The Awakening by Kate Chopin is circulated around Edna Pontellier, the protagonist and the events throughout her married life. Chopin did not have the intention to show how different Edna is compared to her society of perfect “mother-woman”, but instead shows the way Edna becomes self-aware and discovers more meaning to her life. Chopin made it possible for the readers to give Edna’s awakening value by Edna freeing herself, which leads to taking her own life. Chopin made it prominent for the readers to have the intention to make more women aware of their own lives and wanting them to do more with their lives than Edna.
In Edna’s childhood, she would not act out on her own nor do things that were out of the ordinary for a female of her time in the late 19th century, according to the narrator “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves.” (47). Edna always kept her emotions to herself, she would barely voice an opinion even to Léonce. As she moves out of her home from Léonce, she begins to feel these little bits of freedom, “Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life.” (94). Edna, “began to look with her own eyes” this gives the readers a sense that ever since she was married to Léonce, she would have to abide by his rules and not get the chance to express any of her own opinions to him. Her marriage to Léonce felt more of a responsibility than a passionate desire of love for someone. This gives meaning in Edna’s awakening by showing that she is able to see that she can do more with her life, which eases Edna to take action. This pushes Edna to discover more of herself and do things for herself. It is understandable that she can come off as selfish, but it shows that her past is shaping her into someone better for her future.
Edna begins to show an advanced way of thinking for a woman of time in 1899, “.. I always feel so sorry for women who don’t like to walk; they miss so much–so many rare little glimpses of life; and we women learn so little of life on the whole.” (106). She shows that before she would act upon herself, she did not have many glimpses of life. This quote emphasizes that Edna has been able to discover more about herself and is not afraid to shy away from herself. It has a sense of awakening for Edna on women as a whole. In the time of 1899, women were not able to walk alone, because they have the potential of getting robbed or snatched off the streets. Edna is aware she is not the perfect-typical mother-woman, so she begins to sympathize for the women who have not tried things out of their own comfort zones. In a way, the author tells us that Edna pities women who bow-down to their husbands, the mother-women, Edna believes they do not learn and experience life as much as they should.
In Edna’s pigeon home, Robert and Edna are together, Edna pronounces to Robert that she was no longer one of Léonce’s possessions, “..I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. ..” (108). As to where earlier in the book, Léonce looks at Edna as if she was a “valuable piece of personal property” (2). This exposes that Edna and Léonce did not have a full-loving romantic relationship, which is what Edna wanted. Léonce himself was aware that they did not have the relationship they both wished for, according to the narrator, “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation” (5) Léonce was very observant of Edna and when it states, “sole object of his existence” it expresses Edna as an object, connecting to how he sees her as property. In a way, Edna is just an abundance, but valuable piece of property, she is the reason he does things. Edna was able to show the readers and herself that she wants more out of her life and does not want to be with Léonce, and to just fulfill his views on reputation. She states, “I give myself where I choose”, this tells the readers that Edna is aware of her own self-value and she can make her own choices without holding back.
Edna’s awakening was not just an awakening for her whole life, but it was also for her own sexual awakening. To Edna, Robert is the true love of her life, not Léonce nor Arobin, “There was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert;” (115). Edna was genuinely selfish for love. Her awakening gave her a pathway to discovering her love for Robert, this was a big factor in what Edna thought she was missing out on her whole life. Without Robert, Edna felt like a lost cause.
Edna might have done many actions for herself, but Edna was able to carry herself with these actions very critically. No other acquaintance in her life knew Edna better than she knew herself. Chopin makes these imagery connections with birds to women. To her peers, Edna was could be seen as a hard-headed “bird”, but to herself she was everything she wanted to be. The only thing she could not truly obtain was her romantic life with Robert. Edna’s awakening was able to set herself free, “Exhaustion was pressing upon and over-powering her.” (116) There were possible chances Edna could have done things differently, but she believed it was her fate. Chopin was able to express that Edna was self-aware, by Edna becoming overwhelmed and thinking she could not do more when Robert left her. Edna was able to discover meaning in her life, by taking her own life, Edna knew that she did not want to surrender her life to a life of such restrained, controlling powers.
Introduction: Setting as a Symbol in “The Awakening”
The novel of The Awakening (1899) by author Kate Chopin presents a journey of physical, spiritual and sexual transformation of the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, a middle-class mother and wife in Louisianan society during the late 19th-century. The novel is set in three divergent, distinctive spaces physically represented as an island, linking the mainland of New Orleans and the ocean. New Orleans functions to marginalise Edna as she inhabits the patriarchally controlled society whilst the ocean provides a space away from such oppression. It also portrays Edna’s progression towards freedom through a circular pattern that subverts the bildungsroman genre. As a medium, the island of Grand Isle functions to prompt Edna’s search of identity by providing a choice between confinement or liberation.
Grand Isle: A Liminal Space for Awakening
The exposition of The Awakening is set in Grand Isle, a vacation destination for affluent families in Louisianan society, and is established as a place of self-realization for the protagonist. Primarily, it is symbolic of Edna’s acceptance of patriarchal societal customs. Edna is first introduced returning from the beach to her husband, Léonce, who is “seated” as he “fixes his gaze” upon her. The verb used to describe Léonce’s gaze demonstrates the staunch circumscription of Edna’s movement and conveys her entrapment as a woman, trapped under the male gaze that reasons men to be dominant and authoritative. This is reiterated through symbolism as Edna “silently reached out” to receive her wedding rings from Léonce. The emphasis on their marriage is described through omission of dialogue from Edna presenting her action as habitual and therefore portraying acceptance of her predefined role as a wife that is delineated by 19th-century patriarchal conventions. Additionally, Léonce’s decisive lack of movement as Edna conforms to society’s conventions by returning to him demonstrates male freedom of movement and the female status as subservient to men.
The setting of Grand Isle also functions to develop Edna’s awareness and allows her to acknowledge her compliance and instigates her initial resistance of conservative customs. Edna’s original naivety is juxtaposed when arguing with Léonce as he accuses her of “habitual neglect of the children” before he “went and sat near the open door to smoke [his cigar].” This is further symbolic of Léonce’s employment of freedom of movement and Edna’s status and confinement to the role of mother. Conversely, Edna is filled with an “indescribable oppression” that was “like a mist passing across her soul’s summer day.” This imagery represents Edna’s developing awareness of the confinement of her gender and contrasts her previous actions of subservience. The simile used describes the realization as abnormal and unfamiliar and suggests internal dissatisfaction with her previous compliance. Edna’s internal awareness is then translated into action when Léonce orders her to “come inside the house instantly.” The commanding dialogue can be seen as an act to confine Edna to her role and express Léonce’s control as a male. However, a role reversal between the pair occurs as Edna “settles herself securely in the hammock” and commands Léonce to “go to bed.” The decisive language and imagery of Edna’s actions represent the subversion of male freedom of movement, and her attempt to assert her status as equivalent to her husband. Whilst Léonce does not wholly submit to her, the act of defiance further juxtaposes the image of a passive housewife that is initially presented and develops the setting as a place of advancement from conforming to expectation to objecting it. Altogether, Grand Isle can be seen as a liminal space that offers some opportunity for Edna’s awakening to be instigated yet is still a place mediated by men and patriarchal constructs.
The Ocean: A Symbol of Freedom and Transformation
As an island, Grand Isle is surrounded by the ocean which is symbolically portrayed as a place of freedom, away from entrapment by patriarchal society. Originally, the ocean’s significance in Edna’s awakening is foreshadowed as she remembers how she “traversed the ocean of waving grass” when running from a church service as a child. The metaphor symbolises Edna’s escape from patriarchal theology and search for potential. The ocean offers a space of independence and self-assertion that no other setting provides for Edna, shown by her successful attempt at swimming. In the past, she had received instruction of how to swim from numerous others yet an “ungovernable dread” consistently overcame her, preventing her from swimming. However, Edna’s initial lack of control in the ocean, highlighted by the adjective used to describe her trepidation, is contrasted with gain of control over her movement and awareness of potential as she begins to swim effortlessly on her own.
