Jane Tompkins writes about how nineteenth-century domestic novels feature "a monumental effort to reorganize the culture from the woman's point of view... in some cases, offers a far more devastating critique of American society than any expressed by better-known critics such as Hawthorne and Melville. Indeed, both Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Awakening seem to adhere to this tradition, albeit on different tangents of realism And sentimentality. I will examine these texts as branches of the domestic tradition and evaluate their respective effectiveness in terms of social discourse. I will investigate how affect theory applies to the use of emotions in women's writing and how this has provided a new dimension to social criticism. in American literature through the recognition that emotions are vital to moral judgment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Because of its mass popularity and emotional style, there have always been connotations of domestic women's writing with non-literary, indulgent, and passive consumption. Tompkins confirms this, talking about how popularity is often equated with degradation, emotion with ineptitude, and domesticity with insignificance. These writers are thought to have used "false stereotypes, dishing out feeble-minded baby food to feed the prejudices of an undereducated and underemployed female audience." The idea of ​​stereotype is certainly true of Uncle Tom's Cabin, however this statement is problematized with the example of the more elliptical writing style in The Awakening. This is where tradition divides into realism and sentimentalism; both, although using different styles, use emotion and include the theme of the primacy of human connection and emotion in moral judgement, enhancing the concept of affective experience. Certainly, the Deleuzian concept of affect distinguishes how this tradition offers a new dimension to social criticism. Affects are states of mind and body related to feelings and emotions, consisting of pleasure or joy, pain or sadness, and desire or appetite. This non-cognitive reaction probably determines a certain moral coding. Thus, art that has this effect can discover new truths otherwise lost in rigid logic. Undeniably, social issues, including slavery and female oppression, can only be truly addressed in relation to moral judgments determined by emotional experience. Shaun Nichols writes about emotionalism, the idea of ​​expressing rather than reporting one's feelings. He states that "sentimental accounts should provide a more accurate rendering of moral judgment in the field, in contrast to the disjointed and emaciated characterization of moral judgment promoted by some in the rationalist tradition." Indeed, this emotional reflection on human morality seems to bring further degrees of empathy and therefore affection for the reader. This affect is exploited in various ways in the realist and sentimentalist traditions, touching different readers and effective in different ways. Uncle Tom's Cabin is about the ways in which women can be political actors through their capacity for expression and compassion; in fact, the writing of the book was in itself a political act. Meanwhile, The Awakening is about self-expression and women's liberation on a personal level. In this sense, they are respectively suitable for realism/sentimentalism since they operate on different scales. Contemporary reaction to The Awakening saw much critical hostility. Certainly, in an era in which such deviations from the patriarchal structure andsexual inclinations, this naturalistic representation had a profound resonance with its readers. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that much of Edna's story derives from Chopin's thoughts on female liberation and independence, as she read many feminist writings and wrote in her journals her resentment towards the various social obligations she had as a woman. This is represented when Edna gets up in the middle of the night and "couldn't tell why she was crying." The unembellished depiction of a woman's unexpressed and unheard conflict provides significant potential for affect in the reader, speaking to the women's repressed voice and giving them a chance to express themselves by describing how they are not alone, which Edna also "has had throughout life". been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions that have never been expressed.'Lawrence Thornton defines the novel as a 'political novel'. Indeed, Chopin describes Edna's liberation not only socio-politically, on a literal level, but emotionally, on a sentimental level. In other words, the hybridization of realism and sentimentalism creates a new category of social commentary; there is a shift from the realism of observation to the realism of embodied desire. Influenced by Darwinist thought, Chopin uses The Awakening to portray the dominance of humans' natural instincts, thus providing a study of the fundamental truth that humans cannot repress their sexual desires, despite social constraints. In the process, critiques of the institutions of marriage, motherhood, and Christianity are implicitly explored with this vision of emotional liberation. Sandra Gilbert writes that "Edna's 'awakenings' become increasingly fantastic and poetic, stimuli of the imagination's desire for 'breadth and wonder' rather than protests of reason against unreasonable constraints." It is evident that such an emotional category