The Awakening – In Defense of Edna
Does everyone have the right to happiness? It is stated in the
Constitution that we as Americans have the right to life, liberty, and the
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin the main
Character Edna has a comfortable life. A sweet loving husband, cute
children, enormous amounts of money and an extremely large house. Yet with all
of this Edna is not fulfilled. Edna never took time to examine her life to see
what she wanted out of it. After marriage, Edna wanted the freedom to
explore her mind, find herself and find what this person liked. In the
following I will defend the actions Edna took to find her happiness as
irrational as they may seem.
This story took place in the late 1800's when women's liberation was never heard
of. In this era women were supposed to find happiness in serving their husbands
and taking care of the children. There were no other options within the
restrictive boundaries of marriage, and divorce was never an alternative.
Women's lives were austere and self enrichment or self gratification were often
times cast aside relative to the more mundane tasks of daily life. Most women
accepted this but Edna did not. She figured that life was more than constantly
doing for someone else. She wanted time for herself in order to figure out who
she was. Some may see this as selfish but everyone is entitled to “me” time and
space. Although I admit she did not go about it in the best way at times; Edna
still was in going in the right direction.
Edna's marriage to Leonce Pontellier was to spite her father the Colonel because
Leonce was of a different religious faith. Also, Leonce was unceasingly devoted
to Edna which was something that had never occurred in any other relationship.
Edna, who had not experienced many male relationships before this was naive when
it came to men. This naiveté affected her in such a way that she neither knew
love and it's limitations nor the experience it took to make it through a
relationship. This showed Edna's immaturity which was a big issue in this story.
This shown as the woman inside who had been asleep all those years. Her
relationship with Leonce was what she sought to find happiness in.
After six years of marriage to Leonce, Edna felt an ever-growing void in her
life. She gave up all of her responsibilities such as taking care of her
children when they were sick and she never spent time playing with them.
her position and truly valued the fact that she was helping people and at the same time, felt that
others. In the beginning of the story she was always doubting herself and thinking she
In the third chapter she really expresses her true unhappiness with her husband and her children. She really has no interest in her children and caring for them as a mother. I can blame Edna, because she knew what she was in for when she married Leonce. But, I also feel sorry for her because reality hit her too late, and she’s miserable. I felt like she thought maybe giving it a chance with this man and bearing children, that she may learn to enjoy this life. WRONG!!
Prior to this scene, Edna does have some awareness of the duality of her existence. The narrator tells us that “[e]ven as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life--that outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions” (14). As Edna grew older, that awareness was pushed aside. Chopin makes a comparison between Edna’s religious faith and how she conducts her secular life. She describes how, as a child, Edna once ran away from church and wandered aimlessly through a field of tall grass. She was simply following her impulses and her desires unthinkingly. As Edna grew older, her feelings towards religion changed: “During one period of my life religion took a firm hold upon me,” she states, “after I was twelve and until--until--why, I suppose until now, though I have never much thought much about it--just driven along by habi...
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.
She desperately wanted a voice and independence. Edna’s realization of her situation occurred progressively. It was a journey in which she slowly discovered what she was lacking emotionally. Edna’s first major disappointment in the novel was after her husband, Leonce Pontellier, lashed out at her and criticized her as a mother after she insisted her child was not sick. This sparked a realization in Edna that made here realize she was unhappy with her marriage. This was a triggering event in her self discovery. This event sparked a change in her behavior. She began disobeying her husband and she began interacting inappropriately with for a married woman. Edna increasingly flirted with Robert LeBrun and almost instantly became attracted to him. These feelings only grew with each interaction. Moreover, when it was revealed to Edna that Robert would be leaving for Mexico she was deeply hurt not only because he didn’t tell her, but she was also losing his company. Although Edna’s and Robert’s relationship may have only appeared as friendship to others, they both secretly desired a romantic relationship. Edna was not sure why she was feeling the way she was “She could only realize that she herself-her present self-was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored
Most striking in this passage are the last two sentences. It is in these phrases that Edna begins to demonstrate something important about herself. She feels “relief” when the children are gone. She feels “free” of the “responsibility.” One “which she had blindly assumed.” Edna had simply accepted the role of motherhood. It was expected, and so she had asked no questions. She is now realizing, however, that she feels this is a position in life “for which fate had not fitted her.
