In chapter VI, we see most of the main ideas of the novel mentioned as the beginning of Edna’s awakening is described. The author expresses how Edna is unique in her desire to explore such concepts as fulfillment, self discovery, and independence. As the story continues we see Edna’s need for these things grow, and as new characters are introduced we see how different Edna is becoming from the rest of society. This is just the authors first mention of Edna’s growing awareness, but the passage also foreshadows the turmoil that will come from it later on in the novel. It suggests Edna’s inevitable mark of death, placed on her from the start of her awakening. Overall, this passage gives the reader a starting point to look back to when reviewing Edna’s character growth and the events that lead to her suicide.
Prior to chapter XI, we only see Edna’s growing curiosity and self-discovery expressed through her thoughts, rather than actions. Now for the first time Edna is refusing to do as her husband asks her to do, speaking out against his control and doing
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Edna seems to disregard the fact that her changes were affecting others around her, but in chapter XIX, the author reveals how Edna’s awakening has been affecting her husband. Leonce, who bared witness to the whole transformation, was able to tolerate some resistance from his wife as long as she remained taking care of her duties as a mother and wife. Leonce realized Edna had changed, but could not see in what way, he could not see the way these changes were better his wife. He saw the change in her only from the outside, he could not see how it affected her heart, and how it turned her into her true self. Edna was selfish for not thinking about her loved ones before changing her life so drastically, but her husband was selfish for not realizing she needed this change to be who she
In fact, Edna seems to drift from setting to setting in the novel, never really finding her true self - until the end of the novel. Chopin seems highly concerned with this question throughout her narrative. On a larger scale, the author seems to be probing even more deeply into the essence of the female experience: Do women in general have a place in the world, and is the life of a woman the cumbersome pursuit to find that very place? The Awakening struggles with this question, raising it to multiple levels of complexity. Edna finds liberation and happiness in various places throughout the novel, yet this is almost immediately countered by unhappiness and misery.
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
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
The two passages at the beginning and ending of The Awakening illustrate symbolically Edna’s degeneration from strong-willed, vivacious, and highly individual to tired and resigned.
The fifteen lines of chapter 28 express Edna’s multi-voiced mindset after her relationship with Arobin exceeds the boundaries of friendship. The chapter opens with her crying and then explores the process of guilt as it sets in. Edna’s guilt, however, is afflicted by the other figures in her life, not by her own sense of wrongdoing. The manipulating voices in Edna’s life do affect her, but they do not linger as they once did. It is her voice, her realization, that comes at the end.
She desperately wanted a voice and independence. Edna’s realization of her situation occurred progressively. It was a journey in which she slowly discovered what she was lacking emotionally. Edna’s first major disappointment in the novel was after her husband, Leonce Pontellier, lashed out at her and criticized her as a mother after she insisted her child was not sick. This sparked a realization in Edna that made here realize she was unhappy with her marriage. This was a triggering event in her self discovery. This event sparked a change in her behavior. She began disobeying her husband and she began interacting inappropriately with for a married woman. Edna increasingly flirted with Robert LeBrun and almost instantly became attracted to him. These feelings only grew with each interaction. Moreover, when it was revealed to Edna that Robert would be leaving for Mexico she was deeply hurt not only because he didn’t tell her, but she was also losing his company. Although Edna’s and Robert’s relationship may have only appeared as friendship to others, they both secretly desired a romantic relationship. Edna was not sure why she was feeling the way she was “She could only realize that she herself-her present self-was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored
how quickly women succumb to their "roles", and how easily people can. be shaped to consider a different and all too meaningless set of morals. The sexy of the sexy. Edna is strategically alienated in the novella so as to be the
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.
Edna’s family had a profound effect on what her views and desires leading up to her awakening. The distance between them, geographically and emotionally, would eventually lead to her want of intimacy and warmth once found. The absence of a proper family structure in Edna’s childhood home set the foundation for her indifference to the roles of a wife and a mother, also creating a feeling of irresponsibility. Not until after making the acquaintance of a maternal and sensible woman, Adele, does Edna truly learn the burden of a mother’s position in her children’s lives.
that is present throughout the novel. As a result, Edna become a threat to the society's
These lines, which Edna speaks in Chapter XIII, reflect her desire to be isolated with Robert and, thus, free from the restrictions of the society that surrounds them. At the same time, her fantasy that she and Robert have already been left alone as “past relics” evidences the way that her new self-awareness has separated her—dangerously—from reality. Mentally, Edna is already living in her own isolated, island-like, mythical world. She has not yet fully acknowledged
In Edna’s life in New Orleans, she feels an obligation to the societal pressures on women to be a domestic wife whose only focus is her children. However, she knows being a mother is not destined for her. Often throughout the novel, she chooses herself over her children, showing that she carries the self-priority gene more than the mother one. She also faces the societal pressures of how women should act and behave; which is obedient to their husbands and ladylike. This all changes once she moves to Grand Isle. With the absence of her family, Edna finally feels free to be herself without the responsibility of tending to them. In Grand Isle she discovers the freedom of her sensuality, her fondness for being independent and the lack of consideration she has to have in order to make her own decisions. In her
Edna’s first action that starts off her route to freedom from her relationship is when she fell in love with Robert. Edna had already married a man that she had not loved but he has not been treating her a...
...tionship she had until she was left with literally no reason to live. Throughout the novella, she breaks social conventions, which damages her reputation and her relationships with her friends, husband, and children. Through Edna’s thoughts and actions, numerous gender issues and expectations are displayed within The Awakening because she serves as a direct representation of feminist ideals, social changes, and a revolution to come.