What Is Edna Pontellier's Sacrifice In The Awakening

905 Words2 Pages

Sacrifices can define one’s character; it can either be the highest dignity or the lowest degradation of the value of one’s life. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin implicitly conveys the sacrifice Edna Pontellier makes in the life which provides insight of her character and attributions to her “awakening.” She sacrificed her past of a lively and youthful life and compressed it to a domestic and reserved lifestyle of housewife picturesque. However, she meets multiple acquaintances who help her express her dreams and true identity. Mrs. Pontellier’s sacrifice established her awakening to be defiant and drift away from the societal role of an obedient mother, as well as, highlighting the difference between society’s expectations of women and women’s …show more content…

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. Additionally, Edna’s sacrifice helped her established an identity for herself. “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself, I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me” (Chopin 57). She realizes how much she valued herself and how she would handle herself. As well as, this emphasizes on the meaning of The Awakening, of how women are able to define themselves as something more than a

Show More
Related

  • Identity and Society's Expectations In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s suicide is an assertion of her independence and contributes to Chopin’s message that to be independent one must choose between personal desires and societal expectations. Chopin conveys this message through Edna’s reasons for committing suicide and how doing so leads her to total independence. Unlike the other women of Victorian society, Edna is unwilling to suppress her personal identity and desires for the benefit of her family. She begins “to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relationship as an individual to the world within and about her” (35).

    Read More

  • How Does Kate Chopin Use Characterization In The Awakening

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kate Chopin uses characterization to help you understand the character of Edna on how she empowers and improves the quality of life. Edna becomes an independent women as a whole and enjoys her new found freedom. For example, Chopin uses the following quote to show you how she begins enjoying her new found freedom.”The race horse was a friend and intimate association of her

    Read More

  • Comparing Edna And Chopin's The Awakening

    1935 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before then she was a spirited woman who was struggling against the traditional binary gender roles. Margaret and Edna parallel each other as they both exhibit masculine characteristics and do not fit in the mould of the 19th century. Edna is even described as a ‘’not a mother-woman’’ (19). She believes that she has no choice in her life. When Mademoiselle Reisz plays a piano piece, it stirs countless emotions inside of Edna. She imagines a man ‘’standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked’’ (65). This is a symbol that Edna believes to be impossible for her. That symbol is of freedom. The man has shed all of his weight, his oppression and Edna wonders if this will ever be possible for her. As a woman, she might never be equal and will forever be oppressed and supressed. However, that very night, Edna stands up for herself and gains this awakening. Starting from this symbolic image that she imagines as she listens to the music, she starts to grow into the person she truly is. Chopin writes ‘’ a feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul’’ (70). Later that night she refused to go in with her husband, instead sleeping outside. She ‘’began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul’’. Edna was

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • What Is Edna Pontellier's Role In The Awakening By Kate Chopin

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Awakening, Edna possesses a different view of womanhood compared to others. She is not the ‘mother woman,’ and Mademoiselle Reisz subtlety supports this whilst Leonce disapproves. Mademoiselle Reisz encourages Edna to develop her own identity and to understand the pleasure gained from individual creation. Reisz is an independent and eccentric woman who Chopin utilises to depict the ‘New Woman’ concept. Academic Maria Viorica from Iasi University, claims ‘This new type of female character replaced the previous angelic female protagonist…Chopin used themes of New Woman fiction…(and) the female desire for a separate identity.’ I believe that Mademoiselle Reisz contributed to Edna’s desire, and awoke her to dream of autonomy. When Edna originally listened to her music, ‘the personified ‘passions (were) arouse(d) within her soul, swaying…lashing.’ Mademoiselle’s music sparks Edna’s desire for independence and the metaphorical meaning of the ‘bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition must have strong wings,’ advises Edna to shed the obedient and docile qualities. However this perspective of independence and identity juxtaposes with Leonce’s view, as he believes a woman’s role is to serve her mother and spousal duties. When Edna engages in painting and exhibits that she has the ability to be free, Leonce is outraged, ‘Then in God’s name paint! But don’t let the family go to the

    Read More

  • The Awakening Analysis

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    It’s 1899; the Industrial Revolution is beginning to emerge and women are gradually wanting to feel as equal as their male counterparts and wanting a say on things. It wasn’t considered normal for women to defy what society expected of them. You were supposed to do as you were told from any man and be the perfect wife and mother to your children. There is always that one person who is brave enough to go against this and “march to the beat of their own drum”. How can someone be themselves if they are following someone else’s rules? How does one go about retaining their integrity with the pressures of society’s expectations? These questions correlate to Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening. Throughout the novel, Kate Chopin illustrates Edna Pontellier’s quest for identity and independence through having an affair with two other men, neither of which are her husband. Edna’s outlook on life changes drastically while staying in Grand Isle. She used to obey the rules of society but the oppressiveness of it is too much for her which eventually leads her rebel. When one rebels, they must go through sacrifice so they can live life the way they intend it to be for them. She sacrifices relationships and eventually ends her journey with her final awakening in the ocean. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier demonstrates the unconventional woman and proves that the perspective that society holds of women is stifling, which prompts a woman to sacrifice herself in order to retain her integrity.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    The comparison of Edna’s friends, Adéle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, controls how Edna views herself as a woman. While both friends want the best for Edna, they have opposing views on the role women should play in society. Adéle is the conformed motherly figure, while Mme. Reisz is the single artist who would not dare conform to what society expects of her. Though they are different, Edna looks up to both of these women. Literary critic Carole Stone states, “Certainly this describes Edna’s situation as she seeks out her two contrasting women friends for validation, Mme. Reisz and Adéle Ratignolle.” The two women inspire Edna to think and speak about things she would never have thought before her awakening. Adéle brings out Edna’s inner feelings and thoughts, while at the same time, reminds her of the pains of childbirth and motherly duties. She shows Edna how a woman can put aside her feelings of passion and artistry through motherhood. Chopin writes, “She was keeping up her music on account of

