Edna Pontellier's Role In The Awakening

Role of Women

Edna Pontellier lives in a world where women are supposed to act, think and live a certain way because it was expected of them. In the first couple chapters of the book we see Edna slowly retreating back from what is expected from her. Edna during that duration was trying to find herself and her identity instead of looking at what was expected from her. At the beginning she was more willing to accept her husband wishes but near the end she completely removes herself from the family she once known and cared much for. The characters that Chopin creates play a role in Edna’s non-conforming ideology. Chopin has a balance of characters where some influence her to become independent while others influence her to be “normal”. In The

Awakening, Chopin displays Edna Pontellier as a character who bears malice toward the role of women to highlight that many women felt this way during the early 1900’s.
“In short Mrs.

Pontellier was not a mother woman” (Chopin 10). Many people realized that Edna was not a very motherly figure. She loves her children but she would not lose herself in them. Her husband, Mr. Pontellier, also notices that Edna does not really care about her kids that much. “It would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define to his own satisfaction or anyone else's wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children. It was something which he felt rather than perceived, and he never voiced the feeling without subsequent regret and ample atonement” (Chopin 10). Children were not something she thought about before getting married to her husband. She wanted to be a musician or an artist instead of a mother. In her point of view once she gave birth to her two children she realized that those dreams she had were now crushed. In the middle of The Awakening, Edna meets Mademoiselle Reisz. Mademoiselle Reisz helps and coaches Edna to become both an artist and a musician. Edna idolizes Reisz because she helped Edna find that peace in her. With that Edna finally became what she wanted to

be.
Chopin creates a character, Robert Lebrun, who has Edna hate society’s standards and rules more viciously.

Robert Lebrun was Edna’s lover. He was the one who played the most crucial role in having Edna realize that she in fact did not love her husband and she was willing to do anything and everything to be with Robert. Robert pursued to be with anyone before Edna. He was emotionally mature and childish though charming and caring. Edna did admit that she loved Robert but she was not allowed to do anything about it besides have an affair. During the early 1900s there was no such thing as a divorce meaning the affairs in that time period occurred frequently and happened often. Not being able to divorce Mr. Pontellier did not matter to her because she did have an affair with Robert, both emotionally and sexually. Robert leaves for Mexico because he understands that he does love Edna but there is nothing he can do about it. People in their society resented the idea of divorcing someone and marrying someone else. Once Robert left for Mexico and her husband was in New York, Edna met Arobin who opened up and let Edna develop sexual needs and lust. Women were talked about if they were not loyal to their husbands but men always had the excuse that they had needs therefore it was okay for them to cheat and have affairs. These sections of The Awakening made Edna the character that despises the role of women. She deemed it unfair. Chopin does this to explain to her readers that these

actions were not permitted in that time period but rather than elope they stayed and had affairs for long amounts of times.

Adele Ratignolle is the complete opposite of Edna. Adele cares for her children all day every day. She is also a devoted wife. Edna cares for her children at the very least amount and she has sexual affairs with people other than her husband. Adele is the ideal women of the era’s culture. She is everything that Edna has to be but doesn’t want to be. Adele urges Edna to think of her children and to be a better wife to her husband. Since Edna and Adele are friends she is grateful for the advice but she just does not see herself living the way that Adele is. When people look at Adele they see beauty and the immense care for her husband and children but Edna looks at Adele she sees expectations, expectations that she refuses to care for. Edna adores the fact that Adele is immensely happy but when Edna sees herself in that arrangement she feels that she would be unhappy.
In conclusion, Edna bears malice towards the role of women because she cannot express herself the way she wants and expectations are too high for her. Robert, Arobin, Adele and her children all influenced her to break away from society’s standards. She loves her children but she would not lose herself in them. Robert has Edna fall in love with her which creates a rift between her and her husband. The last main point of this essay is that Adele is the embodiment of an ideal person but Edna will never be her.