The Awakening by Kate Chopin takes place during the Victorian Era, which lasted from 1837 to 1901. It was an era of strict social expectations for women and men. Edna, the main character of The Awakening, was part of the noble class, which was the highest social class of the era. Being part of the noble class included doing things such as, hosting and attending tea parties and balls, knitting, teaching the children, and obeying their husbands. Marriage for the women of this time period was not only a significant point in their lives, but also a necessity for survival because society prevented women from making a living on their own. This leads to an inescapable dependency upon a man and his income. Once a woman was married, she belonged to …show more content…
Her aspirations fueled her rebellion in relinquishing the identities of the era. For Edna, the emblems of suppression, her stereotypical life of a woman who cooks, cleans, and obeys her husband, implemented her “progression toward an artistic vocation” (Stone). Edna rarely painted, but with her “new desire to become autonomous” (Ramos), she picked up her hobby again. With the help of a famous artist in New Orleans, her pastime soon became her source of income. This excited Edna and she painted everyone she knew. Her husband, however, immediately disregarded her profession, saying, “It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family” (55). In saying this, her husband had reinforced the identities in which Edna has been trying to escape, being a wife and a mother. In any case, “she goes forward to a new conception of her self, a definition of herself as an artist” (Stone). And since Edna had her own source of income, she saved up her money and found an apartment that she fancied, and while her husband left for a business trip, she moved into that apartment. With her new cot came a sense of independence and enabled her to feel as though she had accomplished something that only men in her era ever had (Bogard). And instead of living in the house in which her husband had …show more content…
Edna, who married her husband, Leonce, on account of her father demanding she does because Leonce had high social standings, meaning he was rich, does so. “Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse,” (73) and consequently, being forced into a marriage in which she didn’t consent, only lead to feelings of apathy towards her husband. Edna experiences sexual initiation in a struggle for self-assertion and identity this led to her affair with two different men (Bogard). But, despite her struggles to reclaim her passion with other people who actually showed her the affection she craved, she realized that the structures of their sexual relationships all fit the evanescence of her desire. Meaning that no matter how many men or women she was with, she knew that, as Pontuale states, “ her feelings of desire could never be satisfied.” To elaborate, “she felt somewhat like a woman who in a moment of passion is betrayed into an act of infidelity, and realizes the significance of the act without being wholly awakened from its glamour” (74). In essence, with the relations she had, even with a man whom she verbally expressed her love for, she still could not bear to be bound by any relationship. Because that would once again mean she would have to assume the identity of belonging to somebody else. As
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.
Unlike the other women of Victorian society, Edna is unwilling to suppress her personal identity and desires for the benefit of her family. She begins “to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (35). Edna’s recognition of herself as an individual as opposed to a submissive housewife is controversial because it’s unorthodox. When she commits suicide it’s because she cannot satisfy her desire to be an individual while society scorns her for not following the traditional expectations of women. Edna commits suicide because she has no other option. She wouldn’t be fulfilled by continuing to be a wife and a mother and returning to the lifestyle that she...
Social expectations of women affected Edna and other individuals in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, struggles throughout the novel in order to become independent and avoid her roles as mother and housewife in American Victorian society in 1899. This was because women during the 19th century were limited by what society demanded of them, to be the ideal housewives who would take care of their families. However, Edna tries to overcome these obstacles by exploring other options, such as having secret relationships with Robert and Arobin. Although Edna seeks to be independent throughout the novel, in the end she has been awakened but has not achieved independence.
Her transformation and journey to self-discovery truly begins on the family’s annual summer stay at Grand Isle. “At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life- that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions. That summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little of the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her” (Chopin 26). From that point onward, Edna gains a deeper sense of desire for self-awareness and the benefits that come from such an odyssey. She suddenly feels trapped in her marriage, without being in a passionately romantic relationship, but rather a contractual marriage. Edna questions her ongoing relationship with Leonce; she ponders what the underlying cause of her marriage was to begin with; a forbidden romance, an act of rebellion against her father, or a genuine attraction of love and not lust? While Edna internally questions, she begins to entertain thoughts of other men in her life, eventually leading to sensuous feelings and thoughts related to sexual fantasy imagined through a relationship with Robert Lebrun. Concurrently, Edna wavers the ideas so clearly expected by the society- she analyzes and examines; why must women assimilate to rigid societal standards while men have no such
By Edna finding herself in the book she was freeing herself. In the novel Edna finds a new hobby, painting. Painting was her escape from the world, and it made her feel good. In the novel it says that “Mrs. Pontellier had brought her sketching materials, which she sometimes dabbled with in an unprofessional way. She liked the dabbling. She felt in it satisfaction of a kind which no other employment afforded her.”(V pg 15) Chopin explain the feeling that Edna gets while painting. It is a feeling that nothing else give her, and that is why she does it even though she is not good. Painting is what gets Edna through because it is not easy becoming you own person. When thing seem to go left Edna paints. The novel Mr. Pontellier make a comment “’It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier day which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family.’" (XIX pg 62) This comment represent how society worked back then. In responds to his statement Edna just said "I feel like painting,"(XIX pg 62) By her say she wants to go paint after Mr. Pontellier made that comment Chopin is show that Edna is escaping, or freeing herself from society. Most women need some type of escape for themselves. They need something that will get them through the process of becoming free. They need something that will make them feel good when they are
The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same
Individual will is a force that is significant, and yet can be manipulated by a more powerful source. In the Victorian Age setting within The Awakening by Kate Chopin, men have been manipulated by society. They are forced to reflect their norms on women. These norms have been caused repressive and manipulative behavior within men. Edna Pontellier, protagonist of the novel, confronts several men who confront her yearning for individualism. Each male plays a role ordained by society and as a result they develop characteristics that promote specific, yet conflicting images to the reader.
At the beginning of the novel Edna’s position in life is that of wife and mother. It is expected by society that she is devoted and serve her husband and children. This is particularly evident when her husband says to her “ If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?” (7).
When her husband and children are gone, she moves out of the house and purses her own ambitions. She starts painting and feeling happier. “There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day” (Chopin 69). Her sacrifice greatly contributed to her disobedient actions. Since she wanted to be free from a societal rule of a mother-woman that she never wanted to be in, she emphasizes her need for expression of her own passions. Her needs reflect the meaning of the work and other women too. The character of Edna conveys that women are also people who have dreams and desires they want to accomplish and not be pinned down by a stereotype.
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.
During the late nineteenth century, the time of protagonist Edna Pontellier, a woman's place in society was confined to worshipping her children and submitting to her husband. Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, encompasses the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman's life as she attempts to cope with these strict cultural demands. Defying the stereotype of a "mother-woman," Edna battles the pressures of 1899 that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. Although Edna's ultimate suicide is a waste of her struggles against an oppressive society, The Awakening supports and encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain sexual freedom, financial independence, and individual identity.
Edna’s first action that starts off her route to freedom from her relationship is when she fell in love with Robert. Edna had already married a man that she had not loved but he has not been treating her a...
In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.
“The Awakening” reveals information about the gender roles during the Victorian era, and how things around the society succeeded. This novel took place during the Victorian era, which was a time where
In the social context of Edna one can separate herself from rest of the world, or can define to choose a life which is belong to male, and consider herself as subhuman. Adele Ratignolle is a ‘mother woman’, because she is personified as fixed wife and mother. Such women’ world is surrounded by her husband and children. She is a very brilliant pianist, and her private act, playing piano is for the purpose of her family. (Quote). Her frequent concentration on pregnancy seems improper to Edna. As if Adele is meant to be a mother, and she pleased to feel it. According to Edna, mother women are failing...