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.
The novel traces the historical lives of Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Anthony Comstock as well as that of the fictional Freydeh Levin, mainly during the years of 1868 to 1874. The action is set in and around New York City. Also prime characters in this epic are the first women's movement and the post civil war re-constructionist gilded age, as they and their social ramifications intertwine with and impact the lives of the human characters.
During the first phase of Edna’s transformation (awakening), she realizes that she is not content with her lifestyle; she wants to could change her life and achieve freedom and bliss, so she turns her pursues this new goal. Chopin describes Edna’s perspective of her life during the beginning of her awakening: “There were days 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. She could not work on such a day, nor weave fancies to stir her pulses and warm her blood.” (97). She recognizes the pointlessness of the life she is living, she realizes that without change, her life has no direction. If she continued with her uneventful existence, she would never experience anything she wants to experience. Her pessimistic view of her world is one of the key reasons that she undergoes her transformation; she was thirsting for an adventure so that she coul...
Her path to this point is a complex struggle to carve out the solitude she craves - companionship when and with whom of her choosing. As Edna grows to recognize her own voice, she suffers alternately euphoria, despair and frustration. Her choices develop from a heightened sense of the world around her, of her own preferences and desires. Her experiences, beginning with Robert Lebrun, open her to these sensations, and the sensations provide her with the power to free herself. Looking at examples of Edna's increasingly acute and outward responses to stimuli and her equally willful behavior, her search for solitude evolves as a woman becoming aware of her choices.
In the beginning of the semester, one of my major problems was constructing my thesis statement. A thesis is a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text with examples and evidence. Without a well-developed thesis, your essay will be unorganized. I always had trouble choosing the main points of the essay. Throughout the semester, writing my thesis statement became easier because I
Could the actions of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening ever be justified? This question could be argued from two different perspectives. The social view of The Awakening would accuse Edna Pontellier of being selfish and unjustified in her actions. Yet, in terms of the story's romanticism, Edna was in many ways an admirable character. She liberated herself from her restraints and achieved nearly all that she desired. Chopin could have written this novel to glorify a woman in revolt against conventions of the period. Yet, since the social standpoint is more factual and straightforward, it is the basis of this paper. Therefore, no, her affairs, treatment of her family and lovers, and suicide were completely unwarranted. She was not denied love or support by any of those close to her. Ultimately Edna Pontellier was simply selfish.
In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the setting is in the late 1800s on Grand Isle in Louisiana. The main character of the story is Edna Pontellier who is not a Creole. Other important characters are Adele Ratignolle, Mr. Ratgnolle, Robert Lebrun, and Leonce Pontellier who are all Creole's. In the Creole society the men are dominant. Seldom do the Creole's accept outsiders to their social circle, and women are expected to provide well-kept homes and have many children. Edna and Adele are friends who are very different because of their the way they were brought up and they way they treat their husbands. Adele is a loyal wife who always obeys her husband's commands. Edna is a woman who strays from her husband and does not obey her husband's commands. Kate Chopin uses Adele to emphasize the differences between her and Edna.
I was never a person that liked to write essays. This semester I really enjoyed writing those essays and specially because I was learning new things while writing them. Some things I could do to improve my essay writing are not to wait till the last three or four days before I turn my essay in to start doing it. Another thing I will do is if I forget how to do something or about some rule in the common errors I made I will just go back to all the lessons I printed out to have as reference. I think those will help me allot. And one last thing I will do to improve my writing is to try my best not to confuse all those words I got confused. I will do my best to learn each word and its rule of where it goes so I won’t have the same mistakes I had this semester.