Awakening1
THE AWAKENING
The contrast between an urban and a tropical setting represents the awakening that the protagonist experiences in Kate Chopin's classic novel, The Awakening. At Grand Isle Edna becomes conscious of her restrictive marriage in a male dominated society. Her awakening originates with her experiences at Grand Isle but fully develops upon her return to the city, where she completes her transformation from her roles as wife and mother to an independent woman.
The setting at the beginning of the novel is the Grand Isle, a popular Creole island resort. The reader first sees Edna returning from the beach, with the sea disappearing on the horizon, and the mood of a lazy summer day permeating the scene. This idyllic environment is soon interrupted by her husband Leonce's characteristically stuffy and disapproving reaction to his wife’s activities: "You are burnt beyond recognition". Leonce views his wife as a "valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage". Swimming at mid-day, Edna has endangered her respectability in a society where women may be judged by the color of their complexion. Yet Edna does not seem ruffled by society’s expectations or by her husband's callous remark. Instead she focuses on the summer warmth, her companion, Robert Lebrun, and swimming, where she is free both physically and emotionally. Edna’s habit of removing her wedding rings before entering the water underscores and symbolizes her temporary escape from the ties of matrimony and the bonds of convention.
While vacationing at Grand Isle, Edna is surrounded by mother-women "who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels". Unlike these women, Edna does not wish to submerge her own identity and freedom in her role as a wife and mother. At one point, her husband claims that she is a negligent and irresponsible mother and orders Edna to tend to their sick child, believing this duty to be a "mother's place." Uncharacteristically, Edna appears bewildered and distraught after her husband's outburst. "An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish". She begins to suspect that a deeper relationship is possible between a man and a w...
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.....got into her blood and into her brain like an intoxicant" (124). As Edna continues to separate herself from the traditional roles of women in her time, Chopin distinguishes the main character from those around her through the use of symbolism. At her dinner party, Edna reigns as the confident, self-assured hostess, described by the author as a jeweled goddess emerging from the sea. "Venus rising from the foam could have presented no more entrancing a spectacle than Mrs. Pontellier, blazing with beauty and diamonds at the head of the board" .
Kate Chopin's utilization of the setting in The Awakening is essential to the character development of Edna as she escapes the restrictions of Creole society to become an independent woman. Symbols and images are mirrored and intertwined in the two settings. This repetitive pattern underscores and expands the reader’s understanding of Edna's enlightenment. But in fact, the most dramatic change in the novel occurs during the transition from Grand Isle to New Orleans. In this story, Chopin's use of setting proves to be an effective complement to her vivid imagery throughout the novel, and to the symbolism of renewal and rediscovery.
Edna learning to swim while at Grand Isle is significant. At first, a certain ungovernable dread hung about her when she was in the water, unless there was a hand (presumably a man’s) near by that might reach out and reassure her.19 As she gains confidence, like a “little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers”20 she swims farther out than she has before, though her husband is watching from the beach to reassure her when she admits she thought she might not make it back to land. It isn’t until after she returns to New Orleans that she becomes fully aware of herself and the hopeless situation she is in. She attempts independence, moving out of the family home and into a smaller one in a slightly worse part of town. She tries to nurture her artistic inclinations and beings an affair with a local playboy, but continues to be dissatisfied with life. Adele Ratignolle’s domestic bliss depresses her, and shortly after his return Robert quickly abandons her, supposedly with the best of intentions. Driven back to Grand Isle where her awakening began, “like some new-born creature,”21 Edna swims out to sea with no intention of returning. She admits to herself that one affair would lead to another, and she would eventually forget Robert.
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 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...
Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” is wrought with symbolism, foreshadowing and careful diction choices. Many of the passages throughout the novel embody Edna’s awakening sense of self-reliance, independence and sexuality. These are sy...
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.
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.
...pport of Mr. Pontellier, her children, Madame Ratignolle, Robert, Madame Reisz, and her father. While Edna sees support for herself in these roles the way the other characters see them, she does not believe that she has their support for herself as an individual, apart from these roles, or as a person defining these roles for herself. As she takes her final walk down to the beach, the sea continues to call to her soul: “The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (654). The sea has helped Edna see into her innermost being and the transformational journey has helped her realize that she wants to fulfill her roles in life as an autonomous individual. But because Edna feels that she cannot achieve her goals, she succumbs to that which is closest to her innermost being, the sea.
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
Edna’s awakenings in Grand Isle and in New Orleans set her up for failure by forcing her to understand her lack of options. Edna’s first awakening is when she realizes that she is not happy with her life as a housewife. This awakening is realized while Edna is at a dinner party with Md. Ratignolle and her husband. When she arrived home, she “felt depressed rather than soothed” (75). She then goes on and “st[omps] upon her wedding ring” (76). This symbolizes Edna’s desire to escape from marriage altogether, but her inability to crush the ring shows her powerlessness to break free from her imprisonment. Edna breaks through the role given to her by society; she learns her own identity independent of her husband and children. Edna later realizes that she cannot be the same as Mademoiselle Reisz. Edna does not possess the carefree attitude of Reisz and stills struggles with social appro...
“I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself” (62). Edna tries explaining to Madame Ratignolle that this is something she is just beginning to understand from herself. She does not know why but she cannot bring herself to give up herself for her kids. The author Kate Chopin, who wrote the book The Awakening, explains through her novel societies’ demands and wishes for a woman, such as Edna, with a family. The book takes place in the late 19th century in New Orleans. In this time period however, Edna must become the obedient wife and stay home to take care of her kids and her husband. This however, is what Edna wants to do the least. The quote reveals right away Edna’s desire to become free of what society has placed upon her. Kate portrays the themes of freedom and independence by weaving throughout her novel the symbols of birds, such as the caged parrot, art, and the sea.
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
“Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life- that conforms, the inward life which questions” (pg.13). For most of Edna’s life, she has adopted and implemented a tactic of making others perceive that she was conforming with society but inwardly questioning the reasons why she has to conform in a specific way. This quote support the symbolism of Edna to all women who were
In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the setting is in the late 1800s on Grand Isle in Louisiana. The main character of the story is Edna Pontellier who is not a Creole. Other important characters are Adele Ratignolle, Mr. Ratgnolle, Robert Lebrun, and Leonce Pontellier who are all Creole's. In the Creole society the men are dominant. Seldom do the Creole's accept outsiders to their social circle, and women are expected to provide well-kept homes and have many children. Edna and Adele are friends who are very different because of their the way they were brought up and they way they treat their husbands. Adele is a loyal wife who always obeys her husband's commands. Edna is a woman who strays from her husband and does not obey her husband's commands. Kate Chopin uses Adele to emphasize the differences between her and Edna.
Kate Chopin brings out the essence of Creole society through the characters of her novel, "The Awakening". In the novel, Edna Pontellier faces many problems because she is an outcast from society. As a result of her isolation from society she has to learn to fit in and deal with her problems. This situation causes her to go through a series of awakenings which help her find herself, but this also causes problems with her husband due in part for her loss of respect for him and the society she lives in. Throughout the novel she is faced with unfavorable circumstances that confuse and eventually kill her.