Angella Conteh October 27, 2017 AP Literature Mr. Amoroso The Awakening Topic Five: Describe the course of Edna’s awakening. By Kate Chopin Conteh Page One One’s life isn’t whole if they fail to take time out and discover who they are, the reason for their existence, and their life’s purpose. For without self searching one will solely live by societal standards never exploring their deepest desires and hidden talents and in no way reaching unconditional freedom. We see the journey of Edna Pontellier’s soul searing in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening as Edna fearlessly sacrifices her glamoured rigid life for one with a flexible amount of possibilities. Chopin takes us to the warm waters of the Grand Isle, a popular summer getaway …show more content…
Robert had invited Edna to go to the beach with him and at first she denied but compelled by the spell of defiance followed along allowing herself to indulge in deep self understanding. “A certain light was was beginning to dawn dimly within her,- the light which, which showing the way, forbids it.The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in it’s soft, close embrace” (Chopin 13), that night Edna had formed a fatal attraction to the sea and its seductivity for the presence of the river weighed heavy that night. Causing her to develop a great love for swimming for it gave her a reason to be wrapped up in the ocean’s smothering …show more content…
“She reflected back on her time at the Grand Isle and she tried to discover wherein this summer had been different from any and every other summer of her life. She could only realize the she herself- her present self was in some way different from the other self” (Chopin 40) , she had become a roaring sea of independence and could no longer go back to just being Mrs. Pontellier. In New Orleans she would be rejecting her old life for one filled with adventure and rebellion. Back in a house filled with tangible items Edna fought against remaining another one of Leonce’s valuable objects. She threw her wedding ring on the ground in symbolizing her old existence, she needed to hear the clatter of destruction to remind herself that the old Edna had been destroyed and to live as a new being. From here on out she firmly expressed her living by her own free will finding joy in her artistry for she controlled the strokes of the paint brush not only on canvas but in all aspects of life. She began selling portraits in attempt to become financially independent and made plans on moving out of the bejeweled cage that was the Pontellier
She pursued activities that would allow her to become more individualistic, such as painting or art. Chopin decides to have Mrs.Pontellier’s character explore art, so she can address Mrs.Pontellier’s relationship with herself and her struggle to become an expressive artist. Throughout this short period Mrs.Pontellier constantly visits an accomplished female artist, Mademoiselle Reisz, who has abandoned the suppressive ideals of her time. Mademoiselle Reisz remarks, “I do not know you well enough to say. I do not know your talent or your temperament. To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts-absolute gifts-which have not been acquired by one’s own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul”(Pg.63). Chopin includes this, to show how Mrs.Pontellier is becoming ambitious and developing personal goals and interests. The significance of this pursuit of creativity is to reveal the importance of becoming her true self, in order to produce her own signature art. The underlying message is that to be an artist, one must have their own style, perspectives, opinions, and self assertiveness. Mrs.Pontellier however, is stuck between being a devoted mother and wife, or an artist who defies the standards upon her. Alongside this, Chopin conveys that with the absence of her husband, she has the opportunity to reflect on who she
In Kate Chopin's, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier came in contact with many different people during a summer at Grand Isle. Some had little influence on her life while others had everything to do with the way she lived the rest of her life. The influences and actions of Robert Lebrun on Edna led to her realization that she could never get what she wanted, which in turn caused her to take her own life.
Leonce Pontellier, the husband of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, becomes very perturbed when his wife, in the period of a few months, suddenly drops all of her responsibilities. After she admits that she has "let things go," he angrily asks, "on account of what?" Edna is unable to provide a definite answer, and says, "Oh! I don't know. Let me along; you bother me" (108). The uncertainty she expresses springs out of the ambiguous nature of the transformation she has undergone. It is easy to read Edna's transformation in strictly negative terms‹as a move away from the repressive expectations of her husband and society‹or in strictly positive terms‹as a move toward the love and sensuality she finds at the summer beach resort of Grand Isle. While both of these moves exist in Edna's story, to focus on one aspect closes the reader off to the ambiguity that seems at the very center of Edna's awakening. Edna cannot define the nature of her awakening to her husband because it is not a single edged discovery; she comes to understand both what is not in her current situation and what is another situation. Furthermore, the sensuality that she has been awakened to is itself not merely the male or female sexuality she has been accustomed to before, but rather the sensuality that comes in the fusion of male and female. The most prominent symbol of the book‹the ocean that she finally gives herself up to‹embodies not one aspect of her awakening, but rather the multitude of contradictory meanings that she discovers. Only once the ambiguity of this central symbol is understood can we read the ending of the novel as a culmination and extension of the themes in the novel, and the novel regains a...
