Society has certain expectations that men and women are supposed to follow which don't allow a person to freely explore their identities. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is a young woman who is trying to become free of society’s expectations. She got married to Mr. Pontellier, someone she didn't even want to be with. Edna did not care how people saw her because she desired to be her own person. In a patriarchal society, women shouldn't have to sacrifice their ability to love themselves in an effort to satisfy other individuals.
In Victorian societies, women are supposed to marry the men people expect them to marry because they are supposed to Edna described her wedding as “purely an accident” (20); Mr. Pontellier “fell in love” (20), but
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Mr. Pontellier “looks at his wife as looks at a valuable piece of property” (2). This demonstrates the idea that men just viewed women as non human. The men just saw the women as a person who has to clean and can be controlled. No one married for love. Furthermore, this demonstrates the fact that women had to sacrifice the emotions that they were harboring in their hearts and continue to be unhappily married. This examines the idea that men are undermining the way women are treated by having them do all the work that they don’t want to do. In The Awakening, this idea is shown when Edna just decided to go “just simply felt like going out so [she] went out (58). This was not allowed at all and if they went against what their husbands and everyone told them they were shunned and judged.
Women were supposed to just have kids and give up themselves and their lives to take care of them but there were some women who wanted more than this. . This was what Edna believed. She “understood clearly now...that she would give up the unessential but never sacrifice herself for her children” (136). She believes that she should also have her own self to help raise kids. She wants to be her own person but she can’t because society is choking her. Edna wants to be her own person and live the life she always felt like she wanted to
In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is a selfish character. She wishes to live her life the way she wants without anyone interfering. She did not start selfish, but grew selfish as her hidden desires were awakened. Her selfishness comes from her complete disregard for anyone’s happiness besides her own. Edna refuses to attend her sister’s wedding, describing the event as lamentable. Even if Edna did not want to attend, a wedding is for the bride and groom’s happiness. She is unable to compromise any of her own desires for the happiness of others. Edna’s own marriage was an act of rebellion for marrying outside of what was expected, and came with the titles of wife and mother. Edna abandoned her relationship without trying to resolve any difficulties with her husband before satisfying her needs. She does not discuss with him her unhappiness or seek his approval before moving to the pigeon house. She develops her relationship with Arobin only to fulfill her own physical needs.
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life before her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT WAS love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision TO MARRY Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS APPARENT in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.
Social expectations of women affected Edna and other individuals in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, struggles throughout the novel in order to become independent and avoid her roles as mother and housewife in American Victorian society in 1899. This was because women during the 19th century were limited by what society demanded of them, to be the ideal housewives who would take care of their families. However, Edna tries to overcome these obstacles by exploring other options, such as having secret relationships with Robert and Arobin. Although Edna seeks to be independent throughout the novel, in the end she has been awakened but has not achieved independence.
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
...oroform, a sensation-deadening stupor, the ecstasy of pain, and an awakening—mark Edna’s self-discovery throughout The Awakening. Still, in the end, Edna follows through with what she told Madame Ratignolle she would and would not be willing to do: “I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (69). She gives up her life because she is unwilling to give up her self—her desires, her cravings, and her passions to do what she wants selfishly and without regard for any other being’s wishes. She cannot escape motherhood, nor can she ever hope to find her idealized lover. Thus, she leaves these dissatisfactions behind her as she enjoys her final moments of empowerment and solitude wrapped in the folds of the sea, the hum of bees, and the smell of pinks’ musk.
She doesn't follow the rules. morals that all the women surrounding her succumb to in life. By defying these "laws" Edna makes clear the morals that all the other. women value the satisfaction of their husband, the acceptance of society, and the conformity to the stereotypical roles of a woman. In The Awakening, Edna is used as a tool to emphasize the surrounding.
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.
Madame Ratignolle simply does not understand Edna; to her, sacrificing one’s life is the utmost that a mother can do for her children. It is as if Edna was not even “talking the same language.” In fact, the two women might well be speaking different languages. Unlike Madame Ratignolle who seems to have a baby every couple of years, Edna’s head is not filled exclusively with thoughts about her children. Whereas Madame Ratignolle is motherly at all times, Edna often seems irritated by her role as mother, and her attentions to her children often occur as an afterthought. Madame Ratignolle’s entire being is bound to her children; Edna’s being is of her own design. For her there is more to life than marriage and babies and social obligations. Edna might well, at least in this passage, be asserting an early version of what Betty Friedan discusses in The Feminine Mystique.
In the Awakening Edna goes through several transformations, and slowly becomes a different person than she once was. For most of her adult life she was a stay at home mother, and lived a conservative lifestyle. Eventually Edna started to grow bored and tired of this lifestyle; she wanted to follow her passions and sexual desires. This lead to a very common ethical confrontation between herself and her family. This confrontation leaves Edna depressed and hopeless. Edna understands her obligation to her family but also feels that her happiness is as equally as important. As the reader it is easy to look at your morals and dismiss Edna as selfish, but ethically, her staying with someone she does not love is just as wrong. “But the thought of him
Mr.Pontellier tells Edna, ““You are burnt beyond recognition, “he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.” (Chopin 7). Mr.Pontellier looked at every married woman as a part of a property and the owner being the husband. Edna got married to Mr.Pontellier at a very young age. Studies have shown that “Child marriage … destroy childhoods,” (Chopra). In case of Edna her early marriage to Mr.Pontellier have resulted her to have no motherly affection towards her two sons. Edna left her sons and her husband for various reasons such as “expression in unprecedented levels of cruelty direction against women.” (Sirleaf) and for the want to be successful through education. In the world we live in today, “history will judge us not by what we say in this moment in time, but by what we do next to lift the lives of our … women.” (Sirleaf). Women are treated as property when they are enslaved in the societal regulation. Mr.Pontellier treated Edna as his slave not as his wife or the mother of his sons. He takes advantage of him being a man and daily abuses Edna. It was time that Edna spoke up for “women having equal rights” (Yousafzai) by leaving her old life and entering a new life about her only. Her new life included no impacts of the societal rules and regulation. It should be “the last time that a girl is forced
At first, Edna does seem trapped to a drone existence of bourgeois Creole society. But once she was “initiat[ed] into the world of female love and ritual,” (247) she began “seeking fulfillment and selfhood” outside of marriage and motherhood (244). Her gravitation toward a woman-centered existence, outside of culturally defined spaces, is an act of self-reconstruction. For example, at the risk of damaging her reputation, she rejects the obligation of her social class to host ‘callers.’ This is a figurative loosening of the ties that bound her to a tradition of waiting for life to happen. She defies that tradition and, in doing so, restructures her existence as a woman.
In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.
Edna needed to be in control of her life. As long as she was married and a mother she would never have total control.
Edna marries her husband, not out of love, but out of expectation of society and her family’s dislike of him. She is a young woman when they marry; she has never had a great romance. The closest thing to passion she
In the course of her awakening Edna worked hard against her fixed life that society characterized women like her should live. In a young girl's life her father in the first man she learns to love and trust. Edna had to grow up without a mom which contributed in her having to grow up faster only learning the works of a “wife” and not being able to enjoy her youth. Repression was introduced to Edna by her father at a young age and groomed her to be controlled. The 1898 traditional woman were not allowed to make choices, or be independent. The colonel being a man of his age did not teach Edna to defy society, but instead forced her to follow its ways. His ways made Edna “not very warmly and deeply