Edna Pontellier: A Shallow Excavation of the Soul
Chopin’s The Awakening exposes Edna’s internal and external conflict involving identity, individuality, and romance, which ultimately cause her tragic downfall. Most literary critics have primarily defined the novel’s ending as either a triumph or defeat, depending upon their relationship to Edna Pontellier. From one perspective, audiences who sympathize with Edna may believe her choice is one of triumphant, final rebellion against societies limiting constructs. From the other perspective, audiences who see Edna as a troubled, adulterous, immature young woman might argue her actions as weak, distressed, and an ultimate defeat. Throughout the story, Edna’s characterization becomes more and more evident through her thoughts and actions; however, Edna’s death is not “merely the inevitable consequence of her own actions” (Malzahl 37). To thoroughly assess the ending of The Awakening,
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Chopin describes Edna’s motherhood as quite impulsive and manic: “She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them” (Chopin 40). Even though Edna is awakening to many different parts of reality, she still thinks of her children, often at the most random of times. At first she barely notices her thoughts drifting to ideas of domesticity and family, but during Adelé’s child birthing, Edna “was seized with a vague dread” (Chopin 133). During the birth of her own children, Edna had been put to sleep; thus “her own like experiences seemed far away, unreal, and only half remembered” (Chopin 133). Edna felt as if “she witnessed the scene of torture” (Chopin 134) and left “stunned and speechless” (134). During her witness of Adelé, Edna solidifies the idea that she doesn’t want to give birth again. By coming to this irrefutable conclusion, Edna permanently rejects the identity of
Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier, ventures through a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mrs.Pontellier is a mother and wife who begins to crave more from life, than her assigned societal roles. She encounters two opposite versions of herself, that leads her to question who she is and who she aims to be. Mrs. Pontellier’s journey depicts the struggle of overcoming the scrutiny women face, when denying the ideals set for them to abide. Most importantly the end of the novel depicts Mrs.Pontellier as committing suicide, as a result of her ongoing internal
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).
Essentially, Edna is not able to fulfill any of the roles that are presented by Chopin in the novel: mother, sister, daughter, wife, friend, artist, lover to either man, and finally the traditional role of a woman in society. She does not quite fit into any niche, and thus her suicide at the end of the novel is the only way for Edna’s story to end. Chopin must have Edna die, as she cannot survive in this restrained society in which she does not belong to. The idea of giving yourself completely to serve another, Edna declares “that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one” (47). However, her awakening is also a realization of her underprivileged position in a male dominated society. The first sign that Edna is becoming comfortable with herself, and beginning to loosen the constrictions of not being an individual is when she asks Robert, her husband, to retrieve her shawl: "When he returned with the shawl she took it and kept it in her hand. She did not put it around her" (30). Edna is trying to establish herself as an artist in a society where there is no tradition of women as creative beings. For any woman to suggest a desire for a role outside the domestic sphere, as more than a mother or housewife, was perceived as
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.
Throughout Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main protagonist, experiences multiple awakenings—the process in which Edna becomes aware of her life and the constraints place on it—through her struggles with interior emotional issues regarding her true identity: the confines of marriage vs. her yearning for intense passion and true love. As Edna begins to experience these awakenings she becomes enlightened of who she truly and of what she wants. As a result, Edna breaks away from what society deems acceptable and becomes awakened to the flaws of the many rules and expected behavior that are considered norms of the time. One could argue that Kate Chopin’s purpose in writing about Edna’s inner struggles and enlightenment was to
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin ends with the death of the main character, Edna Pontellier. Stripping off her clothes, she swims out to sea until her arms can no longer support her, and she drowns. It was not necessarily a suicide, neither was it necessarily the best option for escaping her problems.
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.
Chopin depiction of Edna uneasy feelings about the Creole culture that surrounds her is seen towards the end of the novel, as Mrs. Ratingolle delivers her child. Mrs. Ratingolle, one of the few close friends that Edna has, asks Edna to remain with her as she delivers her baby. As Edna stands she, realizes that her own experience of child birthing, “seemed far away, unreal, and only half remembered(Chopin 104)”. This is in contrast with Walker's argument that, “Chopin has caused Edna to be hypnotized by the sensuous Creoles, by the warmth and color of Grand Isle(255)”. Though the word “unreal” suggest a hypnotized state of mind for Edna, almost like a dream, it also suggest a detachment from the scene itself. In stating that child birth for Edna seemed “far away”, and “half remembered”, Chopin depicts an attachment between the tradition and Edna. It is another moment where Edna appears to reject the Creole culture, by pushing it away, put...
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.
The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin in 1899, tells the story of Edna Pontellier. Throughout the story, Edna questions her marriage and the quality of her marriage. Edna's husband, Leonce, is a successful business man, but this also has consequences, which affect the marriage with negative outcomes. First of all, Edna married when she was young, but Leonce didn’t become a successful husband, or at minimum, didn’t meet Edna’s expectations. Second of all, the marriage is odd and unstable because of Leonce’s lack of interest in Edna, and Edna’s lack of interest in Leonce, as well as the marriage as a whole. To conclude, Edna committed to marriage too early, Leonce and Edna have an unstable marriage, and Edna is not pleased with Leonce as a husband.
When Edna was just a child “she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” (Chopin 14). Edna Pontellier has always had two parts to her life: an internal one that challenges society, and an exterior one that assimilates to it. In the novella, The Awakening, Kate Chopin explores these two parts and explains how Edna tries to balance the two. Unfortunately, with both of these parts behaving simultaneously in opposite directions, Edna is unable to survive. Edna is not truly independent because she refuses to choose between her personal desires and society’s expectations.
Chopin carefully establishes that Edna does not neglect her children, but only her mother-woman image. Chopin illustrates the idea by telling the reader, "...Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman" (689). Edna tries to explain to Adele how she feels about her children and how she feels about herself, which greatly differs from the mother-woman image. She says, "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 I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me" (720).
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.
In the first passage, Edna is clearly set apart from what appears to be the status quo of female behavior in her society. She is not a mother-woman. The term, mother-woman is a reductive one which implies a singular purpose or value. The mother-woman is a mother; being one defines and regulates every aspect of her life. They “…esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.” Chopin’s use of religious words and imagery is interesting; it certainly alludes to Victorian ideals of womanhood in which the woman is a vessel of purity and piousness. Viewing women as angels or pure, infallible beings elevates them, but also robs them somewhat of their humanity. In addition to this, it places restraining and unnecessary imperatives on their behavior, and encourages them to strive for the unattainable-a pursuit that will probably leave them feeling inadequate. The mother-women are described generally, however, in this passage, and seem entirely one-dimensional. Also, they possess an almost absurd and quality, “fluttering” about after their children, perceiving “imaginary” dangers everywhere. Chopin deals with the mother-women more complexly later through the character of Madame Ratignolle.