This is apparent in the simile explaining that she feels “as if some power of significant import had been given to her,” thus presenting the ocean as a space of sensation and feeling. From a feminist reading, the ocean is therefore a space that does not require language for Edna to express her individuality and therefore does not restrict Edna’s thoughts and desires to a patriarchally governed language that confines her identity to her patriarchally defined role. The act of teaching herself to swim is Edna’s fundamental opportunity to portray independence and conveys the ocean as a place of empowerment and possibility, functioning to enable Edna’s physical awakening. Additionally, when entering the water, it is depicted as maternal through the use of verbs and adjectives as it “enfolds the body in its soft, close embrace,” personifying the ocean as gentle and alluding to the mother’s womb. This demonstrates how the ocean provides the opportunity to return to the basic identity of an individual without predefinition by role in society. Overall the ocean is presented as a metaphysical space of pure experience and sensation presenting Simone De Beauvoir’s concept of transcendence that offers freedom due to the absence of any patriarchal influence causing oppression.
New Orleans: A Realm of Conformity and Entrapment
In contrast, the setting of New Orleans is presented as a zone of male control where Edna is strictly bound by her domestic role and duties as a wife and mother. Upon returning from Grand Isle aware of the societal entrapment she endures, Edna feels physically trapped in her house and her desire to escape her socially prescribed role is conveyed through her actions as she “began to walk to and fro” in “her room.” This stresses Edna’s inability to continue to discover her identity as a result of the internality of setting. Moreover, Edna’s bourgeois status is established and evident fulfilment of her material wants is demonstrated by the extensive use of adjectives that describe the house as “charming”, “rich and tasteful” and “dazzling.” As a result, Edna’s dissatisfaction and desire to escape emphasises her active search for a spiritual and imaginative awakening of which can only be provided by “a room of one’s own.” From a feminist reading, women cannot freely explore themselves without a psychosocial space absent of patriarchal control. Therefore Edna cannot experience her full potential in “her room” as, according to Napoleonic Code followed in 19th-century Louisianan society, “all a wife’s accumulations…were the property of their husband.” Aiming to remove herself from the surroundings that are provided and dominated by Léonce Edna moves to the “Pigeon House.” This action portrays Edna’s emergent freedom of movement, indicating her independence and offering her a place of her own to explore her individual identity. However, symbolically, Edna is still presented to be trapped, despite escaping the gilded cage that is Léonce’s house, her only choice is to move into a different cage, the “Pigeon House”, which limits her independence by social and economic realities of the setting of New Orleans that symbolically delineate it as a space of immanence or inability to experience autonomy and reach transcendence.
Circular Narrative and Subversion of the Bildungsroman Genre
Throughout the novel, the setting structurally functions to develop a circular narrative whilst also subverting the bildungsroman genre. The opening and concluding paragraphs have a cyclic essence and represent a journey of initial separation through to final recapitulation. Repetition of the language that describes the sea as “seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” directly links the exposition to the conclusion. The circularity of the novel represents the transformative journey that the character of Edna experiences and is stereotypical of the bildungsroman genre. However, the return to the ocean, the setting previously established as a space away from society, subverts the genre that traditionally concludes with the transformed individual returning and positively contributing to society. Whilst Edna has gained knowledge and redefined herself, as portrayed by the simile she “felt like some newborn creature”, there is an absence of societal acceptance of her transformed self. Instead, she rejects society as “the foamy wavelets…coiled like serpents about her ankles” alluding to Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of passion, known for her independence thus portraying Edna to undermine traditional societal constructs reflected in Chopin’s subversion of the traditional genre. The return to the ocean and neglection of society in the conclusion of the novel develops its circularity and emphasises its subversion of the conventional bildungsroman genre.
Conclusion: The Ambiguity of Edna’s Awakening
Although acknowledged as a “brilliant piece of writing,” the novel was rebuked for Chopin’s “lack of a solution” presented by the circular pattern of setting. The symbolism of the ocean as a place of transcendence in contrast to the societal oppression and state of immanence Edna faces in New Orleans creates an ambiguous ending. The novel presents an anti-bildungsroman conclusion that portrays Edna as a heroine of herself rather than the community yet causes the reader to question whether Edna is ever entirely awakened or can ever reach full transcendence, symbolic of how emancipation is inevitably paired with risk which in this case is Edna’s death.
Explain how the setting and mood are immediately established within the first few pages of each novel. Cite specific words and phrases that situate the reader.
In the novels, the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Awakening By Kate Chopin, the authors illustrate the mood and setting in the first chapter. In the Scarlet Letter, the mood had been set to be dull. Hawthorne had to pave the tone to be that way since it started in a prison. Starting you could tell this could be very dark. Since it started talking about long gloom hallways in prisons and the guards. However, the Awakening started with a family of four on a vacation. Edna Pontellier, her husband Leonce Pontellier, and her two sons, Raoul and Etienne. The mood is set off as happy since you assume vacation equals great times. However, as you go more in-depth the mood reveals something new. Edna truthfully hates her husband and her kids and would rather hook up with a new love interest. Overall, in both novels, the mood perceived is similar in a sense since they both have a poor beginning.
In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne has been imprisoned for Adultery. During her time, she birthed her daughter Pearl. From the first page, the mood interpreted was dark and dreary. It describes the prison as, “ A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats […] was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.” This shows that the prison had been dusk. Anyone could assume that prison isn’t going to be the happiest place on earth. However, this prison interprets that gruel and dark. There is also another change of mood when the wild rose bush develops in the story it seems to brighten the mood as a change of hope for the community. “But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.” Overall the mood changes from gruesome to something refreshing in a way. For the setting, the novel states, that they are in Puritan New England in the mid-17th century. When everyone has to follow certain rules and if you didn’t follow you would be punished. This is the mood and setting of the novel The Scarlet Letter.
In the Awakening, Edna Pontellier is an obedient wife and mother vacationing at Grand Isle with her family. Everything seems calm, it’s a beautiful vacation spot, the kids are cute, and the husband is observant. This is how the story is set off, the setting The Awakening starts in the late nineteenth century on Grand Isle, off the coast of Louisiana; on the island of Chênière Caminada which is across the bay from Grand Isle and in the city of New Orleans.“The day was Sunday; the paper was a day old. The Sunday papers had not yet reached Grand Isle. He was already acquainted with the market reports, and he glanced restlessly over the editorials and bits of news which he had not had time to read before quitting New Orleans the day before.”(page#1 Chopin) To prove this, this shows where the story started. To add on, the mood which was interpreted was very serious. Why you can say that is because you think wow a fun family vacation but it ends up being a miserable vacation. Edna doesn’t seem engaged with her family, which was noticed when her husband stated,“…looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.” (Chopin) She also has a new love interest and comes up with an independent answer to ditch them and try to start a new life. Overall, you can say this is a very serious matter since she leaves her whole family with her husband and starts a new life without them. This is the mood I have seen in the novel The Awakening.
To what extent does “self-preservation” play a role in the concept of human dignity in each of the novels? How can human dignity be defined? Why is dignity as essential to human survival as food and water?
Self-Preservation means caring for yourself and making the best options for you. Which are both novels both characters had different ways to help themselves. For Hester after going through a rough stage, she brought herself to the conclusion that she must keep on going with life and make the best of it. However, Edna after realizing all of the loss she had forced her to commit suicide. Dignity is tied into this because it’s a sense of pride that a person can have towards themselves or others. Hester eventually was proud of her letter because she didn’t care what people have to think about her. Once again Edna couldn’t handle being lonely and trying to make her life better than it was before. To explain more, Self-preservation has a big role in human dignity and in the two novels, The Scarlet Letter and The Awakening.
In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was given a difficult time since she had a child. She struggled with her community because she commits adultery. Although the seclusion is difficult for her, she maintains to keep her dignity. She continues to keep on going with her life, for example, caring for her child or her interest in sewing. To add, wearing her scarlet letter was a way of dignity as well. She didn’t care about what the townspeople had to say. She wore it with pride which shows self-preservation. Edna shows, “The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her bosom. It was almost intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely”(Hawthorne 34) Even after the humiliation of self-shaming, she tried to show her best self off by making herself a beautiful dress. After being given such a hard time about everything she had gone through. Edna found an abandoned house made it their own and lived the best life they could. After being given this burden she showed that it doesn’t matter what you have just made the best out of it. This explains self-preservation and dignity because she acted for herself. She tried to make her life the best it could be and didn’t care what everyone had to say.
