Childhood Experiences in The Awakening by Kate Chopin

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, her protagonist, Edna Pontellier, a displaced woman of the 19th century lives a life influenced by the men in her society. Edna, a stranger in her own home, has a difficult time accepting traditional roles in society and her role as a mother. People of society in 19th century America, especially in the New Orleans, stigmatized women who felt the need to leave the home and disregard their duties as unacceptable ladies. Evidently Edna is looked down upon for her erratic behavior. In order to be accepted in her community Edna feels the need to live a life she is not content with. However, she soon realizes that she will not allow herself to deviate from her passion in order to satisfy people other than herself. This awareness comes from her interactions with the men around her, for they each teach her something about herself. They unearth her utter dissatisfaction with the restrictions placed on her by society and even her growing sexual awareness. Men, from the likes of her father to her lover, each play a pivotal part in Edna’s awakening.

Childhood experiences, whether negative or positive, tend to have a long lasting effect on people for those experiences modify their perception in life. As a child, Edna’s mother passes away leaving her with only her father the Colonel, as a parental figure and her sister to care for her. The Colonel, a devoted Protestant, has strict traditional views of women and how men should treat them. During her youth, Edna learns that she is not committed to the church as much as her father prefers her to be. During a conversation with Madame Ratignolle Edna confesses, “Likely as not it was Sunday and I was running away from prayers, from the Presbyterian service, re...

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...’t plan on living, feels the need to be rescued. She develops relationships with men who she believes can save her from the restriction society and her marriage has placed on her only to realize that they cannot help her, she must rescue herself. In order for her to come to that realization Edna must first make the mistake of feeling like a helpless victim. Her path is composed lessons, lessons that she learns from her interactions with Robert, Alcee, and even Doctor Mandelet. The men in her life provoke her, each in their own way, to take action into her own hands and free herself for no one will ever truly 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.” (Chopin, 139)

Works Cited

Walker, Nancy. Kate Chopin ; the Awakening. Boston: Bedford, 2000. Print.