An Analysis of The Awakening
The first thing I would like to do is go through and pick out the chapters I found to be significant in the novel.
Chapter 1: *there is symbolism of a well trained “caged” bird, (like we read in the hypertext) which represents what wives were to be in Edna’s lifetime *well trained *speaks of pleasantries *begins with Summer a time of beauty, fullness and fruition *Grand Isle *vacation from New Orleans life (imprisonment) *ends at Summer after 1 yr *this vacation follows Edna back to New Orleans where she gradually begins to see how trapped she really is *it is after this vacation that Edna begins to “awake” Chapter 2: *Edna was from Kentucky and married a Creole *this is a conflict in religion *she is Presbetyrian and he’s Catholic *this presents a problem for Edna for she has to live a Catholic life style Chapter 3: *we first see here the marital problems that M&M Pontellier have *the ideals of what Mr. Pontellier expects of Edna *looking after the children was very important *marital state: bored, unlively, becomes more depressing on her *impt: Edna’s breakdown, her crying Chapter 4: *Adele, the perfect woman *embodies all the qualities of what a woman-mother should be *she’s been married 7 yrs and has a child about every 2 yrs, again fullfilling her womanly and motherly duties. *her identity seems to be consumed by having children and her current “state” Chapter 7: *this chapter we see Edna begin to slip away, she doesn’t pay as much attention to things *daydreaming/ Adele asks her a question and Edna is not with her Chapter 10: *Edna learns to SWIM!!!!!!! very impt. *she gains control of her body *the sea becomes her friend, close, intimate, sensuous Chapter 11: *this section we see a bit of Edna’s rebellious nature *her husband commands her and Edna says “NO!” Chapter 17: *we see yet another confrontation between M&M Pontellier, more marital problems *I think we also begin to see ore hatred and violence under the surface of her husband *we also see another problem, Tuesday was to be the “calling” day and Edna wasn’t prepared for the callers, she realizes that she no longer cares to do the things that her husband wants her to Chapter 24: *Edna’s father comes for a visit *he also portrays that the females should submit to the males *males are dominant? Well, in order for me to get this completed in time, I guess that I’ll go into what aspect or point of the story I liked the most!
The second time I read the novel I picked up more on bird imagery and entrapment than anything else. I didn’t read the hypertext until today and that even placed more emphasis on it than I expected. The story opens up with the image of a caged bird representative of Edna. It is trained to say certain things and knows French and Spanish, as well as another language thought to have been from Edna (found that in the hypertext). Edna is a trapped bird and she teaches the real bird her own language, she maybe understands the imprisoned aspect of this bird. The trained birds were what the men expected their wives to be. They were to just repeat what was proper and “sweet.”
In the first chapter Mr. Pontellier was seated in front of the main house. I liked the next line and found it to be ironic, “The parrot and the mocking-bird were the property of Mdm. Lebrun, and they had the right to make all the noise they wished.” Oh,really? The woman are representative of the birds in captivity, and yes they can make whatever sounds they want, but aren’t they still in a cage? So what good does that do?
Next, in the same chapter were the twins. “The chattering and whistling birds were still at it. Two young girls, the Farival twins, were playing a duet from....” The hypertext had a comment on the twins about being carbon copies and playing a duet which calls for complimentary parts, much like bird songs. The line that comes before the identification of the girls was the “natural” duet of birds. The girls are young, not yet caged by marriage or childbearing, so their song is pretty and free, for that’s what they still are.
The next aspect I found related to birds were some of the physical descriptions of the woman. “Mrs Pontellier’s eyes were quick and bright: they were a yellowish brown, about the color of her hair. She had a way of turning them swiflty upon an object and holding them there as if lost in some inward maze of contemplation or thought.” The way her eyes flutter around reminds me of the jerky movement of birds, always on the watch, aware. They try to keep a watch on their surroundings for predators. Another passage of her action was that when she jumped out of bed (p.46). She quickly gets out of bed, like a bird taking off when frightened.
She leaves the place that’s to be one where the Pontellier name should be continued, a place of intimacy and sexuality. Edna runs, flees, jumps out of this situation. Well, that might be a little far fetched, but it’s worth stab! She’s actually going to check on her children, I think? Just a thought!
Yet another image of birds was the section about the “mother-woman.” These woman were described as devoted mothers, always at their children’s side, “...fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood.” and “...grow wings as ministering angels.” These woman were the ones that were content in where they stood in society’s eyes. It was ok to be a “mother-woman” and be isolated from other aspects of the world.
The last aspect I want to bring up was about one of the conversations between Adele and Edna. I t was the one when Edna told her she would leave her husband and children and Adele was in shock. Adele went on to say that she would give up everything for her family. The language and words that were coming out of Edna’s mouth were foreign to Adele. This goes back to the point made in the hypertext about the parrot speaking a language that Edna might have taught it. Edna as a bird is humming a different tune that what most of the other birds are singing (Adele).
Edna is a very complex character to follow. Her actions are flighty and fluttery. She goes from one emotion to the next, always on the move. The bird with the broken wing stumps me. I don’t know if this is Edna breaking or representative of what she used to be. Edna’s life was about oppression and entrapment, she was never able to fly. When she goes into the ocean and sees the bird maybe the death of her old spirit crashed with the wounded bird and her physical death is her freedom, her flight.
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