In the Awakening, anyone could describe Edna’s life as having no self-preservation. Why someone might say this because she had a difficult time in her life. Instead of trying to have a solution, she decided to commit suicide. Ways to lead her in this direction was the thought of her family. She couldn’t cope with the feeling of going back to her family. To prove this, “ She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul”(Chopin 95) Moving on, she left her family and went straight for Robert. Eventually, there was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert; and she even realized that the day would come when he, too, and the thought of him would melt out her existence, leaving her alone”(Chopin 94). However, eventually, that concluded. After losing Robert all of that negativity and hatred in her life led her to believe that leaving the world and killing herself would do her kids and everyone else better, than staying in it and living unhappy. For the children and her husband this happened, Edna lacked self-preservation and thought death was the best option for herself. Therefore, Edna did not have any self-preservation or human dignity, which lead her to unhappiness and suicide.
In a well-organized response, discuss the title of each work, explain the title’s significance in relation to the novel as a whole and consider what that means for the protagonist, and for the other characters in the piece.
The novels, the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Awakening by Kate Chopin, both books have very important meanings behind their titles. Hawthorne made the title very self-explanatory since the novel is based on the Scarlet Letter on Hester’s chest. Also the struggles she had gone through with this being a part of her life. For the Awakening, Chopin described Edna’s awakening throughout the book. Her awakening would be described as her going through multiple life changes and things failing.
In the Scarlet Letter, the title ties up with Hester Prynne’s life. Minister Dimmesdale and Hester committed adultery which led to Hester having a baby girl named Pearl. From committing this crime Hester was sentenced to shame and was imprinted with the “ SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.”(Hawthorne 32) Since she committed this “crime” she was imprinted with the letter A, which indicated that she had to live with shame. Knowing that she would live with this shame every day, she still tried to live her best life. She was really into sewing and making her clothes for herself and others. She also enjoyed spending time with Pearl even though she had a devilish side. Another person who had a scarlet letter was Minister Dimmesdale. On the day that Hester had received hers. He had given it to himself. “Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance..,” This also proves that the scarlet letter was a main purpose in the novel since it appeared many times. Overall, the Scarlet Letter was significant since it showed shame but could be changed into something different as well.
In the Awakening, the titles of the books indicate the awakening that Edna will go through throughout the book. The awakening starts with Edna being very unhappy about her life with her husband and children. She doesn’t care for herself, instead, she provides for her family and that’s all she does. She finally comes to the realization that she needs to let go of her family and her independence. To support this, “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight—perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman. But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such a beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult”(Chopin 12). This proves that Edna wanted to get her independence and she stood by that. Her awakening finally commenced when she decided to let herself drown. Overall, this proves that Edna’s awakening began when she left her family. She started a new life and tried to work with it. But eventually, it failed. But then she continued that awakening when she realized that this life wasn’t what she wanted and ended it
Is there any nobility in Dimmesdale and/or Edna’s deaths? Does the idea of martyrdom apply to either one? Should we think of their actions as heroic/noble?
In the novels, the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Awakening by Katie Chopin. In both of the deaths of Dimmesdale and Edna, we expected all the pain they went through. From knowing the books anyone could assume that these characters are not noble or heroic. I say this because both of them could of went through the pain in an easier way. Sometimes it’s not easy to go through those struggles but there’s always a way to get through it.
In the Scarlet Letter, the death of Aruther Dimmsdale was very foreseen. He had committed a “crime” with Hester Prynne who was a married woman. They had a child named Pearl, which means they had perpetrated Adultery. To protect Dimmesdale’s identity, Hester decided not to tell the town who the mystery man was. So, instead of Dimmesdale revealing himself and taking the punishment. He decided to keep on living with this sin on his mind. Dimmesdale’s guilt finally overcomes him and he finally tells his town the truth about his act of adultery. He was so ashamed of his crime, that he punished himself for it, for 7 years. He would torture himself in so many ways, for example, “His inward trouble drove him to practices, more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much the more pitilessly, because of that bitter laugh. It was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Puritans, to fast,—not, however, like them, in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium of celestial illumination,—but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance.”(page #81 Hawthorne). This proves that he suffered from keeping his secret and instead of ending this nightmare, he continued to punish himself. Instead of revealing his truth, he kept it and that has consequences. From keeping this secret I wouldn’t consider his Nobel heroic. He did save some time for Hester and Pearl, but he put himself through so much pain that it wasn’t worth it. For that, he told everyone about his confidential secret to taking the sin away from his hurting heart. “At last!—at last!—I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from groveling down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter that Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been,—wherever, so miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose,—it hath cast a lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!”(Hawthorne) This proves that he committed to his sin after 7 long hard years. In those 7 years, Pearl didn’t have a father and now he was going to die. In my opinion, he could have committed earlier and might have had a chance with his family. Overall, this is if Minister Dimmesdale is noble or not.
For the Awakening, Edna’s death is described as her swimming out to sea until her arms can no longer support her, and she ends up drowning. This won’t be considered noble because she cracked under pressure from the real world. She couldn’t handle all of the drama surrounding her. For example, Robert broke up with her or struggle she had with her kids. Everything that was happening knocked her too far. Edna became too distressed that she wasn’t acting like herself anymore. Everything that she had dreamed off didn’t come true. For instance, her dream of dating Robert and her passion for art. When you hear that someone’s life is going wrong, you assume that they are going to get through it. But in Edna’s case, she couldn’t handle all of the pain. She stated, “He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand. Perhaps Doctor Mandelet would have understood if she had seen him—but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone.”(page#95 Chopin) She believed that nobody cared for her anymore. Which drove her to commit suicide. So when you ask if Edna’s death was noble you might say no because after being given an opportunity at a new life she turned it down.
Water symbolizes rebirth due to its association with baptism and purification. Consequently, the coastline often acts as a reminder that Edna’s waking is a kind of rebirth. Appropriately, Edna finishes her life at sea: a realm of infinite possibilities becomes a hollow, engulfing vacuum that holds both promise and danger. In its immense grandeur, the ocean symbolizes the power, splendor, and lonesome terror of liberty. Kate Chopin uses water to explore the underlying implications of a narrative (Koffi). Throughout the story, water symbolism serves as both a mirror of the protagonists’ feelings and a component of the female characters’ rebirth and transitions into their independence (Koffi). In addition to societal norms, tales in which a woman has direct control over her life often use water symbolism.
The ocean is constantly mentioned in conjunction with Edna, and she contemplates it as if it were calling her. Edna begins her awakening or the knowledge that life is more than being a submissive wife and mother when she is at the seashore (Koffi). In addition, Edna’s departure from her home life is facilitated by the ocean. She loves her children, but they are a burden, and her husband’s unrelenting evaluation of her capacity to be a decent wife and mother compels her to seek even more independence from that. Here, Edna concentrates on the summer before, when her children spent time with their grandma.
Even to herself, she did not acknowledge that their absence was somewhat reassuring. It seemed to release her from a mission she had naively chosen and for which she had been ill-equipped by Fate. She does not feel she has what it takes to be a wonderful mother, as society expects. Edna attempts to convey the feelings she is beginning to experience while conversing on the beach with one of her coworkers, Madame Adele Ratignolle. Adele insulted her by stating that nothing was more important to her than her children, even though she had earlier said she was unwilling to sacrifice herself for her children.
Edna Pontellier is the protagonist of the story. She is a relatively young woman with a husband and two young children and the person who ‘awakens’ referenced in the title.
Leonce Pontellier is Edna’s husband. He is seen to be middle-aged and immensely satisfied with living the ‘status quo’ by having all the right appearances. He adheres to the patriarchal view in that everything, including Edna, belonged to him (as in possession) and existed solely for his pleasure.
Pontellier’s sons, Raoul and Etienne, seem to exist merely because they are supposed to exist. Edna loves them sometimes, like an affectionate aunt, and Leonce even forgets them sometimes. They are looked after by a nurse who seems equally apathetic.
Robert Lebrun is the mid-20s son of Madame Lebrun, the proprietress of the vacation property where he meets Edna, and the two fall in love.
Alcee Arobin is the young man Edna meets back home in New Orleans who keeps much closer company with her than is ‘proper’ and would be her lover if she’d allow it. Edna realizes, though, that she doesn’t have any real feelings for him.
Adele Ratignolle is the other young mother that vacations at the Lebruns’. She is the perfect Victorian example of what Edna is expected to be, but Edna is incapable of keeping up the act, which is all her marriage and family really are to her.
