Edna’s Search for Solitude in Kate Chopin's The Awakening
Home from a summer at Grand Isle, separated from the company of an agreeable and, eventually beloved, companion and in the stifling company of a disagreeable, oblivious husband, Edna Pontellier sees her home, her garden, her fashionable neighborhood as "an alien world which had suddenly become antagonistic" (76). When she is left alone in the house, she thrills to the sensation of free time and space, the chance to explore, investigate, to see her house in its own light. To eat in peace without her husband's trifling complaints, to read until sleepy, to rest is a luxury which convention, her husband and her own complicity had denied her. She slept well, "now that her time was her own to do with as she liked" (96). This is but one night in the course of Edna's "awakening," a complicated process that, for better or worse, puts her in control of her own destiny. Ultimately, she will answer to no one but herself.
Her path to this point is a complex struggle to carve out the solitude she craves - companionship when and with whom of her choosing. As Edna grows to recognize her own voice, she suffers alternately euphoria, despair and frustration. Her choices develop from a heightened sense of the world around her, of her own preferences and desires. Her experiences, beginning with Robert Lebrun, open her to these sensations, and the sensations provide her with the power to free herself. Looking at examples of Edna's increasingly acute and outward responses to stimuli and her equally willful behavior, her search for solitude evolves as a woman becoming aware of her choices.
When Edna hears Mademoiselle Reisz play at Grand Isle, she is prepared to see the music, as she ...
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...had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for the rest of her days" (138). The sensations that colored her world and gave her voice also gave her an unquenchable desire for freedom, for choice, for self-determined solitude. Unable to make those whom she loved understand, she makes another choice, and opens herself to another wrap of sensation. Like the man in "Solitude," Edna stands upon the beach naked, surrounded by space and air. But unlike that man, her solitude and exposure are chosen - she is not left behind, she is leaving. The sea holds no boundaries any longer, she is not afraid to leave the shore and she knows she can swim to sea, as far out as it takes to be free. As she swims out, her senses revive in memory of her father and sister's voices and the odor of dianthus; once again she is being lulled, but this time toward a resolution.
The discoveries that Edna Pontellier made in the water that night represent her true “awakening.” The scene demonstrates her awareness of herself as an individual, as well as her realization that she is connected to a larger, greater universe. Whether this epiphany brings her happiness and a greater understanding of the world around her, or only abject misery, isolation and a sense that her life is without worth, is still being debated.
Her transformation and journey to self-discovery truly begins on the family’s annual summer stay at Grand Isle. “At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life- that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions. That summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little of the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her” (Chopin 26). From that point onward, Edna gains a deeper sense of desire for self-awareness and the benefits that come from such an odyssey. She suddenly feels trapped in her marriage, without being in a passionately romantic relationship, but rather a contractual marriage. Edna questions her ongoing relationship with Leonce; she ponders what the underlying cause of her marriage was to begin with; a forbidden romance, an act of rebellion against her father, or a genuine attraction of love and not lust? While Edna internally questions, she begins to entertain thoughts of other men in her life, eventually leading to sensuous feelings and thoughts related to sexual fantasy imagined through a relationship with Robert Lebrun. Concurrently, Edna wavers the ideas so clearly expected by the society- she analyzes and examines; why must women assimilate to rigid societal standards while men have no such
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.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman makes adamant statements about feminism and the oppression of women during the 19th century. This story allows the reader to see into the mind of a woman who is slowly going insane and suffering from postpartum depression. During the 19th century, women were forced into a certain stereotype, that of wife and mother. Women were not allowed to express and challenge themselves the way men were. Just as the narrator of the story is trapped in her room, women are trapped in pretentious acts that do not allow them to explore their creativity and intelligence. Gilman displays how easily one can go insane when they are suppressed by a patriarchal society. Gilman’s illustration of a subordinate wife, fully dominated by her husband, proposes a sense of gender stereotypes, as well as the treatments prescribed for the mentally ill; as the narrator is forced to become unproductive, John continues to act superior to his wife and treat her like a prisoner and child.
Through different events that occur, or better yet, through an “awakenings,” Edna turns into an upsettingly free woman, who lives separate from her significant other and children. Edna is also liable only to her own impulses and desires. Unfortunately, Edna’s awakening isolates her from others and eventually leads nowhere; she is left in complete loneliness.
