Love in Stormy Relationships The inability to attain love in one's lifetime as proven in the novels of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton, due to the truth that marriages no longer base themselves upon love as the primary prerogative; rather, put priority upon the superficial desires of avarice and hubris, created by the social constraints of Both Kate Chopin’s The Awakening Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth display how love eludes man during his life using the main character as parallels to one person. Characters whom areplaced into a predicament to which the only solution becomesdeath, allowing them to escape the binds of society and becomefree to love without restraint. The characters Edna Pontellierand Lily Bart found love outside the bounds of which societywould extend for them, one outside her marriage and the otheroutside her class. These situations make it impossible for loveto succeed and thus, the main characters are left withoutattaining love because love can’t conquer all.“In novels written by men the hero finally chooses an apostasywhich promises both personal and artistic fulfillment.... Almostalways in novels written by women, however, the same struggleends up in madness or suicide. This significant differencebetween male and female images in literature reflects andreinforces the cultural roles which men and women assume....Kate Chopin’s The Awakening...is still the clearest statement ofthe feminine dilemma that we have.” (C. Bogarad, TCLC, vol. 5) These roles explain the ending to The Awakening, the prisoncreated by gender-typing offers the female very littleopportunity to reach their love and so without it they are thenleft with little else to cling to upon the earth. Upon breakingthis tradition Edna was offered little more than this piece ofadvice: “The bird that would soar above the level plain oftradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sadspectacle to see ...
