Edna’s Struggle for Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel that explores the life of a married woman in Victorian Louisiana. Victorian women were expected to obey the traditional gender roles of wives and mothers. These expectations include obedience to their husbands, maintaining a lady-like appearance, and keeping a nice household. Edna Pontellier is not only a woman living in Victorian times but also married to an upper-class Creole man, whereas she was raised in Kentucky. Women in New Orleans in this time period placed themselves clearly in one culture and not the other, Creole or “American.” Edna experiences a dilemma as she acts in both cultures and finds the relationship between her freedoms and regulations conflicted. Through Edna's shifting …show more content…
She is complacent with her part in society and is obedient to her husband, Leonce. When Leonce requests she tend to their son, who he claims is “consuming,” Edna gets out of bed to check on her child even though she “was quite sure Raul had no fever”(5). At this point in the novel, Edna sees it as her responsibility and obligation to listen to her husband, even though he makes her incredibly unhappy. She settles for her circumstances because of the reality of the time. Mr. Pontellier buys her affections with gifts and money, causing “the ladies, selecting with dainty and discriminating fingers and a little greedily, [to] all declare that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew none …show more content…
Yet, she sews children's clothes with Adele in order to appear “amiable” and preserve a certain social station. This mindset in Edna shifts with her growing affection towards Robert Lebrun. Over the summer, Edna developed an extramarital infatuation with a younger man, Robert. But, at the end of the summer, he departs for Mexico, leaving her depressed. Before Robert’s leaving she had “all her life long been accustomed to harboring thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves”(47). But, his departure causes her to realize that she does not want to be held back by society's expectations for her and wants to speak and act on her desires. This shift is amplified with her departure from Grand Isle back to New Orleans and is representative of the beginning of her attempt at awakening. When Edna and her family return to New Orleans at the summer's end, Edna begins to rebel against societal norms and finds herself conflicted between her traditional roles and her wants for freedom. Throughout her marriage, Edna has maintained a perfect appearance in society, as her husband expects her to. Edna has followed the same routine every week since she got married and has abided by her traditional feminine
Edna Pontellier: she is the protagonist of the novel. With twenty eight years, she is housewife married with Léonce Pontellier and mother of two boys, Etienne and Raoul. At the beginning of the novel she is comfortable in her marriage, where she sees the end of passion and the beginning of a responsible life. Through a series of experiences, she evolves into an amazing independent woman, who lives apart from her husband and her children, the only ones of whom she was in charge and is just responsible for her own acts. In a way, the only responsibilities she has during this period are art and having fun with friends. As we have said, she is the main
In Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is forced to strive to fit in with everyone and everything around her. Born and raised in Kentucky, Edna is used to the Southern society, but when she marries Leonce Pontellier, a Catholic and a Creole, and moves to Louisiana with him, her surroundings change a great deal. This makes her feel extremely uncomfortable and confused; she feels as though she has lost her identity along with a great deal of her happiness. In order to regain this identity and to try to find out who she truly is, Edna tries her hardest to conform to the Creole society. Though Edna tries extremely hard to accept this Creole society as her own and to become part of it in order to claim her identity, she fails to find both her true happiness and her identity, which, in turn, causes her to commit suicide.
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
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
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.
As the novel starts out Edna is a housewife to her husband, Mr. Pontellier, and is not necessarily unhappy or depressed but knows something is missing. Her husband does not treat her well. "...looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." She is nothing but a piece of property to him; he has no true feelings for her and wants her for the sole purpose of withholding his reputation. "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" Mr. Pontellier constantly brings her down for his own satisfaction not caring at all how if affects Edna.
In order to show the male-inflicted oppression of women in the late 1800’s, Chopin develops the sexuality of her protagonist towards both male and female characters in the novella based off of each one’s influence. The initial character that affects Edna Pontellier’s sexuality is the first person she ever had relations with—her husband. In the opening of the novella, Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier have physical evidence of their love in the two young boys that they are raising in Grand Isle. Edna is a better mother than husband and explains that “she would give everything for her children, even life, but she would not give herself.” (Ziff, 23). This claim presents the very onset of Mrs. Pontellier’s mental awakening; she loves her family and would
The Awakening While reading the Awakening one gets introduced to the main protagonist, Edna Pontellier, a controversial character. The selfish choices that she made throughout the novel allow one to automatically begin to condemn her. Edna clearly understands that society would criticize her as being a deplorable woman, but throughout the novel, she doesn't view herself as anything less than ample. " One of these days," she said, "I'm going to pull myself together for a while and think--try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know.
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.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” –Ralph Waldo Emerson. This timeless quote applies not only to the life from past generations for centuries but also is perfectly relevant for the today’s modern generation. The outward struggle of compliance to societal pressures against internal struggles for the pursuit of truth with integrity has been a persistent challenge within societies for many years. An example of such conflict from past centuries is distinctly demonstrated in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Chopin exemplifies this strife through the protagonist of the novella: Edna Pontellier. Edna’s constant external conformity working against her internal questioning illustrates
Edna Pontellier’s suicide in The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a topic of the book that has been debated for a century. Some readers believe that Edna’s suicide was an act of suicide, or an act of strength. This book tells the story of a woman who is has conflicting feelings involving the role of women in her society. Edna, the main character, has several young men who she loves in addition to her husband. Edna feels trapped by her role as a woman in society. Edna eventually can’t take the pressure and commits suicide. Edna Pontellier’s suicide is brought about by Edna’s depression, and some critics believe that her suicide is an act of surrender, while others believe it is an act of strength.
Edna Pontellier, from the novella The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, serves as a clear example of a character whose mind is being pulled in two seperate directions. One side of Edna feels pulled to the classical women in America at this time. On the other hand, she wishes to remain free from her womanly restraints. We discover that she does not want to feel tied down with any man, not only her husband, Leonce Pontellier. Edna faces internal and external challenges figuring out which woman she wants to be, the one of the times or the one who possesses freedom from societal norms.
In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.
Her memory of running away from her Father and church when she was a young girl living in Kentucky shows how desperate she is to be free. However, Edna gives up her hopes of freedom for marriage in the hopes that all will fall into place afterwards. Edna’s expectation that marriage and children is proven false when she still is not happy with her life afterwards. She feels that life is worthless and that there should be more to what she is. Edna is not like the other creole mothers; she holds an affection for her children, but it comes and goes. Occasionally she will hold them fiercely to her chest and yet others she will forget them. Her husband disapproves of her lack of maternal instinct and rebukes her when he discovers one of their children, Raoul, sick in his bed. Edna is not alarmed by it, but his harsh words make her burst into tears on the front porch, after he has fallen asleep. Mr. Pontellier does not care about his wife much as a person, only as something he owns. He views everything this way, new lace curtains, glassware, furniture. He is disappointed in his wife because, in his view, she does not function well as a mother. Edna’s lack of