Theme of Isolation in The Awakening
One theme apparent in Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, is the consequence of solitude when independence is chosen over conformity. The novel's protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is faced with this consequence after she embarks on a journey of self-discovery. "As Edna's ability to express herself grows, the number of people who can understand her newfound language shrinks" (Ward 3). Edna's awakening from a conforming, Victorian wife and mother, into an emotional and sexual woman takes place through the use of self-expression in three forms: emotional language, art, and physical passion.
The first form of self-expression Edna learns is the emotional language spoken by the Creole women. These "mother-women" of Grand Isle freely use language to express their frank emotions and illustrate the stories of their every-day lives. Edna is initially shocked by "their entire absence of prudery" but she later finds it liberating (Chopin 686). Her Creole friend Adele Ratignolle is the most influential in Edna's verbal liberation. They spend a day at the beach together and Edna learns she can face her emotions, past and present, without fear. As she recognizes this change within herself, she begins to question the rules and ideas she has based her life on. Chopin acknowledges, "she [Edna] began to loosen a little the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her" (690). This first step toward true self-expression are "like a first breath of freedom" for Edna, leaving her wanting more (Chopin 694).
Along with more expressive language, Edna learns to express her identity through art. Her teacher of this method is Mademoiselle Reisz, a Creole pianist. When previously lis...
... middle of paper ...
...r once again, leaving her devastated.
As Edna nears the end of the novel, she has reached full self-realization and independence through these three forms of expression. Her despair comes in the fact the she has surpassed each of her teachers, leaving her in a free, but lonely world. Edna is convinced her awakening, though liberating, has only led to essential solitude and chooses the ultimate isolation of death.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Anthology of American Literature. Volume II: Realism to the Present. Ed. George McMichael. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 697-771.
Davis, Sara de Saussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 12 pp. 59-71. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX. 11 Feb. 2003
Ward, Selena. "Spark Notes on The Awakening." 11 Feb 2003.
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
Joel pleads for help, making sure to tell the soldier that he thinks Sarah’s leg is broken. After the soldier radios in, asking for advice, it is heavily implied that the soldier is ordered by ear to shoot them. After slight hesitation, the soldier lifts his rifle and fires at the two. Joel practically flies in the opposite direction of the soldier for cover, only causing him and Sarah to stumble and fall down a small hill. The soldier hastily follows them and aims his gun directly at Joel’s head. Joel begs for his life and is saved when the soldier is shot and falls over. Just as Joel picks his head up and looks, the camera also pans left to reveal Tommy, with Joel’s revolver in hand. Immediately after, Joel hears crying and jumps to Sarah’s side who he notices was shot and is excessively bleeding from her abdomen. Joel tries to comfort her and applies pressure to her wound in an attempt to save her life, but in response are only heart-breaking shrieks and cries from Sarah, who is clasping onto her dad, until the cries finally stop and she dies in his arms. Joel breaks down hysterically crying, shaking, and tightly hugging his daughter as beautiful yet dark instrumental music begins to chime in in the background up until the screen cuts to the title of the game, The Last of Us, followed by the opening
...here is an ideal truth greater than that of motherhood. Motherhood becomes another allusion that Edna must dispel. That final truth, the greater truth, can not coexist with the social, moral, or the biological obligations of motherhood. Edna's suicide is tragic and victorious. Tragic, because Edna could not become the person she wanted to be because of the restrictions society placed on mothers; victorious, because Edna did not conform to a patriarchal society.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Selected Short Stories of Kate Chopin. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. A Norton Critical Edition: Kate Chopin: The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. 3-109.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Anthology of American Literature. Volume II: Realism to the Present. Ed. George McMichael. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 697-771.
Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." Literature: Thinking, Reading, and Writing Critically. 2nd ed. Ed. Sylvan Barnet et al. New York: Longman, 1997. 607-699.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 2nd. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994. Print.
Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990.
Spangler, George M. "Kate Chopin's The Awakening: A Partial Dissent." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 3 (1970): 249-55.
I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me….but a woman who would give her life for her children could do no more than that” (Chopin.64). Both Edna and Adele have contrasting ideas about motherhood. Since Adele’s personality causes no cognitive dissonance she has no idea what Edna means when she says she would not give up herself. But while Adele pitys Edna , Edna is also pitying Adele. Because even though Adele is happy and free of anguish Edna is experiencing she lives in this colorless existence unknowingly following a path society said she must. This is why it’s so hard for Adele to understand Edna: A woman who does not fit that role, does not possess the same domestic harmony, and also is very detached from her family. The anguish and cognitive dissonance that surrounds Edna is due to the fact knows what others want her to be and their inability to understand others may be different. Despite the detachment and isolation Edna will not chop the pieces of herself off that do not fit into the mold and she will not give up
Edna’s failed relationship with her husband Leonce highlights her tendency towards isolation and her breaking away from the security Leonce provides. During their vacation on Grand Isle, the couple has various disputes and Edna, in turn, begins to defy the wishes of her husband. She proclaims,“I mean to stay out here. I don’t wish to go in, and I don’t intend to. Don’t speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you”(Chopin 47). Edna’s deficiency of her husband’s intentions reflects her new perspective on life as well as growing theme that Edna prefers her isolation. Edna’s repetitive use of “I” reflects her intention to distinguish herself as individual apart from her marriage.The beneficiary
Chopin, Kate. Complete Novels and Stories. Ed. Sandra M. Gilbert. New York: Library of America, 2002. Print.
El Recado es un cuento de la esperanza y amor. La protagonista viene a visita Martin, pero el no esta en su casa. Entonces ella esperas en peldano, y esperanza que el aparece pronto. Esperanza es una palabra muy importante en el cuento. La palabra es usado directamente tres veces en la obra 26, 31, y 39. Tambien en el principio de el cuento todo es de un afecto sensual. Mientras ella esta en el peldano vea el jardin de Martin. Da caracteristicas humanos (personificacion) a los flores en el jardin ( 6-7), estos caracteristicas como honesto y graves probablamente tambien de su amante. Luego ella hace una comparacion directa entre el y el jardin “Todo el jardin es solido, es como tu, tiene una reciedumbre que inspira confianza.” Este oracion no solamente tiene un simil, pero tambien ayuda en mostrando la comparacion a un mujer de un hombre. El hombre es personificado con palabras de fuerza, mientras todo el cuento muestra una mujer debil.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 535-625. Print.