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.
Society, although undoubtedly necessary, perpetuates an unduly restrictive set of expectations that few can live up to. In her novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin explores the psychological rebirth of protagonist Edna Pontellier, who comes to realize her dissatisfaction with her domestic role in nineteenth-century society. She cares for her husband Leonce and their two children, but seeks greater independence, risking Leonce’s disapproval by moving out of the house to pursue painting. In contrast, Edna’s friend Adele Ratignolle thrives as a housewife and mother, finding enjoyment in piano playing to benefit her household. In her attempt to achieve freedom, Edna finds inspiration in the reclusive pianist Mademoiselle Reisz, who advises Edna to rescind her societal ties in favor of becoming a true artist.
As the summer progresses, Mrs. Pontellier finds herself being continuously intrigued by and wanting to spend more time with Robert. The pair often walks or swims together, and the combination of time with Robert and the “voice of the sea” appear to propel her through a literal awakening, in which she recognizes her desire to become independent of the social bounds of marriage—free to do as she pleases (Chopin 571). She decides then that “She [wants] to swim far out, where no woman [has] swum befo...
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.
Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening. In Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening, the reader is introduced into. a society that is strictly male-dominated where women fill in the stereotypical role of watching the children, cooking, cleaning and keeping up with appearances. Writers often highlight the values of a certain society by introducing a character who is alienated from their culture by a trait such as gender, race, or creed.
In the book, The Awakening, Kate Chopin addresses a common struggles woman face in society through the main character Edna Pontellier during the 1800s. Edna Pontellier is an American woman infused with charm and grace. Edna’s charm could not escape her. She moved gracefully among the crowds and appeared self-contained. Edna learned to master her feeling by not showing outward and spoken feelings of affections, either in herself or in others. This type of behavior appears common in society and understood within Edna’s the marriage relationship with her husband. However, one summer while vacationing at the Grand Isle, the reserved manner Edna always enveloped began to loosen a little and her soul began to awaken.
A strong critique by existentialist writers of modern society is the way in which humans live unexamined, meaningless lives with no true concept of what it is to be an unique individuals. In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening and in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Greenleaf” the characters Edna and Mrs. May, respectively, begin almost as common, stock characters living unfulfilled lives. They eventually converge, however, upon an elevated life and death filled with new meaning through their struggle with their role as individuals surrounded by other important beings.
after her husband and children, they were treated as second class citizens with few rights.
Sacrifices can define one’s character; it can either be the highest dignity or the lowest degradation of the value of one’s life. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin implicitly conveys the sacrifice Edna Pontellier makes in the life which provides insight of her character and attributions to her “awakening.” She sacrificed her past of a lively and youthful life and compressed it to a domestic and reserved lifestyle of housewife picturesque. However, she meets multiple acquaintances who help her express her dreams and true identity. Mrs. Pontellier’s sacrifice established her awakening to be defiant and drift away from the societal role of an obedient mother, as well as, highlighting the difference between society’s expectations of women and women’s
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.
Boren, Lynda S., and Sara DeSaussure Davis, eds. Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1999. Print.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a story about a well to do young woman, Edna Pontellier, who lives with her family in Louisiana during the late 1890’s. Set in a variety of scenes, it follows Edna as she engages on a personal journey of increasing autonomy, continually seeking both greater happiness and greater personal independence in the hope of leading a more meaningful and fulfilling life. In so doing, the novel portrays societal expectations for women in the post-war South during the late 1800’s, and shows the difficulties they faced if they refused to conform. The place of women in society can be seen in the way that the women in the novel act and speak, particularly in regards to their husbands and children, but also to others in general.