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Differences between edna pontellier and society
Edna Pontellier and how she relates to today's society
Three ways edna pontellier defies society
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Art plays an important role in The Awakening. Edna Pontelier longs for both social and artistic freedom. As Edna begins to assert her independence, she begins also to take up painting as a way to express herself. In the opening of the novel, Edna dabbles with sketching. After the exhilarating evening at Grand Isle in which she learns to swim, Edna becomes an independent and assertive woman. This is reflected in her romantic inclinations towards Robert, her disregard of her husband’s wishes, and her ambitious artistic desires. She now aspires to become an artist. Back home, Edna begins to paint portraits in her atelier and devotes so much time to it that her husband chides her for neglecting her household duties. As she becomes more independent, Edna also begins to adopt an artistic style of her own. Edna defies societal protocols by pursuing female independence and by striving to become an artist.
“Edna’s pursuit of more original and serious art is directly linked to her development of greater self-pride and confidence, as well as to the emergence of her sensuality. The more she pai...
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
Fox-Genovese also emphasizes this point, when she says that both the feminist and the psychological aspect of “The Awakening,” “must be read together, for the grounds for choosing one rather than the other do not exist” (262). Other women may have, and do, find a way to exist in such a society and be happy with the little freedom they are allowed. Therefore, Edna Pontellier is portrayed a prisoner of her own upper-class society. Her surroundings demand of herself that she conforms to certain feminine ideals, which she however, is not willing to do. This final episode with Edna naked for the first time stresses the idea of rebirth in Edna; she is now "some new-born creature" (113) at the end of her life. Expression becomes a symbol of freedom for Edna. Fox-Genovese’s conclusion about “The Awakening” is that the novel tells the story of the progress in the Edna Pontellier’s character, as well as her mental regression. As Edna discovers the injustice of her male dominated society, rejecting its values, and managing to break away from society’s traditional gender roles, her stories furthermore depict her “psychological regression,” as Fox-Genovese has stated about Edna’s journey in “The Awakening” (262). Edna can only be herself when she is alone, without the
Although characters’ personalities are described vividly in The Awakening through action, dialogue, and descriptions of clothing, little is presented of the characters physically. While Edna is alone in Madame Antoine’s house, resting, two moments occur in which specific aspects of her body are highlighted. Prior to this scene, it is known only that she is considered pretty and that her hair and eyes are a similar yellow-brown color. At Madame Antoine’s house, however, where Edna loses sense of time while resting, first her arms and then her teeth demonstrate her peculiar strengths.
...he presence of water as the motif in this story facilitates these transformations for Edna. On the Grand Isle, the constant presence of the ocean begins a metamorphosis within Edna that alters her perspective of herself in relation to others. She begins to fulfill her desires and abandon her responsibilities as a wife and mother to her family, in order to pursue a life of independence. Allowing her to fulfill her desires to be a painter and be with Robert. Critical moments of self-reflection for Edna occur in the presence of the ocean. It is at the ocean where she first realizes her desire to be independent. Also the empowering force of the ocean allows Edna to be a dictator of her fate. She ultimately decides to take her life and be free from other’s wants and expectations from her. The water was the catalyst that allowed Edna to be liberated and obtain her desires.
In The Awakening, the male characters attempt to exert control over the character of Edna. None of the men understand her need for independence. Edna thinks she will find true love with Robert but realizes that he will never understand her needs to be an independent woman. Edna's father and husband control her and they feel she has a specific duty as a woman. Alcee Arobin, also attempts to control Edna in his own way. Edna knows she wants freedom. She realizes this at the beginning of the book. "Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her (Pg. 642). Throughout The Awakening she is trying to gain that independence that she wants so bad.
The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same
The fact that Edna is an artist is significant, insofar as it allows her to have a sensibility as developed as the author's. Furthermore, Edna is able to find in Mlle. Reisz, who has established herself as a musician, a role model who inspires her in her efforts at independence. Mlle. Reisz, in confiding to Edna that "You are the only one worth playing for," gives evidence of the common bond which the two of them feel as women whose sensibilities are significantly different from those of the common herd. The French heritage which Edna absorbed through her Creole upbringing allowed her, like Kate Chopin herself, to have knowledge or a way of life that represented a challenge to dominant Victorian conventions.