Mademoiselle Reisz is an artist who also vacations on the island at the Lebrun. She has opted for a single life of artistry rather than losing her identity to marriage and family. She warns Edna that a woman must be very strong to follow that path and worries that Edna will not be strong enough.
Doctor Mandelet is the old family doctor that attends both the Pontellier family and the Ratignolles. Leonce consults him about Edna and he realizes that Edna has discovered a sense of her own identity and the love of another. He also tries to help Edna by telling her to come to talk with him, that he would understand, but she doesn’t think of this until she is tired out from swimming.
Conflicts
Edna vs. Leonce: Edna thinks of herself as a person, Leonce considers her a piece of his property. Edna struggles to be free of him to be truly herself through the entire story but is never able to accomplish this as she cannot experience love as she wants because of his prior claim, which destroys her spirit.
Edna vs. her children: Edna sees herself as chained by her children in bonds of love on one side and irritation on the other. They are symbols of her ties to Leonce and drags upon her desire to discover her own identity. This conflict is also not resolved because she cannot determine whether to follow her heart one way or another.
Edna vs. Robert: Neither character envisioned true emotion blossoming in their relationship, but once it was recognized, Edna began her awakening. While she is willing to overlook her previous ties, Robert is not. The conflict is resolved when Robert decides to leave her. This destroys her as she realizes she is fully possessed by Leonce.
Edna vs. Alcee: Alcee would like their relationship to go to the next level of intimacy. His continued admiration keeps Edna’s spirits up but his persistence forces her to evaluate her feelings and, finding them lacking, cannot accept his advances further.
Edna vs. her father: Edna’s father is not a character in the story, but is instead a character in her memory that played a significant role in her definition and current life because he was a strict Protestant. To a high degree, it is described how his reaction to the idea of her marrying a Catholic played a role in her decision to marry Leonce.
Edna vs. Adele: Adele is the perfect Victorian wife and mother. She is absolutely and completely devoted to her children and husband to the point that she would have no definition without them. While Edna is expected to be the same, she realizes she is not.
Edna vs. Reisz: Reisz is well aware of who she is and takes pleasure in being just who she wants to be. She is condemned by society on many counts because of her ‘rude’ manner, but she is also highly respected because of her talent and self-sufficiency. While Edna can attain a degree of self-sufficiency, she cannot live a life like Reisz’s because she cannot escape the bonds of her earlier life.
Themes
The idea that Edna is considered Leonce’s property is introduced early when Leonce comes home late from Klein’s hotel, probably somewhat drunk, and gets annoyed when Edna, who was fast asleep, doesn’t answer him with dutiful and eager attention. He also seems to treat her like a broken tool the first time she decides not to receive visitors on a Tuesday in Chapter 17.
The story illustrates how the Creoles enjoy a more sensual existence in the form of playful and harmless flirting, but, because of their religious convictions, there is never any chance that this flirtation will cross the bounds of family. However, Edna’s life has always been very withdrawn and exclusive, so when she is introduced to this world, she is captivated and begins to realize what she’s been missing. Because she is unable to share these feelings with either her husband or Robert, her awakening remains incomplete and unfulfilled.
Edna has lived in the shell of social expectations as a deadened soul and rebels against the dual life of women, but the belief in “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” only seems to apply to her. Adele is intelligent as shown when she points out Edna’s difference from Robert, but she is also fully expressing her own identity in her ability to mother while Reisz is also fully aware of who and what she is and does not feel the duality of spirit that Edna complains of.
Edna is not a successful character because she is not able to resolve her conflicts. I believe Chopin intentionally made Edna’s death ambiguous as to whether or not she died intentionally. Regardless of whether it was suicide or an accident, Edna died because she couldn’t be free to follow her own passions. The inclusion of childhood memories and recent events in her final thoughts suggests that this was the pattern of her life from which she was attempting to be free.
Edna is a sympathetic character. Chopin makes it easy to understand how Edna might feel by including such thoughtless behavior as Leonce’s expectations after waking her up from a sound sleep. Her detachment seems reasonable given her circumstances and her reaction to her senses is perhaps predictable.
The infatuations of Edna’s youth all seem to share the common denominator of tragedy. The first man was ‘sad-eyed’, she would always be ‘nothing, nothing, nothing to the second and the third was a ‘tragedian’ and even more remotely out of reach. They reveal Edna’s infatuation with the impossible, her resonance with the ‘caged bird’, and her tendency to the dramatic.
Edna’s desire for both union and freedom in the way in which she expressed it does not seem possible even today. This is not necessarily because a woman must necessarily give up her identity in order to be a ‘proper’ wife and mother, but because anytime two people live together, regardless of the relationship from something as casual as roommates to something as intimate as partners, there has to be some give and take on both sides. A woman can be a wife and a mother and corporate executive in today’s world, but she will probably not be the absolute best wife and mother and corporate executive at all times. A woman may also choose to devote herself entirely to one vocation – wife, mother, career, etc. – and thus become the best, but at the expense of all the rest. The same can be said of men who once devoted all of their time to business only to discover they had no relationship with either the children or the wife at home and thus were living the same sort of empty life Edna wakes from.
Edna’s first awakening comes as she realizes she has a sensual side that she’d never dreamed of that, once touched, seemed to fill some of the emptiness she felt inside her. This leads her to realize she wants the freedom to be a ‘real’ human being rather than the possession of her husband. Her second awakening comes as she finally realizes that regardless of what she wants, she remains the property of her husband as the greatest desire of her heart, on the verge of being fulfilled, is removed as a result of this fact. No matter what she does or how autonomous she makes herself, her efforts will all be wasted because, in the end, she will still be Mrs. Pontillier, Leonce’s wife, rather than herself.
The idea that motherhood necessarily brings with it all suppression of a mother’s previous or future identity in duty to the family repulses Edna about her children. This is her withdrawal from them and her antagonism toward them. However, as children, there are several scenes in the story where Edna is seen to ‘mother’ them – such as when Etienne won’t go to bed and she rocks him to sleep. Although she is not completely free like Reisz and not completely motherly like Adele, Edna recognizes in both of these women that they are fulfilled in their roles and forms a bond with them to try to discover their secret.
In the final analysis, Edna doesn’t have many choices. As a married woman in the early 1900s, she might not have even had the legal right to rent property without her husband’s permission, or at least not for long. She would have either had to break things off with Leonce completely and destroy her children or go back to Leonce and hope he would continue to be the same ‘loving’ husband he had always been, now more aware of her previous and probably additional constraints. Robert’s refusal of her emphasizes that even if she managed to break off with Leonce, she would forever be ruled by his influence rules out her first option, and her newly awakened senses rule out the second option. The only option left is death.
When Dr. Mandelet talks about youth being given up to illusions, I think he is talking about the difference between procreation and passion. As a younger girl, Edna married Leonce to both irritate and escape from her father, believing Leonce to be somehow different. After marriage and the disappointments this may bring, motherhood becomes the only means by which a woman might acceptably express her individuality in some form. Passion, on the other hand, is an inner uncontrollable feeling, something sensual and deep that doesn’t abide by the laws of the land or the cultural influences of a given society.
Edna’s failures to develop her full potential are greatly evident by the end of the book as she was neither the best mother nor the greatest artist, free or constrained, fully awakened or completely asleep. Adele remains constrained within the confines of motherhood. Although this is where she is happy, she is nevertheless bounded by her responsibilities to her children. Reisz, in attempting to assert her right to be and do whatever she wishes, is prevented from expressing her own desires to their fullest. While she has already been ostracized from society, the object of her desire remains inextricably linked within that same society that would condemn the expression.
This essay reflects on the Awakening Novel by Kate Chopin from pages 535 to 625. To begin with, the treatise discusses Edna’s male relative. Besides, Mademoiselle Reisz opinion on what an artist need is applauded. Moreover, common themes, imagery, metaphors, and self actualization are presented as literary styles used by the author. In addition, this composition explores Edna’s love life and the general influence this piece of literature has on artistic impression.
Edna’s male relatives
Among Edna’s male relatives is Leonce Pontellier, who is her husband. He is described as a fond husband and a stern patriarch (Chopin, 537). He is confused at Edna’s continuous emancipation desire. Edna wonders, “How many years have I slept?” in reference to their platonic relationship (Chopin, 620).
Colonel is the father and a retired officer. Alcee refers to Edna as “the daughter he invented” (Chopin, 560). Colonel is an austere Protestant who loves displaying authority. Despite this, he gets along with his daughter. Raoul Pontellier and Etienne are Edna’s two sons. Little is known about them apart from their age being four and five years respectively.
