Social Norms as the Condition for Being Isolated

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Characters Isolated in Literature
Conclusion
Works Cited

Abstract

People differ as well as traditions. The literature of various periods contains works describing lonely people that are isolated. It is not clear whether these people became isolated because they wanted to live alone without experiencing the necessity to take care of somebody else. Another variant of being lonely is hidden in the society to which lonely people belong. Traditions, customs, and social norms can make the most cheerful person an isolated marginal. Though people can be considered outcasts within their community, they are not deprived of dignity and humaneness.

Moreover, it is possible to trace the marginalization of separate individuals in the works of literature written by Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, and William Shakespeare. As people become lonely, society changes its position and attitude towards those people. Thus, Edna, Othello, and Gregor are lonely people regardless of their living in the very middle of society; they experience isolation in spite of living with people they love and appreciate.

Introduction

The concept of isolation can be traced in the literature of different periods. People differ as well as traditions. It is not clear whether these people became isolated because they wanted to live alone without experiencing the necessity to take care of somebody else. History saw a great number of cases when people were talented and had great potential, though isolation was the only possible way for them to live without harming other people’s lives. Another variant of being lonely is hidden in the society to which lonely people belong. Traditions, customs, and social norms can make the most cheerful person an isolated marginal. Isolation was caused by social norms which did not let people be those who they appear and feel to be.

The nature of changes can be traced in Othello who is treated as a person with different color of skin as well as Edna who is not accepted by the Creole community; Gregor Samsa is described as a man who has nothing in common with his family which is the society, he lives in. Different reasons make these people change their opinion, behavior, and even appearance. Though people can be considered outcasts within their community, they are not deprived of dignity and humaneness. The literary characters are different as well as their lives and reasons for becoming marginalized. People experience marginalization without being aware of changes that can influence their lives and the lives of people around them. Moreover, it is possible to trace the marginalization of separate individuals in the works of literature written by Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, and William Shakespeare.

As people become lonely, society changes its position and attitude towards those people. Thus, Edna, Othello, and Gregor are lonely people regardless of their living in the very middle of society; they experience isolation despite living with people they love and appreciate. The concept of isolation is described in different ways by Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, and William Shakespeare. Thus, we can see Othello as a strong man without any problems; the only difficulty appears when he happens to choose the wrong woman as a wife and promoting Cassio instead of Iago. Envy is the reason for isolation while analyzing the changes in Othello’s life. Gregor Samsa is introduced as an ordinary young man who finds himself as a giant cockroach; he is the only one who gains money in order to maintain his family, while the family feels relief after his death. Edna is a young woman who experiences marginalization as her husband wants her to act like all other women in the Creole community, whereas she finds herself changing as Edna awakes from a deep dream of being like others.

Characters Isolated in Literature

Isolation is one of the techniques to make the character look different than others; some authors invent hardships and adventures for their characters, while Shakespeare, Kafka, and Chopin had made up social outcasts that can be considered marginal people within the society. It is unclear whether social norms or their own decisions make them isolated; Edna, Gregor, and Othello experience changes in their lives. Othello becomes a murderer and a self-murderer; Edna becomes a woman involved in an affair with a man other than her husband; Gregor becomes a burden for his family which needed his help before.

Othello as a lonely Moore. William Shakespeare presents Othello as a Venetian Moor who is treated as a person who does not have a right to marry a white woman. The reasons for introducing a Moor are ambiguous. It is possible to assume that the author was trying to talk about racial discrimination, though the color of skin cannot be an object of envy. Another reason for presenting the main character as the image of a strong, freedom-loving, ambitious, “man of natural elegance and dignity” (Grebanier, qtd. in Kolin 91), and an independent Moor is that Shakespeare was a “racist who condoned the negative image of blacks in his culture” (Hadfield 77). The reasons can be unidentified, though the result is available at any bookstore. The tragedy of the Moor can make anyone believe in the unexpected changes that can happen in the life of every person. People are likely to change their decisions without thinking about the consequences of different actions and steps in their life and the lives of other people. Iago was free to change the lives of people as they did not resist his lies and deception.

