In Both Sylvia Plath’S The Bell Jar And Kate Chopin’S The

In both Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the female protagonist is portrayed as an artist who suffers from mental instability. Although the works were written over 60 years apart, The Awakening in 1889 and The Bell Jar in 1963, both novels were revolutionary for their times in terms of feminism, extramarital sex, and suicide. Both works explore the ways that females may temporarily escape, or attempt to escape, the confines of their own minds: the chains that lead them to attempt or complete suicide. Each woman finds brightness in her art, Edna with her painting and Esther through writing, immersion in water, and the ability to embrace her sexuality. Both novels use vivid symbolism to portray the feelings of†¦show more content†¦Joyce Dyer comments that the bird and Edna resemble each other in another way; both are meant to be wild, but are domesticated for the sake of the family. She even has Madame Ratignolle â€Å"feel [her] sho ulder blades, to see if [her] wings were strong† hoping that she too has wings to allow her to fly away from the expectations of tradition set on her (Chopin 300.) While Edna expresses that she is â€Å"not thinking of any extraordinary flights,† to Arobin, she does not deny her wish to fly, and escape from society (300). Unlike before, when Edna wishes to have wings, in this instance Edna realizes that she has wings, or the power to escape. This changes her true desires from wanting to fly to not becoming one of the â€Å"weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth† (300). Although Edna has not acted upon her thoughts to become free, she is aware that she has the power to escape and live outside of society. Through the bird symbolism, Chopin suggests that women lack the ability to be happy within the circumstances society expects them to maintain. Both women also find freedom through immersion in water. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood finds freedom in her baths. She takes baths to clean and purify herself from the grime of the world around her, even saying â€Å"I never feel so much myself as when I’m in a hot bath† (Plath 20). Edna