What two things does an artist need according to Mademoiselle Reisz?
According to Mademoiselle Reisz, a renowned pianist, she advises Edna on the need to have passion in persuading her talent. She plays piano with deep emotion only understood by Edna. Besides, Madermoiselle Reisz asserts, “The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies” (Chopin, 604).
Upon reflection on these words, Edna feels like “some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known” (Chopin, 611). After undergoing a multiple of experiences, Edna resonates that “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of” (Chopin, 618).
Common theme in terms of Edna’s feelings for the men she’s loved
The theme of unrestrained morals in Edna’s love life comes out clearly in the novel. On her artistic freedom path, Edna is not conscious of her emotions. She seems lost in a spiritual sea with her husband being the victim of her “inward agony” (Chopin, 580).
In the contemporary society, it is almost unimaginable for a married woman to posses unsatisfying emancipation at the expense of her family. She believes that Léonce would one day turn up and “set her free” (Chopin, 598). Edna is weak in her emotions and dates more than three men within a short period.
She posses a dynamic emotional character, very rare during this period in the history. This protagonist is complex and unpredictable in her love life. Interestingly, the courage and strength to act on her sexual desires enables her to cut an independent identity. Her fantasies remain latent and hidden in the passion she had for Lebrun. “It is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life” (Chopin, 620).
The metaphor of the ocean and the imagery of birds
The Ocean is an awakening symbol of freedom and escape. She must brave this wide horizon on the quest towards discovery. In water, she replicates on the complexity of the world in relation to her situation.
Also, the ocean water symbolizes rebirth, awakening call to Edna on her inner strength, horror of lonely independence, and glory. Edna is a woman who “rules, who looks on, who stands alone” (Chopin, 540). In the novel, caged birds symbolizes snare Edna and other Victorian females are trapped in.
The mockingbird and parrot represent Madame Reisz and Edna, correspondingly. As the birds, society has limited their actions. Robert claims, “Mrs. Pontellier, you are cruel” when Edna expresses her opinion (Chopin, 569). As a matter of fact, the birds capable of soaring above tradition must be strong-winged. Unfortunately, Edna ends up exhausted, bruised, and fluttered back in a suicidal death.
Edna as a child
Edna Pontellier and her family spend their summer in the Isle resort belonging to the father of Robert Lebrun. Edna falls for Lebrun and this relationship becomes the fundamental conflict across the novel.
Lebrun escapes to Mexico and leaves Edna dejected resulting into a premature complications leading Edna to commit suicide. Alcee Arobin comes to Edna’s rescue when Lebrun retreats to Mexico. Though ambivalent at first, Edna eventually opens up to Alcee who happens to be a womanizer with limits to her. Edna becomes “supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties” (Chopin, 590).
Edna accepts this relationship as a buffer for the heartbreak from Lebrun. The rich Leonce is Edna’s husband. Edna seems to survive in the relationship because of the society and her two sons “Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children!” (Chopin, 613) is all Adeole could whisper to Edna (Chopin, 613). These men contributed to Edna’s emotional imbalance and she ends up committing suicide.
Critical Essay
Written over a century ago, this novel presents a practical and typical setting of a family in a conservative society. It explores women role in the family institution, their struggle to live within their peers and husband expectations. The prose narrative style of the novel offers a hesitant and nuanced outlook of how the society treats women. The novel is written in simple English with heavy influence of Creole French. The lifestyle of Edna is an irony.
Though privileged and wealthy, she feels like one of the numerous assets her husband has acquired. The husband is insensitive of her needs and only responds to some of them as status demands. Edna is depicted as a strong woman in a platonic relationship. Against her will, the society has trapped her in a boring homecare management between her paintings and she becomes “flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature” (Chopin, 589).
At the end, a reckless and capricious lifestyle overcomes her, inciting her feminist vilification of strange behavior. The novel, thus, is effective in presenting silent suffering in the face of privilege and class stratification. The numerous literary styles properly applied in this novel have made it an outstanding piece of literature. Instead of Edna letting the world “to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days”, she resorts to suicide (Chopin, 625).
Madame Ratignolle
Madame Ratignole is represented as an ideal woman in her charm and epitomized elegance as required of Creole women. She is chaste and often behaves as the moment demands. This relationship actualizes Edna’s “awakening” desires. The author narrates of a difficult child birth which reunites Edna and Ratignole. Surprisingly, Edna walks out of Roberts arms into Ratignole’s world.
Being a sensible woman, she notes Edna’s emotional distance and promptly advice her to live within the preset socialite behavioral expectation of a woman and think about her children. In this episode, the author presents Ratignole as the voice of conservative reasoning overshadowed by genuine concern for family affairs. She affirms, “Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children!” (Chopin, 613)
Work Cited
Kate, Chopin. The Awakening: Easyread Edition. ReadHowYouWant.com, 2007.Print.
Nina B, Arnold K, and Jeanne C. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume C: 1865-1914. 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2007pp 535 –625. Print.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Awakening.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002.
In literature, the naturalism movement grew as an offshoot of realism, which focused on the real over and above the incredible. However, naturalism was regarded as a more pessimistic movement that stressed the helplessness of man over nature, and it’s surrounded. To its adherents, the man was a slave to his instincts, so his actions were affected mainly by them. In the book “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, a number of issues will be identified that demonstrate the naturalist movement.
Naturalism in “The Awakening”
The author of this novel was more of a naturalist than of a realist, and she was very bold in writing this book because, during her time, it was unthinkable for a woman to be sexually expressive or even for her to leave her family to pursue her passions as depicted in the novel. In fact, the reactions against this book were so strong that they caused the author to be ostracized from her society. It was only after a couple of decades that everyone remembered the writing and saw the beauty inherent in it.
In the novel, the protagonist is well aware that society disregards her and her kind. To the male species, she is nothing more than a piece of property that can be handed down from one man to the next. Even after leaving her husband for Robert, Edna soon realizes that his perceptions of her are just the same as her husband.
This kind of helplessness that she possesses against her environment or her society is quite typical of naturalist literature. In naturalism, man is controlled by forces beyond him, and this is exactly what is being suggested in “The Awakening”. Even her efforts to question this way of life bear no fruit as the novel ends with no firm resolution of the matter.
As is clear from the analysis essay on naturalism, in the book, she wonders why no one seems to enjoy any rights except for children. Hence, she needs to be left alone in the process of resolving this matter (Chopin, 171). To some extent, Edna can be viewed as the tragic heroine in a naturalist novel.
She goes through so much, and when she cannot take it anymore, this lady ends her life. Suicidal ends are among typical characteristics of naturalism because they were aimed at striking a chord with readers who needed to identify with the helplessness of the characters in pieces.
In the novel, it is common to find that the protagonist is always struggling with issues of solitude, longing, and passion, which are all characteristic features of naturalism. This is especially visible when Edna listens to music, which controls her and takes over her mind. She is overwhelmed by these feelings and realizes that it is almost impossible to stop the tears from coming out of her. At some point, she nearly chokes as a result of these sentiments. (Chopin, 72).
The wave of naturalism was synonymous with a focus on personal feelings, as seen in many other parts of the book (Pitzer, 45). What is sad is that the author cannot feel any sense of hope or hopelessness after hearing the music; the only thing it does for her is it causes her to realize that she can feel and respond to something other than her pain or her feelings in life.
The entire book is indeed a demonstration of how humans tend to be slaves to their sentiments. Edna is a person who seems to lack strong will power. She is not bold enough to alter all the challenges she has gone through, and even when it appears as though she is fighting these values, the story later reveals that her acts were fruitless.
Feminist Perspectives
In terms of society’s expectations for women, the novel propagates yet another naturalist agenda. Here, readers are introduced to two very distinct women: Adele and Edna. One would be tempted to think that the state of affairs in that Victorian society was so biased against the women that only the rebellious ones would survive.
However, as one soon finds out, this was clearly not the best path to follow for those concerned. This society did not favor free expression amongst women, and neither did it tolerate sexual freedom. Edna chose to go about this in an abrasive and confrontational manner, a decision that costs her life.
On the other hand, Adele chooses to go about this differently. She has done this by remaining chaste to her husband while still expressing her sexuality freely. In other words, finding peace is only made possible when females embrace faithfulness rather than resisting it. Furthermore, it is possible to communicate and express oneself openly, just as Adele did when she played by the rules.