The theme of gender roles is shown through the character of Edna Pontellier. From the start of The Awakening it becomes clear that Edna does not fulfill the traditional duties a wife or mother would during this time period, such as supporting her husband and caring for the children. While vacationing in Grand Isle, Louisiana, Léonce speaks of how he is disappointed in his wife. After coming home
She is 28 years old, living comfortably and married to an older man connected to his life of business located in New Orleans. Because of this, Edna never settled into the altruistic motherly cast that belonged to people like the other women that vacationed at Grand Isle to get away from the sickness and hotness from the city. She instigated a trip towards self-discovery that led to multiple awakenings: to her isolated self as a “solitary soul,” to the happiness of “swimming far out” into the sensually appealing sea, to her fervor shown in music, to her own longing to be an artist, to a romantic fondness towards a young man, to being on her own, to
Edna is awakened to the fact that she has no lasting relationship with anyone in her life. Her friendships with women are surface level and not genuine and her relationship with Robert crumble with a note, “Good-by -- because I love you.” That note acted as the last straw for young Edna who was completely alone in the isolated world she created for herself, a saddening image. “[Her solitary swim] is clearly symbolized by the final episode in the book: her solitary swim far out into the emptiness of the Gulf” (Ringe 587). She stripped down, possibly symbolizing her complete surrender of all facades and schemes and went into the vast ocean. Whether she intended to take her own life or not is still debated, but one thing is for sure, she was trying to escape reality once again, but it cost her
He first tested the white yellow mixture on dogs which killed them. He continued his test on himself and found that the drug acted as a depressant that slowed breathing and help relieve pain and induce sleepiness, side effects included nausea, hallucinations and constipation. Saunter named the drug after Morpheus the Greek god of dreams. During the American civil war many of the soldiers were given morphine to help reduce the pain of their injuries. As a result thousands of soldiers came home after the war addicted to the drug. Morphine today is used in many different situations as a pain killer. This would include surgery and, cancer treatment (to relieve pain), it is used because it is very cost effective and is tolerated by patients. However patients are usually given the option to use different pain killers to avoid get addicted to morphine with the result of feeling more pain. Many people throughout the world have been given morphine as prescribed by a doctor but keep renewing the prescription because they are addicted. Morphine can be given as tablets because morphine melts at 255°C or through an IV as 1 gram of morphine will dissolve into 5L of water. It has no odor and is white when in pure
Mrs. Pontillier first feels the quiet murmurings of her disillusionment and discontent early on in the novel, while vacationing at the island Grand Isle. With an experienced voice, the narration illustrates Edna’s “beginning of things” as
Morphine is a medication that is designed to alleviate moderate to severe pain. It works by altering the way that the body responds to pain. Morphine is a type of opiate. Morphine is available by prescription only.
Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening tells the story of Edna, a married woman, who falls in love with a man, Robert, in 19th century Louisiana. In the chosen passage the narrator describes Edna’s thoughts as to why she chose to go to the beach with Robert. The presence of the themes of freedom and solitude, convention versus individuality, and the theme of reflection all evoke Edna’s awakening in the novel.
While most drugs are a combination of substances derived and created in varying circumstances, morphine is unique in the fact that it is one of twenty parts of the drug called opium that is derived from the opium poppy plant (Arbog, 2005, p. 1 ). Instead of being created through the mixing of substances, a usable form of morphine can simply be filtered out of the opium plant. Therefore to understand the history of morphine it is important to understand how the opium plant came into the spectrum of medical use in the first place.
Society displays many rules, written and unwritten, that people are directed to comply with. Different groups of people have different guidelines in which they expect people to behave like. In most cases, there are people who are against and do not agree with the demands to which society suggests. There are two ways that those people choose to react, they either complete disregard and be themselves the rules or they conform to the rules and question them inwardly. In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is said to possess “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions”. Edna conforms in a patrachical Creole society that limited the freedom of women, and internal Edna wants to escape and freedom from this pain.
Once its in the bloodstream it changes into morphine, and causes a kind of ‘rush’ to the user. The intensity of the drug is caused by the drug entering the brain. During such rush, the user’s skin is a flushed color, their mouth becomes dry, and would have a kind of heavy feeling. Afterwards, the drug causes nausea and vomiting, severe itching, and the user is extremely tired. Many people in the 1960s used such drug to feel the ‘rush’ and would use more than necessary, sometimes to numb certain pains they have. Heroin is also known to have fatal effects; due to it slowing down breathing and clouding the brain. The use can sometimes lead to a coma, and even permanent brain damage. The drug was originally created to stop the addiction of