    Read More

  • Edna Pontellier Symbolism In The Awakening

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier defies the social norms in the 1899 patriarchal society she lives in. This society expects her to live as the ideal mother and wife, even though Edna desires to swim free in a sea of lust. The lady in black similarly compares to the grim reaper of young love, what Edna desires; like the grim reaper, she dresses in black and resigns to solitude. The two lovers represent what Edna dreams of having, not with her husband, but with a younger man, Robert, who awakens her true sexuality. Edna’s only true way to be an independent and free woman is through death; her young love comes to an end when she dies. By the sea, where the lovers are frequently followed by the deadly, lady in black, Edna dies. The

    Read More

  • Edna Pontellier's Role In The Awakening

    1771 Words  | 4 Pages

    She must debate herself internally in order to ultimately decide whether the prosperity of her social status and security or well-being of her mind and body should triumph (this struggle eventually leads to her demise). She must constantly battle the “ennui” of her everyday life, and sometimes crippling depression that accompanied it, or relinquish her self restraint to be shunned by neighbors and even friends. Thus her environment certainly propels her internal conflict, though she, herself, is the driving force. Chopin clearly illustrates the effects of this struggle, characterizing Edna’s habits and moods in stark contrast to each other, almost affecting a bipolar tendency: First it is said that “there were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why —when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation. She could not work on such a day.” (Page 49), and then soon after remarks that she “seemed palpitant with the forces of life. Her speech was warm and energetic. There was no repression in her glance or gesture...some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun.” (Page 59). This detailing of changes in mood emphasizes and illustrates the effect that the limits of society were having on Edna’s emotional and mental

    Read More

  • Edna Pontellier's Role In The Awakening

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edna Pontellier lives in a world where women are supposed to act, think and live a certain way because it was expected of them. In the first couple chapters of the book we see Edna slowly retreating back from what is expected from her. Edna during that duration was trying to find herself and her identity instead of looking at what was expected from her. At the beginning she was more willing to accept her husband wishes but near the end she completely removes herself from the family she once known and cared much for. The characters that Chopin creates play a role in Edna’s non-conforming ideology. Chopin has a balance of characters where some influence her to become independent while others influence her to be “normal”. In The

    Read More

  • The Awakening Edna's Sacrifice

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Edna was not the ideal mother in the Creole society, she still deeply cared for her children and knew that her actions determined the fate of their lives. She was not willing to give up the future of what she admired for her own peace of mind. In Chapter 16, Edna tells Madame Ratignolle, “‘I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself”, demonstrating that even if she were to give up her life, her personal ideals would still remain. The stress of the Creole society taught her that her actions would affect her loved ones and she knew that she had to sacrifice her life in order to keep her happiness. It was extremely important for mothers to take care of their children. However, for Edna, when her children were away at their grandmother’s home, “their absence was a sort of relief... It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her” (p. 21). Her mindset of her children contradicted those of the Creole women, more deeply expressing her seclusion from their society and giving her another reason to search for a way out. The meaning of a work as a whole was unveiled after she found her way out. The suicide allowed her to save what was most important to her: her place as a female in a strict

    Read More

  • Sacrifice In The Awakening

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edna’s sacrifice proved her to be an immensely determined person. She lived the life of a mother and a wife, caring for her kids and living surrounded by her husband’s possessions. However, as her husband went away for work she began to witness and experience more freedoms through her friends Adele and Robert. Edna then came to understand the emotions

    Read More

  • Selfish Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    Could the actions of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening ever be justified? This question could be argued from two different perspectives. The social view of The Awakening would accuse Edna Pontellier of being selfish and unjustified in her actions. Yet, in terms of the story's romanticism, Edna was in many ways an admirable character. She liberated herself from her restraints and achieved nearly all that she desired. Chopin could have written this novel to glorify a woman in revolt against conventions of the period. Yet, since the social standpoint is more factual and straightforward, it is the basis of this paper. Therefore, no, her affairs, treatment of her family and lovers, and suicide were completely unwarranted. She was not denied love or support by any of those close to her. Ultimately Edna Pontellier was simply selfish.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In 'The Story Of An Hour' By Kate Chopin

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” female heroine Louise Mallard’s judgment is questioned after her inability to show emotion following her husband’s death. Instead of feeling desperate and hopeless, Louise feels a sense of freedom and liberation. This depiction of an independent woman prevails in The Awakening as Chopin discusses a woman who battles to fulfill traditional Victorian female ethics in the midst of undergoing a physical and emotional awakening. Edna and Louise are similar because neither woman is happy with accepting conventional gender roles. In The Awakening, Chopin discusses the different female roles that Edna Pontellier, Adele Ratignolle, and Mademoiselle Reiz’s represent to emphasize the different ideas that women

    Read More

  • feminaw Suicide as the Only Alternative for Edna Pontellier in The Awakening

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the principal character, Edna decides to kill herself rather than to live a lie. It seemed to Kate that the time of her own death was the only thing remaining under her control since society had already decided the rest of her life for her.  Edna was a woman of the wrong times; she wanted her independence and she wanted to be with her lover, Robert.  This type of behavior would never be accepted by the society of her time.  Edna's relationship with Robert, and her rejection of the role dictated to her by society, resulted in her perceiving suicide to be the only solution to her problems.

    Read More

More about What Is Edna Pontellier's Sacrifice In The Awakening

Open Document