Victorian Repression Essay

Submitted By hopematheson
Words: 753
Pages: 4
Open Document
It is no secret that the Victorian era was a very repressed time. Society revolved around images of etiquette and manners, and hid many aspects of being human from view. In her masterpiece novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin details the repression society in that era forces upon its members and the struggle people in that time experienced. Two characters who best illustrate this are the foils of Leonce Pontellier, who submits to society’s pressures, and Alycee Arobin, who does not. Both characters are victims of their time, showcasing the evils of societal pressures. Leonce Pontellier, the husband of the main character, Edna, is a respectable man of his time. He is a “great favorite” (page 8) in the Creole upper class society of New Orleans, a very successful businessman. He considers his wife to be “the sole object of his existence” (7), and is in many ways the perfect image of a husband, showering his wife with “kindness and a uniform devotion” (8). He “please[s his wife], his absolute devotion flatter[s] her” (18), and all the ladies consider him to be “the best husband in the world” (9). However, he views his wife as a “piece of personal property” (4), and though “he greatly valued his possessions” (48) it was “chiefly because they were his”. In short, Mr. Pontellier is, like many of his contemporaries, a shallow man who lives a very material-oriented life. Mr. Pontellier is a conformist: he believes that if the Pontellier family “expect[s] to get on and keep up with the procession” (49) by observing all of the rules society has set up for them and keeping up their image. When his wife selfishly decides to move into the “little house around the block” (78) while he is away on business, he is not concerned by her attempts to escape their domestic lives together, but by “what people would say” (88) to see her abandon the Pontellier mansion. So, he used his “well-known business tact and cleverness” (89) to devise an elaborate cover up for the move and putting his home under renovation for “sumptuous alternations” (89). Mr. Pontellier lives in the fantasy world of Victorian Creole society, where his life falling apart does not ultimately matter, but the way people view him is of utmost importance. Alcee Arobin, Mrs. Pontellier’s lover, is the exact opposite of Mr. Pontellier. Because he refuses to conform to the images of society that Mr. Pontellier lives under, Arobin lives on the fringes of the upscale society, reduced to being a guilty pleasure for married women such as Mrs. Pontellier. His reputation as a seducer precedes him, and immediately upon noting Edna’s peculiar behavior, the local doctor immediately “hope[s] to heaven it isn’t Alcee Arobin” (68). This is because Arobin makes a sort of career out of seducing married women, and has refined craft so well that “his presence, his manners, the warmth of his glances, and above all, the touch of his lips,”
Show More

Related Documents: Victorian Repression Essay

Victorian Corsets During The Industrial Revolution

was established by Queen Victoria’s personal physician, Sir William Gull, right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. Unfortunately, this was the time when Victorian corsets became readily available to the public. During the Industrial Revolution, corsets represented the changing gender roles and division of classes. The repression of women through the media’s obsession with body image is still present today. The corset was used as a way to simultaniously repress womens sexuality while sexaulizing…

Words 541 - Pages 3

Extension Creative Essay

functioned as a reflection of societal fears and anxieties of their respected era. In its narrative of a respectable doctor who transforms himself into a savage murderer, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tapped directly into the anxieties in Stevenson’s age. The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented scientific progress and an age in which European nations carved up the world with their empires. By the end of the century, however, many people were beginning to call into question the ideals of progress and civilization…

Words 1607 - Pages 7

The Lady of Shallot Essay

climates or the assembly of weapons against dangerous predators. Although humans possess the instinctive desire to express creativity, societal expectations tend to revoke visionary outlets and oppression has become alarmingly standard. During the Victorian era, women were offered limited opportunities to express their creativity and were expected to perform uninspired tasks, such as tapestry weaving, in a sequestered environment. The yearning for an artistic outlet, responsibility as an artist, and…

Words 1160 - Pages 5

English Essay

poverty, social repression and class structure. Study texts Power structure within pat society Time period Renaissance and post modern Thesis. MBP-1 Street Car Named Desire By Tennessee Williams - Topic sentence- In Streetcar Named Desire the idea of poverty is developed through the construction of two female characters. Females marginalized in the text, as they are reliant on the male gender for economical and financial support. Pat society of post WW2 America = female repression Stella tolerates…

Words 962 - Pages 4

What can we learn about the Victorian morality in Wuthering Heights Essay

about the Victorian morality and society through Bronte’s depiction of the character Heathcliff? The Victorian Era was the period of Queen Victoria’s prosperous reign in Britain; it lasted from 1837 to 1901. The period of time has wide connotations that most specifically relate to the high and strict moral standards of the society. Victorian morality is a term used to describe a set of values that Queen Victoria supported and inflicted throughout society; this includes sexual repression, low tolerance…

Words 1088 - Pages 5

In What Ways Does John Fowler Play With Textual Form And Feature In Order To Transform Ideas Essay

textual analysis to support your response. “The French Lieutenant’s Woman is both a formal imitation of the Victorian novel and an elegant endeavour at assessing the historical and mental difference between such a story and a modern reader.” John Fowle’s 1969 novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman , experiments with textual techniques and strategies to produce a postmodern pastiche of the Victorian romantic novel. Emerging in the 1960s, postmodernism is both the continuation and development of modernism…

Words 1335 - Pages 6

Sadism In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

sexuality and the resulting sadistic behavior of men” (Campbell 310). Although Charles Campbell, the author, believed this, I do not consider these points to be accurate. The author of this article looks too deeply into this piece of work written in Victorian era, women are not used in the story for sexual purposes and are not the victims of sadistic behavior. The article first states women to be victims of Hyde’s sadistic behavior and that it is them that suffers throughout the story,…

Words 950 - Pages 4

Sexual Repression in Turn of the Screw Essay

The Victorian Age was a time of moral behavior and ideas. Sexuality had no place with the norms and mores of society, yet as it is part of human nature, it continued to exist. With sex being a topic so repressed during the period, people took anything not specified in sexual connotations. Realizing this, the authors of the time used this to their advantage and laid a heavy underlying sexual atmosphere as a basis for their stories. Henry James does just that in his Turn of the Screw. Though never…

Words 996 - Pages 4

Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Analysis

the desire to separate the good and evil inside people. The plot beholds a scientist who finds a way to literally separate his good from his evil by drinking a potion. The plot picks up on the Victorian hypocrisy that crippled people into being society’s idea of ‘good’ and the shallow nature of the Victorians and how they judged character by appearance. At this particular era classes still reigned, so this meant that reputation was still more important than anything, and if being ‘respectable’ meant…

Words 2577 - Pages 11

Sexual Intercourse and Women Essay

she has been given a new lease on life immediately after she’s been told of her husband’s untimely death. The reason for this comes as no surprise. “Story of an Hour” represents all women, finding their own voice, in a time of emotional and sexual repression, and is still relevant to the strong, independent women of today. One thing to take into consideration was the state of marriage at the time that “Story of an Hour” took place. Nineteenth century marriages were marriages made of convenience. Families…

Words 1983 - Pages 8