Othello was treated as a good soldier that was promoted to the general of the Venetian army; however, it did not make him happy because people envied him, his beautiful wife, and his obtaining a higher position in life than all of them. A society is opposed to the desire of being happy; social norms can make a man kill his wife and himself because of deception and a chain of misunderstandings. Would a modern man kill his wife due to a handkerchief? It is not reasonable to blame someone because of ungrounded assumptions. As the social norms require some decisions to be made concerning certain events in the society, one who suspects his wife of being unfaithful should beat her and raise hell in public.

Othello can be treated as the embodiment of justice as he attempts to reestablish the right which was violated. When the Moor is deceived, he turns angry and impulsive, which brings all his strength, evil, and stubbornness outside his inner world. Social norms, in this respect, are the reason for the explosion of the volcano of feelings of the free-loving and just Othello. As the Moor was envied, he was in danger as well as his reputation, position, and his beautiful wife Desdemona as his family because the people’s envy is worth than any evil in the world for it incorporates all mean and greedy features those human beings can possess. The evil, in this case, is not universal but exercised by people to get something that does not belong or is not appointed to them. The same happened with Iago who considered himself to be “worth no worse a place” (Shakespeare 7). This is one of the basic reasons for deceiving Othello for the latter had appointed Cassio to the position craved for by Iago.

Society (presented by Iago) was against justice when the best candidate was appointed to a certain position; therefore, Iago did everything possible to deprive Othello of everything he loved most, namely his career and a beautiful wife. The means to fulfill the meanest plan were chosen by chance which added even more vividness to the entire picture of the way society can make a person refuse everything and let people provoke him. When everything was opposed to the concept of justice and happiness, it was unlikely for Othello to fight for his wife and position as he did for Venice as a general. Circumstances can break the strongest man, though the strongest man cannot fight circumstances when he is not aware of the reasons for all problems. It is easier to overcome difficulties when you know what to do and what arguments to oppose to those presented by the enemy.

Metamorphosis in the life of Gregor Samsa. As “traditional artistic forms and structures in literature, painting, poetry, music, and the theatre were undergoing innovative, and in some cases, revolutionary changes that were taking place in the post-war Europe served as an appropriate background for a short novel written by Franz Kafka, as argued by Taikeff (2-3). As changes in the life of the main character of The Metamorphosis are extraordinary, it is necessary to analyze the image of Gregor Samsa in terms of strange behavior, envy, or very high position. Unfortunately, the readers are sure to fail while trying to find the young man’s high position, a beautiful wife, or a great number of enemies. “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug” (Kafka 1). Gregor Samsa is set as a common person who has to maintain his family and the only thing he thinks about after being changed into a giant insect is his job which fed the whole family.

The society in this short novel is presented by the members of Gregor Samsa’s family, while only the wooden door made Gregor’s change unnoticeable to others (Kafka 3). In this respect, we can assume that the door may be considered a symbolic means of defending oneself from the social prejudices and discrimination of society and norms established by people living in the society. The mother of the main character is a very kind woman and the readers can clearly see Gregor’s warm attitude towards her, though she refuses to believe that he is her son when the family experiences benefit from Gregor’s position. His younger sister Grete becomes the main caretaker of this monstrous insect that had been her brother; she treats him as her brother only at the very beginning of the novel, though she changes her attitude towards the insect which does not seem to be her brother anymore.

The family of the protagonist can return to a normal life only after his death (Taikeff 13) because they cannot bear the existence of the giant cockroach which does not resemble their son and brother. The memories about the way he disappeared as soon as he becomes a heavy burden to each and every member of his former family. When Gregor finds himself in the appearance of an insect, he does not think about the way his family would treat him, about his future life, about personal communication with other members of the society; the only thing Gregor thinks about is the impossibility to work and maintain his family. Gregor, with regard to his position in life and towards society, is a marginal who is not able to interact with other members of the same society.

