the sea, and her search for a mother figure are emblems of regression in the service of progression toward an artistic vocation. Rather than returning to the dependency of...

[The entire page is 2419 words long]

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