In Chopin's Awakening, the reader meets Edna Pontellier, a married woman who attempts to overcome her "fate", to avoid the stereotypical role of a woman in her era, and in doing so she reveals the surrounding. society's assumptions and moral values about women of Edna's time. Edna helps to reveal the assumptions of her society. The people surrounding her each day, particularly women, assume their roles as "housewives"; while the men are free to leave the house, go out at night, gamble, drink and work. Edna surprises her associates when she takes up painting, which represents a working job and independence for Edna.
As Kate Chopin’s The Awakening develops a woman’s journey to defy the present social oppression, this selected passage is Edna’s metamorphosis and the turning point in the novel. After listening to Mademoiselle Reisz’s music at Robert’s departure party, Edna swims for the first time and experiences her awakening to the desire for freedom. The surrounding ocean becomes a place that provides Edna strength to free herself and an isolated hiding where she can express her true essential self. However, Edna’s attempt for liberation eventually resigns to the overwhelming presence of death and the unfortunate realization about the society’s dominance. This passage from page 47-48 is the point of epiphany, establishing Edna’s transformation
When her husband and children are gone, she moves out of the house and purses her own ambitions. She starts painting and feeling happier. “There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day” (Chopin 69). Her sacrifice greatly contributed to her disobedient actions. Since she wanted to be free from a societal rule of a mother-woman that she never wanted to be in, she emphasizes her need for expression of her own passions. Her needs reflect the meaning of the work and other women too. The character of Edna conveys that women are also people who have dreams and desires they want to accomplish and not be pinned down by a stereotype.
Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman who throughout the novella tries to find herself. Edna begins the story in the role of the typical mother-woman distinctive of Creole society but as the novelette furthers so does the distance she puts between herself and society. Edna's search for independence and a way to stray from society's rules and ways of life is depicted through symbolism with birds, clothing, and Edna's process of learning to swim.
During the late nineteenth century, the time of protagonist Edna Pontellier, a woman's place in society was confined to worshipping her children and submitting to her husband. Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, encompasses the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman's life as she attempts to cope with these strict cultural demands. Defying the stereotype of a "mother-woman," Edna battles the pressures of 1899 that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. Although Edna's ultimate suicide is a waste of her struggles against an oppressive society, The Awakening supports and encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain sexual freedom, financial independence, and individual identity.
Edna seeks occupational freedom in art, but lacks sufficient courage to become a true artist. As Edna awakens to her selfhood and sensuality, she also awakens to art. Originally, Edna “dabbled” with sketching “in an unprofessional way” (Chopin 543). She could only imitate, although poorly (Dyer 89). She attempts to sketch Adèle Ratignolle, but the picture “bore no resemblance” to its subject. After her awakening experience in Grand Isle, Edna begins to view her art as an occupation (Dyer 85). She tells Mademoiselle Reisz that she is “becoming an artist” (Chopin 584). Women traditionally viewed art as a hobby, but to Edna, it was much more important than that. Painting symbolizes Edna’s independence; through art, she breaks free from her society’s mold.
...tionship she had until she was left with literally no reason to live. Throughout the novella, she breaks social conventions, which damages her reputation and her relationships with her friends, husband, and children. Through Edna’s thoughts and actions, numerous gender issues and expectations are displayed within The Awakening because she serves as a direct representation of feminist ideals, social changes, and a revolution to come.
Edna Pontellier first faces a form of awakening when she encounters another character that plays a musical instrument. As the musician plays, the crowd reacts nonchalantly and for the most part disregards it as just another performance with the exception of Mrs. Pontellier whom breaks out into tears due to the vivid imagery that the music brings into her mind. The musician responds to Mrs. Pontellier by telling her that she is the only one who truly speaks her language. This form of awakening brings about one of the themes in the novel in that as a person learns to begin to express themselves, they find that there is a lesser concentration of people who can understand the way that one expresses themselves. This becomes of greater relevance as Edna begins to express herself through the use of her artwork.