As life in society presupposes the acceptance and adherence to certain rules, norms, and principles existing in this society including physical appearance and personal hygiene, it is necessary to mention that Gregor can be considered an outcast of his society which is presented by his family and a clerk from his job. Marginalization is the main theme of this novel because it emphasizes the bitterness of a situation when a person cannot live as he used to. It is possible to assume that Gregor was always taken by society as an outcast, though the real appearance was concealed behind adherence to social norms.

In this respect, the appearance of a giant insect appears to be an allegory that is aimed at explaining the concept of marginalization. When a person does not look like others, cannot perform functions that others can, is not able to maintain himself, and is rejected by other members of the same society. Gregor Samsa is a lonely person who feels it necessary to leave the family not to make them ashamed of him and his appearance.

Sexuality and loneliness of Edna. Another example of marginalization can be observed in the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin where the story of a young woman is described. Edna Pontellier is a wife of a successful businessman who has two adorable children, though she does not feel happy at all because she has to perform all duties attributed to women in contemporary society. Social norms exclude the minor possibility that a woman can be independent, ambitious, or self-sufficient. When Edna experiences emotions different from those encountered in marriage, she realizes that she was sleeping all her life. In this respect, Edna can be considered an outcast of society because she dared to violate the norms established by people living in the same society. Her husband is one of the representatives of the society which had created certain roles and functions for women which contradict Edna’s new cognition of the world.

Edna is a woman whose “manner was engaging” (Chopin 7); she is a good wife and mother, though her awakening affects her family as well as her reputation within the society. When Edna Pontellier experiences certain freedom from social norms which seem to have been bounding her wishes, desires, and will, she becomes out of control and cannot stop creating gulfs between herself, her family, and the society they all live in. however, Edna is not likely to realize the true damage she brings to her family because they are not the ones to blame, though the closest people are always the first to be blamed. The family rejects her as well as did the family of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis, this happens because she is not able to return to the previous lifestyle and become adherent to social norms that bound her.

The person who contributed greatly to the awakening of the main character of the novel is Robert Lebrun, a man who is younger than Edna and who got used to flirt with all women without being obliged to marry any of them. When Edna realizes that she had totally divided herself from society, she tries to establish relations with Robert, but he refuses to be with her because she is a married woman. Though Lebrun knew from the very beginning that Edna was married to Mr. Pontellier, he did not cease seeing her. However, Robert had crossed the t’s when Edna was not any longer able to return to the previous lifestyle. “It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream” (Chopin 283); these words can be considered the essence of her awakening as all her life was senseless.

As the marginalization is described here as the constant condition and the only remedy is the refutation of the social norms and traditions, the social roles of women in the society, it is obvious that Edna has recovered from the disease. “The Awakening is the new narrative that Mrs. Pontellier was unable to create: not (it is true) a story of female affirmation, but rather an excruciatingly exact dissection of the ways in which society distorts a woman’s true mature” (Beer and Nolan 63). Edna feels free and goes away for society cannot accept her in an image different from the one commonly attributed to women in numerous cultures.

Conclusion

Marginalization is a concept described in the literature as the one which divides the individuals considered to be the outcasts from the rest of the society. When people see someone, who does not follow the common rules of behavior, they treat him/her as an alien that has no right to live in the same society because this person is not able to be adherent to the social norms. The current essay dwelled on the marginal characters existing in the literature. The Awakening written by Kate Chopin, Othello by William Shakespeare, and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka present characters treated as outcasts of the society because of the social norms.

Edna is treated as marginal because she refuted social roles commonly attributed to women; as soon as she refutes her roles, she becomes a lonely person and nobody understands her desires. Othello is envied and has to act according to social norms to save his reputation in society. Gregor Samsa is described as an originally lonely person, though the understanding of marginalization comes suddenly and no one can help him.

Works Cited

Hadfield, Andrew. A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on William Shakespeare’s Othello. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, 2008.

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. H. S. Stone & Company, 1899. Harvard University, 2007.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

Kolin, Philip C. Othello: New Critical Essays. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Taikeff, Stanley. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Piscataway, New Jersey: Research & Education Assoc., 1996.

Beer, Janet, and Elizabeth Nolan. Kate Chopin’s the Awakening: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 2004.

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