of expression was necessary during this period of oppression. She goes on to argue that the transition in which Edna learns to swim is symbolic not only of her movement towards liberation and independence, but of the novel itself from a realist text to "a distinctively feminine fantasy of paradisiacal fulfillment. ". Certainly, it is evident that the observational, literal and descriptive style of the novel changes to a style of philosophical reflection, metaphorical images and erotic implications, marking Chopin's rejection of the male-dominated style of realism and, ultimately, of the male-dominated society Nonetheless, the novel retains its naturalistic plot, thus preserving its credibility and resonance. The sentimental aspects, for example when he refers to the night of his first 'awakening' as 'like a night in a dream' and goes on to observe that 'there must be spirits abroad tonight', despite being dramatised, are inspired by a feeling realistic, thus making him more naturalistic in his affect. The fantastical images provided of Edna's dinner party and her feeling like a "royal woman, one who rules" seem contrary to the realistic tone of the novel, but touch on realistic emotions and the true fantasy of empowerment. Furthermore, when she asks how many years she slept in Madame Antoine's bed, she provides an almost fairy-tale image, but it reflects feelings of passion that are the reality of female existence. Finally, the symbolism and ceremony of his martyrdom may seem theatrical, but it is not unthinkable to consider such a situation to be true, and such suicidal feelings are tangible to a subordinate audience. Sentimental novels are often seen as inherently false in feeling, or as James Baldwin says, "fantasies, having no connection with reality, sentimental." However this can be disputed, since BeecherStowe draws on her own experience of losing a child and personal feelings of attachment and empathy. He seems to appropriate such emotions for the large-scale problem of slavery; in fact, separation and loss were real factors in the slave trade, meaning that the novel consists not of "fantasies that in no way connect with reality", but with the actual emotional ramifications of the industry. The incidents and injustices in Uncle Tom's Cabin are not exaggerated per se, but the superficial characters and situations are dramatized, which could be seen as inauthentic and potentially less sympathetic. Of course, Baldwin observes that sentimentalism adheres to "the formula created by the need to find a lie more palatable than the truth." The unnatural representation makes the story more palatable, but can also be seen as more sympathetic to those who had not considered the humanity of the black characters, meaning that exaggeration is required to explicitly subvert dominant prejudices. In other words, it must be made palatable to a broad audience that would be averse to claims such as the humanity of slaves; these theatrical clichés provide accessible understanding, universality and plausibility for mass audiences. Dobson confirms this, noting that "an emphasis on accessible language, a clear prose style, and familiar lyrical and narrative patterns define an aesthetic whose primary quality of transparency is generated by a valorization of connection, an impulse toward communication with a public as wide as possible". '. For example, the lack of subtlety describing Eva's death, and the clichéd gesture of the senator and his wife giving away their dead child's clothes, easily and simply convey the theme of empathy, denoting the reader's search for affection . This differs in The Awakening where metaphors are more commonly used than direct narrative guidance. Furthermore, the episode with the senator and his wife depicts the effectiveness and resonance of sentimentality. Mr. Bird's decision to help is completely understandable to the reader as they have already established sympathy for Eliza and her son. Mrs. Bird sums up the moral of this passage unequivocally: “Your heart is better than your head, in this case, John.” Thus, it draws attention to the significance of emotion in political judgment. George Orwell confirms the effects of this cliché/truth dichotomy, arguing that 'it is an unintentionally ridiculous book, full of absurd melodramatic episodes; it is also profoundly moving and essentially true' . Ultimately, due to the subhuman status of African Americans in this period, one might see that such hyper-sentimentalism and driven narrative are necessary to forcibly provoke a new perspective. Together, these subgenres constitute the domestic tradition, with Beecher Stowe examining the institution of slavery from a domestic and emotional perspective, while Chopin explores the female public position from a private and psychological perspective. Indeed, contemporary women have been placed in the domestic sphere by society, meaning that domestic references and familial and emotional ties represent all they have available to explore moral and social issues. These features were nevertheless touching and effective in their own right. The use of domestic scenes, for example the family home and dinner parties, are used as signifiers for the common, making such instances accessible to a wide audience (including men and women) and more personally touching than institutional contexts. However, community issues have an effect on domestic ones (e.g., family separation in slavery and oppression, 1985).