Here Chopin is repeatedly infusing the description of these mother-women with religious terms such as and drawing a clear connection from the “idolized”, “worshiped” “holy”, “ministering of the mother-woman to the Madonna. In describing these women as having effaced angels” themselves in order to become an angelic Madonna figure, she is stating that a woman cannot be the Madonna archetype without losing her humanity. There is no space within the Madonna role for a woman to be an individual or furthermore to be a mortal human, and therefore Chopin is highlighting this as a sacrifice of identity and on a deeper level, a sacrifice of a “holy privilege” humanity. This juxtaposition of competing ideals is represented in woman’s David Long’s statement that are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them, and by “there idolizing Chopin will assert throughout the novel this idea of the Madonna role as being them”. dehumanizing, as the mother-woman is not someone whom she recognizes as having a true identity or being socially recognized as having an independent humanity with needs apart from those of the family. Having established the Madonnaesque mother-woman as the societal norm, Chopin then develops the archetype more fully in Adele Ratignolle. Adele is initially described in terms that establish her as otherworldly or fantastical, further reinforcing previous suggestion that to truly be a mother-woman and therefore Chopin’s act as a Madonna a woman cannot be real or human. Chopin begins by stating, Many of [the women] were delicious in the role; one of them was the embodiment of every womanly grace and Her name was Adele Ratignolle. There are no words charm…. to describe her save the old ones that have served so often to picture the bygone heroine of romance and the fair lady of our dreams. This introductory description of Adele is coded with terms such as and our “bygone” “of to impress upon the reader that there are not even real words to describe something as dreams”
Here Chopin is repeatedly infusing the description of these mother-women with religious terms such as “idolized”, “worshiped” and “holy”, drawing a clear connection from the “ministering angels” of the mother-woman to the Madonna. In describing these women as having effaced themselves in order to become an angelic Madonna figure, she is stating that a woman cannot be the Madonna archetype without losing her humanity. There is no space within the Madonna role for a woman to be an individual or furthermore to be a mortal human, and therefore Chopin is highlighting this “holy privilege” as a sacrifice of identity and on a deeper level, a sacrifice of a woman’s humanity. This juxtaposition of competing ideals is represented in David Long’s statement that “there are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them, and by idolizing them”. Chopin will assert throughout the novel this idea of the Madonna role as being dehumanizing, as the mother-woman is not someone whom she recognizes as having a true identity or being socially recognized as having an independent humanity with needs apart from those of the family. Having established the Madonnaesque mother-woman as the societal norm, Chopin then develops the archetype more fully in Adele Ratignolle. Adele is initially described in terms that establish her as otherworldly or fantastical, further reinforcing Chopin’s previous suggestion that to truly be a mother-woman and therefore act as a Madonna a woman cannot be real or human. Chopin begins by stating, Many of [the women] were delicious in the role; one of them was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm…. Her name was Adele Ratignolle. There are no words to describe her save the old ones that have served so often to picture the bygone heroine of romance and the fair lady of our dreams. This introductory description of Adele is coded with terms such as “bygone” and “of our dreams” to impress upon the reader that there are not even real words to describe something as
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