The first theme I chose is differing views in a relationship can play a fatal role in the outcome of it. This directly applies to The Awakening because in the beginning of the story we are introduced to Edna Pontellier and come to learn that she is married and has children. The problem however is that Mrs. Pontellier has no interest in her children nor her husband. Mr. Pontellier says things like “He thought it very discouraging that his wife who was the sole object of his existence evinced so little interest in thing which concerned him and valued so little his conversation.” (12) The reader can see this taking place on page 13 when Mr. Pontellier tells his wife that he believes that one of the children has a fever, but she simply shrugs the notion off and shows little concern in the information her husband has just told her. She even goes out …show more content…
onto the porch and weeps because she knows that she is in a relationship that she doesn’t truly value. Another example of her disloyalty to this marriage takes place on page 141 when she decides that she is going to move out of the family home and live on her own. These actions tie together, forming the theme that I chose. Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier had different views on their marriage and this led to Edna distancing herself from her husband. Infidelity is the second theme I chose.
Simply put, this is the action of being un-loyal to a spouse. Throughout the story, this in fact is exactly what Edna Pontellier does. Mrs. Pontellier’s starts becoming close with Robert, another character in the story. While they are vacationing, they start spending more and more time with each other. For example, in chapter 12 the two decide to get on a boat and go attend church. While reading this left me quite confused since Edna was of course married, so why would she be accompanying another man. Edna develops feelings for Robert and he develops feelings for her. The author makes this apparent by having the narrator say things like “The lovers were all alone.” (57) After Robert leaves for Mexico, Edna finds a gap in her love life, and becomes depressed. She finds a new man who can meet her needs, Alcee Arobin. He too is a young man just as Robert was. Arobin starts spending more and more time with Edna. “She was splendid and robust, and had never appeared handsomer then in the old blue gown…” (141) Arobin was clearly interested in Mrs. Pontellier and thought very high of
her.
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.
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
A typically assumed reason for having an affair is that the person's spouse is, in some way, unsatisfactory. Perhaps by their affair, they are searching for a better source of love. This, however, was not a justifiable cause for Edna's adultery. Mr. Pontellier was a loving husband who tried to show his love for Edna in all of the ways he was able. Léonce showered his wife with valuable gifts. His life revolved around money, and he knew no other way to show his wife how much he loved her. He attempted to compensate Mrs. Pontellier materialistically for the lack of emotional support. While this may not be an ideal solution to the problem, it cannot be denied that Mr. Pontellier was trying to diminish the problems between them. Yet, even though it is understandable that she is upset that her husband lacks family skills, getting married was solely Edna's fault. The history of their relationship is far from perfect. Chopin states "her marriage to Léonce Pontellier was purely an accident... He fell in love...and pressed his suit with an earnestness and an ardor which left nothing to be desired. He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her" (18). Edna was not fair to him when she married him without loving him. She "grew fond of her husband" (18), but fondness is not a good reason for marriage.
Often in novels, a character faces conflicting directions of ambitions, desires, and influences. In such a novel, like “The Awakening,'; the main character, Edna Pontellier, faces these types of conflicting ideas. In a controversial era for women, Edna faces the conflict of living in oppression but desiring freedom. The patriarchal time period has influenced women to live only under the husband’s thumb but at the same time, break away from such repression. These opposing conflicts illuminated the meaning of “social awakening'; in the novel.
Kate Chopin's The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother living in the upper crust of New Orleans in the 1890s. It depicts her journey as her standing shifts from one of entrapment to one of empowerment. As the story begins, Edna is blessed with wealth and the pleasure of an affluent lifestyle. She is a woman of leisure, excepting only in social obligations. This endowment, however, is hindered greatly by her gender.
Forms of physical self expression like clothing are utilized by Kate Chopin throughout the text of “The Awakening” to symbolize the driving purpose of Edna Pontellier’s regression. While both the author, Kate Chopin and the critic, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, agree that Edna shows progression and regression throughout the entire story; the reasoning behind the regression is dependent on fate and not personal choosing. Fox-Genovese wrote that Edna Pontellier led from a progression to a regression due to her individualism, however, I believe that Edna’s progression is due to her individualism but the regression is fate destined for her. Edna regresses from a state of individualism to fate catching up with her and the rejection of herself as life
Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier, ventures through a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mrs.Pontellier is a mother and wife who begins to crave more from life, than her assigned societal roles. She encounters two opposite versions of herself, that leads her to question who she is and who she aims to be. Mrs. Pontellier’s journey depicts the struggle of overcoming the scrutiny women face, when denying the ideals set for them to abide. Most importantly the end of the novel depicts Mrs.Pontellier as committing suicide, as a result of her ongoing internal
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
In Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, the reader immediately notices the sexual undertones of Mrs. Mallard and Robert’s relationship and the strained relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Mallard. There are always going to be women who do not want the routine “married with children” lifestyle, unfortunately in Edna’s time period that was the primary role of women. Had she been living in today perhaps she would have been without a husband and children, possibly totally devoted to a career in the arts and totally single. Back to her reality though: I believe she is unsure if she wants that one true love (supposedly Robert) or if she just wants anyone who will pay her a little attention and is fun (supposedly Alcee Arobin). Edna wants to be Wild and Free, not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but she needs to recognize it for what it is because she is really fooling herself.
The time Edna spends in water is a suspension of space and time; this is her first attempt at realizing Robert's impermanence. In a strange way, Edna is taking her self as an object of meditation, where at the extremity of self absorption, she should be able to see through her own selflessness. "As she swam she seemed to be reaching for the unlimited in which to lose herself[emphasis added]" (Chopin 74). Edna has left her earthly existence on the shore and looked forward to a new existence, with the "unlimited", or nirvana as a tantalizing prize on the other shore. Her mistake lies in looking back.
In one’s lifetime, he or she may face an internal struggle. Perhaps the struggle lies in a difficult choice between right and wrong. Perhaps it lies in a decision between want and need. Maybe one must contemplate how much his or her happiness is truly worth. Regardless, every person has internal conflict not easily solved. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier struggles with two conflicting forces, expectations of her and her own desires, illuminating the meaning of the novella: defying societal expectations in order to seek individuality and independence is always just.
After she returned with Leonce form vacation she never truly returned to reality and her duties as a wife and mother. She abandoned her duties as woman of the house, and when Leonce moved to New York for a few months she began seeing another man, Alcee Arobin. In a way Arobin was her way to live out her fantasy of her and Robert’s relationship, because Robert had moved to Mexico that summer and she no longer had his companionship. At the same time Leonce left for New York, the children were also taken to their grandparents indefinitely. Edna had no responsibilities and carried out her life as if she were a single woman. She moved into her own little house around the corner from the mansion her family lived in. She spent her days walking around town, painting, or visiting friends. She even kissed two men while her family was away (Robert and Arobin). She felt quiet satisfied with this new life of hers, and felt this is where she was supposed to be, not tied down by a family and children whom she did not even fully care
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.
Mac Shaughnessy Mrs. Schroder AP Literature January 2, 2017 The Awakening Essay In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, many characters are able to influence the protagonist of the novel, Edna Pontellier, through their views on life, culture, class, gender and creed. Social values in the book were very progressive for the time when the novel was initially released, giving a sort of scandalous vibe to readers. With this, Kate Chopin was able to have a wide range of characters from the average, respectable housewife, Adèle Ratignolle, to the free-spirited, frowned-upon single women, Mademoiselle Reisz.
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.