The Awakening Part 3 1. Edna’s move into the Pigeon House is symbolic as well as physical because it “added to her to her strength and expansion as an individual”. This implies that Edna is striving towards her independence away from Mr. Pontiellier and her kids, and a deep sought into her life. This represents in the development of her self-awareness that Edna is no longer concerned of about the content of “feed upon opinion when her own soul had invited her.” In hence, Edna is no longer in care of others’ lives and what they think of Edna, that she only wants to focus on her own. 2. Edna’s relationship with her two boys be characterized as close love and high excitement to see them. This is quoted as stated, “How glad she was to see the …show more content…
The irony in Robert’s desire to make Edna his wife is that Robert left to be way from Edna because she was married to Mr. Pontiellier, but now Robert is back with even deeper emotions for her. For example, Robert states, “There in Mexico I was thinking of you”, which leads to the conclusion that Robert does demonstrate deep feelings for Edna and her hand in marriage. 8. The meaning behind Adele’s quote is that Adele wants Edna to always remember Edna’s children and to never forget, even though she is abandoning them. The significance of uttering this to Edna after childbirth is that after birth, the connection is the strongest, and the significance of this is that Edna is losing the connection of her own children, so Adele wants her to remember them. 9. Dr. Mandelet does appear to understand what Edna is feeling as he states, “I know I would understand, and I tell you there are not many who would”. Refusal to talk is a mistake because since Dr. Mandelet appears to achieve the same feelings as Edna does, this knowledge can be used for her own benefit and understanding. Not gaining this knowledge will only hurt Edna since not that many people seem to have the same similar feelings and characteristics as she is currently
Kate Chopin's The Awakening is full of symbolism such as birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are symbols with an extremely significant meaning.
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.
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
She loves to have her “senses stirred,” and her imaginative desires enact these sensations for her when the objects of the desires themselves cannot. Consequently, Edna realizes early in her own life that she is not satisfied with her role as a mother enslaved to humdrum domestic life with a husband to match. However, she does not consciously realize and choose to pursue her own desire for an exciting, passionate, courageous lover until after the novel opens upon one summer vacation at Grand Isle.
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
	There are definite signs of Edna Pontellier's depression, from the beginning of the novel and all the way to the end when she commits suicide. If there had been someone who had seen this, Edna might not have been driven to death, but she felt that no one could understand her wanting to be on her own. She thought of Doctor Mandelet, that he might have understood, but it was already too late, she was too far from shore and her strength was gone. So in the end there was really no one that could have saved her from this fate.
Angered by a fight with her husband, Edna “[takes] off her wedding ring [and flings] it upon the carpet” in addition to pitching a vase at the hearth (76). This is immediately juxtaposed by Edna tranquilly “[slipping] it upon her finger” at the entering of a maid (76). Edna’s contrasting moods generate equality between her two states of activism and dormancy, the latter being one of regression to an existence of conformity by placing the ring back on. Edna later resides with Arobin while they “silently [look] into each other’s eyes” and lean forward to kiss (116). The sexual mood fortifies as Alcee holds his lips to hers (116). Contrary to her marriage, this is “the first kiss of her life” to which she frankly responds, eliciting “a flaming torch that [kindles] desire” (116). The very next line, Edna “[cries] a little” after Arobin leaves, antithetical to her preceding passion. She experiences a “dull pang of regret” from that kiss “which had inflamed her” seeing that it was not Robert’s (117). The ambivalence that Edna parades communicates her dissatisfaction to both Arobin and Robert’s love, as well as her husband’s. Additionally, Edna receives three letters: one from Robert, Alcee Arobin, and her husband. That exuberant morning “[is] full of sunlight and hope” (145). After examining these writings, she is very pleased with them; Edna also “[answers]
The first taste of this newfound freedom is the satisfaction that Edna feels in being able to provide for herself with her own money. The fact that she no longer has to rely on her husband’s money breaks the last tie that she had with him: "I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence."(80) In her mind now, her marriage is dead, and Mr. Pontellier has no control over her. Financial freedom is not the only thing the pigeon house gives to Edna; it also allows her both physical and spiritual freedom. When Edna kisses Arobin in her husband’s house, she feels "reproach looking at her from the external things around her which he had provided for her external existence."(84) Yet, her first night at the pigeon house she spends with Arobin, and this time feels no reproach or regret. As for the spiritual ramifications provided by her new home, Chopin writes, "There was a feeling of descending in the social scale, with the corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual.., she began to look with her own eyes... no longer was she content to feed upon opinion."(94) The pigeon house provides a way for Edna to escape from the society that she hates. She has the freedom to make the decisions in her life now; and she decides that she is going to live life by her own rules, not the rules that society has laid out for her. When she is within her home, she is free from the pressures of being the "mother women" which society forces her to be. The pigeon house nourishes this newfound freedom, allowing it to grow and gain strength.
In this vision Edna is showing her desire for freedom, desire for escaping from her roles as wife and mother, from her husband Léonce who keeps her in a social cage.
Throughout the novel Chopin reveals through the symbolism of the caged parrot Edna’s will to free herself from the life she lives. A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: `Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!''' (19) Like the parrot, Edna is caged in the life she lives in with Mr. Pontillier and their kids. She has the desire, the want, to fly away and leave the cage but cannot. Mademoiselle warns Edna, “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth." (82) Mademoiselle is telling Edna that her leaving could result in failure. Once more Edna wants to be that bird to get away from everyone, to fly away from the society she live...
The setting Edna is in directly affects her temperament and awakening: Grand Isle provides her with a sense of freedom; New Orleans, restriction; the “pigeon house”, relief from social constraints. While at Grand Isle, Edna feels more freedom than she does at her conventional home in New Orleans. Instead of “Mrs. Pontellier… remaining in the drawing room the entire afternoon receiving visitors” (Chopin 84), Edna has the freedom to wander and spend time with Robert, rather than being restricted to staying at home while she is at Grand Isle. While sailing across the bay to the Cheniere Caminada, “Edna felt as if she were being borne away from some anchorage which had held her fast, whos chains had been looseining – had snapped the night before” (Chopin 58). The Cheniere Caminada at Grand Isle gives Edna an outlet from the social constraints she is under at home and at the cottage at Grand Isle. As Edna is sailing away she can feel the “anchorage” fall away: the social oppression, the gender roles, and the monotonous life all disappear; the same feeling and sense of awakening she gets when she sleeps for “one hundred years” (Chopin 63). New Orleans brings Edna back into reality – oppression, society, and depression clouds her mind as she is living a life she doesn’t want to live. New Orleans is the bastion of social rules, of realis...
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.
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...
strong on her own. Specifically, how to be independant and gain control of her own