This sharp contrast, therefore, illustrates that females were not free to do as they pleased but could get some degree of freedom if they played by the rules. Fleissner (238) explains that it is sometimes possible to break away from convention when one took on the stand that Adele did. However, this only proves that society is restrictive and that one can never really enjoy their free will.
Once again, this propagates typical naturalist ideals. In fact, it can be argued that the ‘awakening’ discussion in this book occurs when the protagonist realizes that she must be careful about what she says. The awakening is not in finding what needs to be said but in finding the things that must be kept under a lid (Fleissner 239). Thus, realism in “The Awakening” is not evident.
Edna does not find her voice, as is the case in particular romantic literature. Instead, she finds out what she cannot utter. The best depiction of this occurs when she fails to find the right words to explain to the doctor why she had to leave her children.
In this sense, she cannot say certain things to him as convention dictates. Overly, this society is one in which the self must be negated and forgotten to gain an identity as a mother. Adele was able to tap into the happiness and freedom of expression that her kind can enjoy only when she canceled out her wishes and needs. Thus, the book has an evident theme of feminism.
Conclusion
This author was responsible for portraying naturalism in “The Awakening” because this movement tended to focus more on the moral vice. The author appears to tolerate moral vice even at a time when her society could not fathom it. She stresses individual needs and also talks about sexual freedom or freedom to communicate, especially as a woman. She brings out the frustration of not having control over one’s environment.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. NY: Bantam classic, 1981
Pitzer, Michael. Two approaches to the concept of naturalism. Carbondale: University of Southern Illionois, 1966
The Rhythm Method: Unmothering the Race in Chopin, Grimke, and Stein” by Jennifer Fleissner, in Women, Compulsion, Modernity, excerpt on Chopin, 233-244
The Awakening published in 1899, was a controversial book. In this book, Kate Chopin depicts Edna, her main protagonist as a woman with active sexual desires who dares to leave her husband and have an affair. What is significant about the writing of Kate Chopin In “The Awakening” is that instead of condemning her protagonist for overstepping the boundaries set by society, Chopin maintains a neutral, non-judgmental tone throughout and appears to even condone her character’s unconventional actions. The novel can be seen as an account of Edna’s progressive journey from ignorance into knowledge – the account of her quest to discover self.
Thesis: Edna’s journey to the end of the sea at the end of the novel can be interpreted in two ways: the simplistic one being that Edna commits suicide and a deeper interpretation being it’s an expression of her ‘awakening’ to the oppressive nature of her husband and her own feminist side seeking freedom.
Main body
Different critics have interpreted the ending in different ways. Joseph Urgo maintains that by the end of the novel she has discovered that her story is “unacceptable in her culture” (23) and hence decides to “extinguish her life than edit her tale” (23). Here, her suicide is interpreted in terms of societal pressure. Edna’s life has become inseparable from the role her husband, lover, and society choose for her. Peggy Skaggs’ reading of Edna’s suicide is one of despair as Edna faces the hopeless situation that she can have all her needs satisfied only at the cost of her individuality. She could have her dream life with Robert only through the societal cage of marriage that she resented. Skaggs points out that her role of wife and role of mother adds to her conflict making it impossible for Edna to continue her quest for individuality.
As she walks into the water and swims away from the shore she thinks of “Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul.” She could not be the mother to her children if it meant the cost of her individuality (p. 53). Portales contends that Edna wants an undefined, unexpressed, ineffable life that she cannot articulate or shape. Rather than live a life of compromise Edna chooses to die (Portales 436). Elaine Showalter points out in “Tradition and the Female Talent” that drowning conjures up similarities between “femininity and liquidity”. Women’s bodies are “prone to wetness, blood, milk, tears, and amniotic fluid; so in drowning the woman is immersed in the feminine organic element” (52). By choosing to drown herself Edna seeks to go inside herself and find liberation.
Edna battles with her innate sensuality and social conventions on the exterior level. Chopin portrays her as a woman whose sexual nature is unleashed and wishing to escape the enslavement of marriage. But then, her affairs with Arobin and her romantic dream of a life with Robert Lebrun do not adequately satisfy her. To Fox-Genovese, “They are loves that partake of, even as they mask, the longing for the lost mother” (p. 280). Edna is ambivalent in her reaction to the charms to the Arobin. She does not experience intimacy with Arobin. With Robert, there is only the dream of an unattached attachment. She is not ready to enter into marriage with him. She speaks in terms of an all-consuming attachment: “We shall be everything to each other. Nothing else in the world is of any consequence” (p. 103). The love she imagines is only an illusionary dream state that will protect her from estrangement or engulfment. Edna is thus torn between her own desires to overcome loneliness through a relationship with Robert and her desire for absolute freedom – to be left unhindered in her quest for an individual identity. In the ultimate choice Edna makes, she resigns herself to a sense of hopelessness.
Chopin’s description of the “seductive” power of the sea is sexual. As Edna disrobes and walks into the wavelets that “coiled like serpents about her ankles” (p. 127) her association of the sea with her sensual awakening and fulfillment creates a vision of the sea as her lover (Ryan 253). But then, the sensuality of Edna in her nude state and the sea that was “enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace” (p. 25) also carries Edna back to her childhood, to “the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end” (p. 109). The final dream of Edna Pontellier is not only of the lover’s embrace but also of the mother’s embrace – the longing to attain an intimacy that she cannot hope to have in real life and what she has not had in her past (Ryan 253). According to FoxGenovese, “Various psychoanalytic schools concur in recognizing the ocean as a maternal symbol. It is, accordingly, relatively non-controversial to suggest that Edna returns, at the novel’s close, to the maternal womb for the repose and nurture she cannot find in the human world” (p. 272).
The suicide of Edna can be seen as the ultimate outcome of depression caused by a deep longing for love. Chopin’s use of the words “despondency” and “delirium” is quite consistent with twentieth-century theories on the mood swings of many depressives. The “despondent moods” (p. 100) are noted after Robert’s return from Mexico, and Edna explains to Doctor Mandelet that “there are periods of despondency and suffering which take possession of me” (p. 105). The “despondency” sets in again on a decisive night before the suicide (p. 108). The mood swings are discussed after Mr. Pontellier wonders if his wife is “a little unbalanced mentally” (p. 55). As Edna becomes more herself, “casting aside that fictitious self” (p. 55), she becomes extremely unstable in her moods. Chopin describes Edna as a person with intense feelings that swayed from one extreme to another. Edna’s periods of elation 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” (p. 56).
But such days were followed by others “when she was unhappy, she did not know why,–when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation” (p. 56). The depressive mood swing is best described during Edna’s birthday dinner party: “she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her, which came upon her like an obsession, like something extraneous, independent of volition” (p. 84-85). Edna also behaves in erratic ways like a mentally disturbed person. She is found in one instance stomping on her wedding ring and in another, feeling sorry that her husband is leaving for New York. She behaves in an inappropriate manner at the dinner party when she practically falls apart when Victor sings Robert’s song. There are also several passages where she contends she has inner thoughts or secret ideas, which when viewed in this manner, could be construed as a step toward mental illness.
Chopin uses psychologically suggestive language in describing Edna’s feelings towards Robert: “an obsession, ever pressing itself upon her” (Chopin, p. 52) and “her infatuation” (p. 52). The terms “obsession” and “infatuation” indicate that Edna was experiencing a reawakening of her youthful sexual fantasies in her responses to Robert: “she recognized anew the symptoms of infatuation which she had felt incipiently as a child, as a girl in her earliest teens, and later as a young woman” (p. 44). Justus concurs and offers the following analysis of Edna’s regression: “… a return to the protective, self-evident identity of childhood” (p. 112). Like a child, Edna’s reactions are frequently found impulsive. Early she is described as “blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she has placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility” (p. 32).
