‘An Other of the Other’ in Emile Zola’s Nana and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’
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date published 14/04/2008
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SummaryEmile Zola and Kate Chopin both present texts that depict the fall of a heroine. Nana and Edna Pontellier Naturalistically represent archetypal women of the late 19th century; Nana, as a courtesan, represents the rising lower class, and Edna representing the upper-middle class. Despite the cultural gap between Nana and Edna, their archetypal nature assures that the fundamental aspects of the texts that they appear in follow the formulaic representation of the “Other.” They are outcast women of the 19th century in pursuit of the financial and the personal – that is, they both desire independence from dominance, and the means to do so.
Table of Contents
- Otherness exists in both Nana and 'The Awakening?.
- The position of being an Other is shown to be a contaminant of sorts.
- This balancing between excess and insufficiency shows that the formula presented by Reisz.
- Nana's uneven awakening is characterized by her inability to maintain sexual and financial prudence.
- Edna's encounter with her Other is more subtle.
- Edna's uneven awakening is characterized by her inability to completely remove the gender bias surrounding her.
- Nana is also unsuccessful in her attempts to remove the masculine influence from her life.
- Emile Zola and Kate Chopin create texts that attempt to explain the struggle of the emancipation of the female mind, body, and soul.
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