The Awakening by Edna Pontellier

600 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on the awakening

The Awakening by Edna Pontellier

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

The Awakening begins in the vacation spot of Grand Isle. At first we believe that Grand Isle is a utopia, wealthy families relaxing at oceanside, but it is here where Edna first begins to realize her unhappiness. The first sign of dissatisfaction is when Edna allows herself to feel that her marriage is unsatisfying, yet she must agree with the other women that Leonce Pontellier is the perfect husband. Edna asks herself that if she has a good husband but is unhappy, then should marriage be a piece of her life.

Edna has two close relationships with other males in the book but both prove unsatisfying, and a block to her independence. The first relationship is with Robert Lebrun. They swim, they chat on the porch and offer each other companionship. This is a flirtatious relationship, a relationship similar to those Robert has had previous summers with other married women; but different because Edna, being a "foreigner", allows herself to take Robert seriously and she falls in love with him. This proves tragic because during the course of the novel the two will pine for each other, but Robert not wanting to ruin his reputation as a "gentleman" moves to Mexico. Even after his return the two meet for a short time and then again Robert flees before anything happens.

Edna begins to question her role as mother. Edna's husband scolds her for her insensitivity to her children. Although Edna is fond of her children she, unlike the other women on Gra...

... middle of paper ...

...here is an ideal truth greater than that of motherhood. Motherhood becomes another allusion that Edna must dispel. That final truth, the greater truth, can not coexist with the social, moral, or the biological obligations of motherhood. Edna's suicide is tragic and victorious. Tragic, because Edna could not become the person she wanted to be because of the restrictions society placed on mothers; victorious, because Edna did not conform to a patriarchal society.

The main question Chopin ponders in this novel is can a woman have both a marriage and children while fulfilling an independent life. Although the ending is not a very happy one, it shows the process of a woman struggling for self-survival. The Awakening shows Edna at the mercy of a devoted husband, a hot climate, a Creole lifestyle, and the restricted expectations of a particular class of Louisiana women.

Show More
Related

  • Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Does Kate Chopin Use Characterization In The Awakening

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Importance of the Sea in Chopin’s The Awakening

    2336 Words  | 5 Pages

    Unlike María Eugenia, Edna in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening chooses not to fill her family’s expectations. As she takes her final steps into the sea she thinks to herself: “they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul” (655). Edna treasures her autonomy and chooses death over familial subjugation. However her transformational journey, alluded to by the title of the novel leads to more than the rejection of her self-sacrificing familial roles as wife and mother and her death.

    Read More

  • Edna's Struggle for Power in Chopin's The Awakening

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kate Chopin's The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother living in the upper crust of New Orleans in the 1890s. It depicts her journey as her standing shifts from one of entrapment to one of empowerment. As the story begins, Edna is blessed with wealth and the pleasure of an affluent lifestyle. She is a woman of leisure, excepting only in social obligations. This endowment, however, is hindered greatly by her gender.

    Read More

  • Importance of Water in The Awakening

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is obvious to the reader that Edna and Robert have a connection and are amused by what the other has to say. Leonce shrugs this off as nothing and leaves for the hotel where many of the men chat and drink in the evenings. Edna and Robert talk some more and eventually part. These are the first signs of something special between them. Robert often spends his time chatting with Edna and Madame Ratingnolle.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Reinvention In The Awakening

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The True Identity In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Edna's Freedom in The Awakening by Kate Chopin

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Importance of the Houses in The Awakening

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unfortunately Edna has no clue that she is being treated so poorly in the beginning of this story. With Mr. Pontellier being absent from home so often she finds plenty of time to spend with Robert. Through the whole summer she does not realize the feelings she is developing for Robert and only sees him as a friend. She enjoys spending all of her free time with him and gets along with him much better than her husband. It is not until she is back home and Robert leaves for Mexico that she starts to "awaken" and realize her true feelings not just for Robert but also for life in general.

    Read More

  • Breaking the Social Norms: Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1558 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

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

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    Critics of Kate Chopin's The Awakening tend to read the novel as the dramatization of a woman's struggle to achieve selfhood--a struggle doomed failure either because the patriarchal conventions of her society restrict freedom, or because the ideal of selfhood that she pursue is a masculine defined one that allows for none of the physical and undeniable claims which maternity makes upon women. Ultimately. in both views, Edna Pontellier ends her life because she cannot have it both ways: given her time, place, and notion of self, she cannot be a mother and have a self. (Simons)

    Read More

  • 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

  • growaw Edna Pontellier’s Search for Self in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a married woman with children. However many of her actions seem like those of a child. In fact, Edna Pontelliers’ life is an irony, in that her immaturity allows her to mature. Throughout this novel, there are many examples of this because Edna is continuously searching for herself in the novel.

    Read More

  • Awakening

    2436 Words  | 5 Pages

    Most marriages end in divorce. Indeed, the degree and level of suffering and pain throughout the populace is almost unfathomable. Perhaps, Ms. Chopin was living out a vicarious reality through Edna in committing suicide...and perhaps, this may be the underlying reason for the great reception which this novel has enjoyed...as well as staying power. Similarly, it has also been appointed a kind of jewel of the vanguard of women's rights. Indeed, "The Awakening" is one novel which exemplifies the attempt -- even realization -- of American womanhood's escape from personal and domestic bondage.

    Read More

  • Feminism And Criticism In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1446 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kate Chopin’s short novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, five years before her death. The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier as she navigates through the summer and fall of her twenty-eighth year. She learns to swim, engages in two extramarital affairs, moves out of her husband’s house, and, upon hearing of her lover, Robert’s rejection, she drowns herself. For over fifty years, The Awakening has been heralded as a deeply feminist text. Chopin destabilizes traditional family values and puts a woman in a position of sexual power and quasi-liberation. The feminism of this text is complicated by Edna’s final action. Edna’s inability to continue living after being rejected by Robert would indicate a feminine dependence on a masculine figure,

    Read More

More about The Awakening by Edna Pontellier

Open Document