When she breaks from her conventional role of wife and accepts Arobin as her lover, “A quick impulse that was somewhat spasmodic impelled her fingers to close in a sort of clutch upon his hand. He felt the pressure of her pointed nails in the flesh of his palms” (p. 73). She carries a childhood memory of when she fled her father’s Presbyterian service, “just following a misleading impulse without question” (p. 17). Throughout the novel, Edna is shown as a woman who is restrained and self-contained, yet is subject to impulsiveness. This impulsive nature adds to her vulnerability as a depressed person. Even the novel’s central motif, sleep, and waking has clear connections with depressive behavior. According to Lewin, sleep is related to elation in the depressive’s regressive denial (p. 101). After Edna refuses to leave her hammock and join her husband, she eases into a deep slumber: “the physical need for sleep began to overtake her ” (p. 31). Edna experiences strange drowsiness during the service when she is with Robert at the Grande Terre. When she is taken to the home of Madame Antoine, she falls into a deep sleep and when she awakens, she asks Robert, “How many years have I slept?” (p. 37). Edna reminds Doctor Mandelet “of some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun” (p. 67). These references to sleep add weight to the argument that Edna’s final swim to the sea was an outcome of depression.
Conclusion
Thus, the ending of Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” can be interpreted in many ways. The fact that Edna was a complex character with obsessive-compulsive tendencies and a fragile psyche might have contributed most to the drastic choice she makes in the end.
Works Cited
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth (1979). Kate Chopin’s Awakening. Southern Studies. Volume 18, 1979.
Lewin, Bertram David (1961). The Psychoanalysis of Elation. Psychoanalytic Quarterly Inc. New York, 1961.
Portales, Marco A. (1981). The Characterization of Edna Pontellier and the Conclusion of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Southern Studies. Volume 20, Issue 4, 1981. 425-436.
Ryan, T. Stephen (1998). Depression and Chopin’s ‘The Awakening. The Mississippi Quarterly. Volume: 51. Issue: 2. 1998. Page Number: 253+.
Showalter, Elaine (1993). Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book. Ed. Walker, A. Nancy. Bedford Publishers. Boston. 1993. 33-55.
Skaggs, Peggy (1974). Three Tragic Figures in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Louisiana Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South. Volume 4, 1974. 345-64.
Urgo, Joseph R. (1987). A Prologue to Rebellion: The Awakening and the Habit of Self-expression. The Southern Literary Journal. Vol. 20, Issue 1, 1987. 22-32.
Katherine O’ Flaherty was born on 8th February 1850 to her parents Thomas O’ Flaherty her father and mother Eliza. Her father was an Irish immigrant and her mother was of French descent. She had many female counsellors ever since she was a small girl. This is shown mainly through the tough autonomous widows in her family and the cerebral nuns in her school the sacred heart academy. She started school at the age of five.
Kate’s mother, who was only 27 years old at the time of her spouse’s demise, never remarried after that. Kate learned history, music and how to speak French from her grandmother Madame Charlevile. Kate had a best friend, Kitty Garesche with whom they studied and composed together.
In May 1861 a communal combat broke out in St. Louis and Kate’s family was exiled for their co-conspirator empathies and lost her best friend and her brother George. Her grandmother died at the age of 83. Kate lost all her siblings and by the time she was 24 she was a single child. She graduated from the sacred heart academy as a noble student who was also a good narrator and a youthful sceptic. Kate was then assigned to write an ordinary book which became her first composition.
At the age if nineteen, Kate met and fell in love with Oscar Chopin, a Louisiana resident with whom she tied the knot on the 9th June 1870. Oscar’s business fell short in 1879 and he went back to Paris. Kate got familiar with the Creole community a significant focal point of her compositions. Oscar passed on in 1883 leaving behind six children. Kate’s mother died a year after. Kate was sentimentally exhausted and she needed to turn to composing as a way of squeezing out her anger and dissatisfaction in life (Booth and Mays 500).
For over a decade Kate was considered a good writer and became a countrywide applauded writer. She composed many different compositions. Among Kate’s first works was Piano Polka a composition known as Lillian’s Polka. She produced two short stories in 1889 named Wiser than God and a point at issue. In 1890 she issued a novel ‘At fault’ which received unenthusiastic re-evaluation. Next was another novel Young Dr. Gross in 1890.
This novel discarded by many publishers and in the end she annihilated the manuscript. This was followed by a short story Desiree baby in 1896 a narrative trails a tale of Desiree who is ditched as a baby and is taken and brought up by a loving family. She gets married and they have a baby with a dark complexion. The husband sends her away claiming that she is of black ancestry only to realize that he is the one of black ancestry. This story was published in a short story collection the following year (Booth and Mays 236).
Another collection with twenty one stories, a night in Acadia, was issued in 1897. It gave a picture of her enhanced curiosity of excitement and sexuality. This collection also expressed her disquiet for the predicament of women in the Victorian Era. Then came another short story collection, a vocation and a voice.
This comprised of works previously snubbed by magazines. The renowned Story of an hour appeared in this collection. This story trails Mrs. Millard, an ill woman, who is told of her husband’s death. She locks herself in her bedroom and regains a bizarre sense of delight and liberty. Her husband turns up unexpectedly and she dies of disbelief and distress. In this story she uses elements like Irony, smiles and imagery.
This collection was discarded. Kate created many short poems and gave in essays to several periodicals in St. Louis. Then she came up with another short story ‘The storm’ which traced the story of two lover’s unfaithfulness during a rainstorm and depicted her curiosity in infatuation and infidelity.
This was followed by her masterwork, her novel ‘The awakening’. This narration follows the story of Edna Pontellier and her great effort to conquer her increasing unusual views on feminity and motherliness with the existing social attitudes of that century.
Works Cited
Booth, Alison and Mays, Kelly. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010
During the course of 19th-20th centuries, the process of Western societies’ urbanization was continuing to gain ever-increased momentum. In its turn, this created objective preconditions for these societies to grow ever-more tolerant, simply because; whereas, the existential values of village-dwellers are being concerned with intellectual inflexibility, religious fanaticism and behavioral collectivism, urban-minded individuals profess essentially opposite values of intellectual open mindedness, tolerance and perceptional individualism. In its turn, this explains why certain issues that, even as recent as hundred years ago, were not supposed to be talked about publically, such as abortion, alternative sex styles and application of contraceptives, have now attained a status of fully legitimate subjects of public discussion. Nevertheless, in 19th century’s America it was never too easy for mentally liberated individuals to proceed with exploring their individuality, especially if they happened to be women. In this paper, we will aim to explore this thesis even further by referring to Kate Chopin’s novel “The Awakening” as such that does not only represent a high literary, but also philosophical and semi-historical value.
The plot of “The Awakening” cannot be referred to as overly complex, as it is being essentially concerned with the main character Edna Pontellier going through a variety of different trials and tribulations, on the account of her refusal to feel emotionally comfortable with its actual status of a soulless commodity, imposed on Edna by extremely conservative and highly ritualized socio-political realities of 19 century America’s South. Given the fact that Chopin’s novel contains clearly defined biographical undertones, it will not be an exaggeration to suggest that “The Awakening” provides readers with rather realistic insight onto the very roots of women’s liberation movement as such that was dialectically predetermined by the laws of history. In our paper, we will aim to explore this thesis even further, while emphasizing the fact that even today, Chopin’s novel continues to represent not only literary but also philosophical value, just as it is the case with just about any works of literature that are being concerned with promotion of idea of liberation as ‘thing in itself’.
Nowadays, it became a common trend among feminist critics to refer to the character of Edna Pontellier as a woman who could not possibly enjoy marital status, because of her deep-seated mistrust of men and also because Edna was a latent lesbian. For example, in her article “The Metaphorical Lesbian: Edna Pontellier in The Awakening”, Elizabeth LeBlanc states: “I contend that the true power of the novel (The Awakening) cannot be fully realized unless it is read not only as a feminist text, but also as a lesbian text” (1996, 289). We cannot subscribe to this point of view, simply because there are no even implicit hints in the novel as to the fact that Edna was physically attracted to other women. It appears that Edna’s psychological anxieties originated out of her rather acute sense of personal freedom – it is namely this fact, which explains her behavioral ‘inadequateness’.
After having been married to Leonce Pontellier for a few years, Edna became aware of her life’s intellectual shallowness. Leonce used to treat Edna with affection, but it did not prevent him from thinking of her as essentially an inferior human being, who should solely be concerned with taking care of its husband and children. In its turn, the realization of this fact had undermined Edna’s sense of self-worth, as she perceived Leonce’s continuous attempts to control her life as being conceptually dehumanizing. Therefore, Edna’s intention to pursue a romantic affair with Victor Lebrun cannot be thought as being of solely sensual nature – by consciously trying to spend as little time as possible with Léonce and by ‘neglecting’ its duties, in regards to her children, Edna was striving for nothing less than proving its humanity in her own eyes. As Cynthia Wolff had rightly pointed out in her article “Thanatos and Eros: Kate Chopin’s the Awakening”: “Edna interests us not because she is a woman… Quite the contrary; she interests us because she is human – because she fails in ways which beckon seductively to all of us” (1973, 450). Given the fact that Edna never ceased applying a great deal of effort into trying to rationalize her mental insecurities to others, it provides us with yet another proof as to Chopin novel’s autobiographical sounding – apparently, author was well aware of what was causing Edna to act in the way she did.
