The Power of Painting in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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The Power of Painting in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

The Awakening by Kate Chopin displays the struggle a woman goes through in order to break the current status quo. In this novel, Edna Pontellier releases herself to her deepest yearnings, plunging into an immoral relationship that reawakens her long dormant desires, enflames her heart, and eventually blinds her to all else. As she goes through these changes Edna involves herself in many different activities. Painting becomes one of her favorite pastimes and her artwork often depicts an important person in her life. Her impulse to paint is driven by her current emotion; this would explain the passion inserted into each peace of art.

Edna is fascinated by painting and attempts to sketch and paint her friends. She has the opportunity to paint Adele Ratignolle, a woman she claims to be as poised as a Madonna. "Never had that lady seemed a more tempting subject than at that moment, seated there like some sensuous Madonna, with the gleam of the fading day enriching her splendid color" (22). Edna attempts to capture the scene with Adele and replicate it on her sketch pad but falls short. "After surveying the sketch critically she drew a broad smudge of paint across its surface, and crumpled the paper between her hands" (22). Edna in this way is a bit of a perfectionist. She will not accept anything less than faultless. If it does not successfully capture the image in the way that she herself sees it, it is deplorable. Luckily this is a recently acquired outlet and she has accepted the fact that her art might not be as good as it can be. Edna throws away some of her sketches, claiming to be an amateur artist. If she held herself to a higher degree of talent it would more difficult for her to accept these imperfections. This attitude towards her painting relates just as easily to her attitude regarding life. Towards the beginning of the novel, Edna is more passive about the way she is living, the same way she is passive about throwing out her sketches.

As Edna describes her youth and distant life in Kentucky, she paints images in her mind. She desperately wants to paint them, but instead uses the paint of memories.

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