THEMES
VICTORIAN WOMEN
We must not lose sight of Chopin’s main motive for writing this work.
She was doing her bit for the women’s rights cause, which was to be
championed in the decades following the writing of this book.
We have already explored the lowly status of Victorian women and those that
were shallow clearly lived a life of a fine handsome bird in a gilded cage, but for the vast majority of intelligent and knowledgeable women, they underwent a regime of oppression and domination.
They were merely an appendage of their husband, one of his possessions, required only to entertain, keep house and raise children. When the husband died, their fate is illustrated through the character of the woman in black.
Although
Edna is able to break the bonds of this society by exploring her
artistic abilities, her sexual desires and her materialistic independence,
she still is faced with solitude. She does not have a partner who
has a free spirit like hers.
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