Just like Chopin, Edna never ceased professing beliefs in women’s true calling as such that could not be only concerned with raising children and with serving their husbands as sex-toys. Moreover, just as it was the case with Chopin, Edna was gradually coming to realization of a simple fact that in this world, there are only three things worthy of an idealistic admiration – health, beauty and intelligence. In its turn, the process of Edna’s intellectual transformation had endowed her existential stance with clearly defined humanist subtleties: “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight” (1899, 33). Thus, it appears that Edna’s ‘irresponsible’ behavior had very little to do with her sexuality trying to find the ways of self-actualization, as feminist critics imply, but with the process of novel main character attaining wiseness. And, as we are well aware of – the more a particular individual is being intelligent/wise, the less he or she would be willing to adjust its behavior to correspond to religiously motivated dogmas of conventional morality.
In its turn, this explains why Chopin represented Edna as a woman who tended to seek emotional comfort in social withdrawal – people endowed with high intelligence find it quite impossible to live as an integral part of some rural community, the members of which proceed with highly collectivist mode of existence. This is why; “The Awakening” contains a multitude of recurring motifs of loneliness and withdrawal.
The scene, in which Edna is being represented taking a particular pleasure in swimming further and further from the shore, was meant to emphasize Edna’s anti-social attitudes as such that derived out of her disassociation with Grand Isle vacationers’ existential mediocrity, rather than out of her mental abnormality: “She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water… conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself” (71). It was also Edna’s longing for solitude, which explains the particulars of her musical taste: “One piece which that lady (Mademoiselle Reisz) played Edna had entitled ‘Solitude.’ It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. The name of the piece was something else, but she called it ‘Solitude” (65). Apparently, it is not a coincidence that the particularly low rate of one’s IQ is being consistent with this individual’s tendency to profess rurally based, collectivist values. The reason why today’s highly ‘spiritual’ but behaviorally primitive representatives of ethnic minorities prefer to reside in racially secluded ‘ghettos’, is that that they can be the least referred to as overly bright people.
In its turn, such our suggestion explains why Edna could not possibly relate to simple-minded cheerfulness of her friend Adele Ratignolle – a Creole lady, who was utterly incapable of even considering the possibility that women’s full potential might not necessarily be concerned with their ability to act as baby-making machines: “Madame Ratignolle had been married seven years. About every two years she had a baby. At that time she had three babies, and was beginning to think of a fourth one. She was always talking about her ‘condition.’ Her ‘condition’ was in no way apparent, and no one would have known a thing about it but for her persistence in making it the subject of conversation” (22). The reason why existentially primitive individuals, endowed with rural mentality, think of baby-making as their foremost priority is that the difference between them and animals is purely formal – just like it is the case with animals, these people’s lives are being driven by essentially animalistic instinct and urges. On subconscious level, natural-born-peasants know that the more they have children, the better are the chances for at least one of these children to survive. Unfortunately, one’s ability to succeed with making babies is negatively proportionate to his or her ability to lead a civilized life – the fact that, after having liberated themselves of ‘colonial oppression’, African countries began to rapidly descend back into primeval savagery, illustrates the validity of this suggestion better than anything else does.
Thus, it will not be an exaggeration to say that, even though Edna’s psychological anxieties seem to relate to her inability to attain emotional and sexual happiness, such impression is being utterly misleading. It is not the fact that Edna was growing increasingly detached from Leonce or that her sexual urges were gradually overtaking her rational psyche, which explains Edna’s ultimate demise. The actual explanation as to the subtleties of Edna’s tragedy lay in the realm of epistemology – slowly but surely, Edna was becoming aware of the utter artificiality of rurally based conservative ethics. And, to Edna’s horror – she was slowly beginning to realize that, despite her hopes, Robert Lebrun was as much of a simple-minded peasant as Adele Ratignolle, which is why he never ceased discussing the possible consequences of being in romantic relationship with Edna in terms of a marital ownership. That was something Edna could not handle: “You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,’ I should laugh at you both” (282). Despite being a woman, in physiological sense of this word, Edna had proven her deep affiliation with masculine virtues of rationale, freedom and intellectual exaltation. Eventually, Edna had realized that she herself was so much more of a man, as compared to those pathetically pretentious men she used to socialize with. Unfortunately, such realization on her part had deprived Edna of remaining hopes that she would ever be able to find a man worthy of her love.
In its turn, this explains why Edna’s suicide can be referred to as anything but emotionally motivated. In her article “The Awakening”: An Evaluation”, Jane Tompkins came up with particularly valuable observation, in regards to the ‘manly’ subtleties of Edna’s existential stance and of her suicide: “The novel does not involve the reader deeply in the experience undergone by its main character. Though Edna Pontellier’s awakening takes place before our eyes, we do not so much feel it ourselves as recognize the reality of the dilemma it represents. Chopin does not make Edna’s suicide emotionally plausible; she knows that it follows logically from her situation” (1976, 27). Out of novel’s context, it appears that it had dawned upon Edna that she would never be able to live her life to its fullest, simply because she was stuck with people who deserved nothing but contempt, on her part.
Given the fact that these people have proven themselves incapable of expanding their intellectual horizons, there was little point for Edna to even bother trying to change their ignorant ways. At the same time, Edna could not fully withdraw into herself, as the ultimate mean of addressing its psychological anxieties, simply because it is in the nature of intellectually progressive urbanites to indulge in socialization with mind-likes.
It is important to understand that unlike Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna was a married woman with many socially imposed responsibilities, which is why she could not have possibly chosen in favor of a complete social withdrawal. The realization of this fact had left Edna with only the option to swimming into the sea as far as possible, so that her drowning would never be thought of in terms of a suicide but rather in terms of a tragic carelessness. Apparently, the process of Edna’s ‘awakening’ has been concerned with the process of novel main character ridding itself of variety of perceptional illusions – once she became liberated of these illusions, Edna was able to look into the abyss of non-existence with particular calm. As Katherine Kearns had put it in her article “The Nullification of Edna Pontellier”: “Awakening to ‘truths’ predisposed from rules whose main assumption is that a woman may not add to or change – may not necessarily even know the terms of – the metaprescriptives that define her actions in the world of non-dreams and actual speech, Edna opens her eyes to her own fundamental impotence” (1991, 68). While swimming towards the death, Edna continued to think of her murderous intention in particularly calculative and unemotional manner. Being utterly intelligent woman with hypertrophied sense of personal freedom, Edna was able to rationalize a simple fact that, as popular saying goes – horrible end is still better then horror without the end. The following quotation, taken from Edna’s conversation with Doctor Mandelet, provides us with insight onto the fact that, despite what was expected from her by society; Edna never ceased assessing surrounding reality through the lenses of rationale: “The years that are gone seem like dreams – if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find – oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life” (292). Apparently, Edna was born way ahead of her time – that is exactly what constituted her personal tragedy. Just like a freedom-loving bird, Edna simply could not be kept in the cage made of social restraints and religious prejudices. In time when Western countries are being flooded by the hordes of Muslim immigrants, who insist that women should be wearing black cloaks over their faces at all times, while in public, the reading of Chopin’s novel will come in particularly handy for those who still retain illusions as to socially beneficial essence of religion-based morality and social ethics.
References
Chopin, Kate “The Awakening” (1899) 1997. University of Virginia Library. Electronic Text Center. 2010. Web.
Kearns, Katherine “The Nullification of Edna Pontellier”. American Literature 63.1 (1991): 62-88. Print.
LeBlanc, Elizabeth “The Metaphorical Lesbian: Edna Pontellier in The Awakening”. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 15.2 (1996): 289-307. Print.
Tompkins, Jane “The Awakening: An Evaluation”. Feminist Studies 3.3/4 (1976): 22-29. Print.
Wolff, Cynthia “Thanatos and Eros: Kate Chopin’s the Awakening”. American Quarterly 25.4 (1973): 449-471. Print.