Comparing and contrasting Margaret Atwoods Surfacing and Kate Chopins The Awakening, consider how far you agree with the opinion that the emancipation of women is a struggle destined only to end in failure.

There is strong argument that both texts portray the female quest for emancipation as a struggle as both protagonists journeys for freedom are highly complicated, social and psychological dilemmas holding them back. In Kate Chopins The Awakening Ednas Awakening is constantly pulled back as she recurrently finds herself caught in psychological turmoil. Early in the narrative Edna realises herself as a human being this realization is defined as the beginning but is described by the narrator as a tangled, chaotic, disturbed tumult; this extensive semantic description portrays Ednas new desire for emancipation as a difficult endeavor. This is echoed later in a recalled dream sequence; when Edna is disturbed by something unattainable the mental barrier she faces is conveyed. A social obstacle also parallels that of the psycholo…(short extract)