Over the span of our short years we meet people who create a way for us to even better express ourselves, thoughts, and our character. These people are a catalyst to our personality and most often make us better as a person. On the other hand we also meet people whose personalities are stifling, repressing, and/or controlling of ours. These people are anchors, and are known to metaphorically put the real us in a cage. Throughout the course of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening we see that many of the male characters approach Edna and that they each tried to either repress, or control Edna in some way shape or form.
In today’s world the most important man besides from the men in the family in a female’s life would generically be their husbands, but
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for Edna this is not the case. Mr. Ponteiller, Edna’s husband is incredibly controlling and repressing of who Edna is as a person and who she wants to be. Mr. Ponteillers actions alone should signify what he really values and how he personally views Edna and how she should be. On page 5 the Pontelliers son Raoul is sick and Leonce comes to Edna with this news “Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.” This shows you how ignorant Leonce is towards Edna and how much he wants to control and manipulate her into being a motherly housewife who takes care of the kids and everything in the house. This is also a repression of Edna because Edna doesn’t want to be a house wife. She doesn’t want to be a mother. On page 7 it states “Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better.” After she receives the box of goods from her husband and it shows how much she didn’t want to have him as a husband. She didn’t want that life. Throughout the book the bird is a symbol of Edna and at the beginning when Edna is still with her husband Leonce the bird is in a cage and shoughts “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi!” which translates to Go away ! Go away ! For heaven’s sake. This is symbolic in the way that it foreshadows Edna’s rejection of the repression of Leonce’s treatment of her, and on page 31 she finally says to Leonce after Leonce comes home to find her in the Hammock outside late at night and tries to command her to do what he wants her to do “No” “I don’t wish to go in, and I don’t intend to .” “Mr Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain tacit submissiveness in his wife(pg 57)” and that night in the hammock is the night that she stopped being submissive to Leonces repressiveness and began to do what she wanted to do . Your Family and your marital family could have very different views on life, but for Edna this is not true either. Edna’s Father and Leonce have exactly the same view when it comes to woman. Seeing Eye to eye on most matters related to Edna. In this era of time this is the generic treatment of woman and her father is a basic man who is incredibly controlling over woman. When speaking to Leonce about controlling his wife on page 71 he state “You are too lenint, too lenient by far, Leonce”. “Put your foot down good and hard ; the only way to manage a wife.” This quote shows how ignorant her father is and another example of how there was no escape for Edna. She couldn’t escape that the fact that she is a woman and at in that era she would always be controlled a repressed by a man. Edna submissiveness had ended towards the man she forcibly had to tolerate because it was 1899, but with the same sway of a warm breeze she finds herself spending a lot of time with a local young man Robert Lebrun.
Robert initially is very helpful and kind to the married ladys on the island helping them with anything they needed including rounding up the children on page 19 “There was the sound of approaching voices. It was Robert, surrounded by a troop of children, searching for them. The two little Pontelliers were with him, and he carried Madame Ratignolles little girl in his arms.” He however becomes very controlling and manipulative to Edna and her interest by being increasingly friendly, and slowly becoming sensual with Edna. At the end of chapter 10 he sits down to spend time with Edna in the Hammock while her husband is away, even though they sit in silence. He is manipulating Edna because he is aware that her husband doesn’t give her much attention and that because of this Edna would be drawn to him. After they sit down together the author states “No multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first- felt throbbings of desire.” (pg30)The desire from Robert is only stemming from the fact that her husband does not treat her same and does not give her the same attention. Roberts’s manipulation is also evident on the boat ride in chapter 12 as Robert is made aware by his Spanish friend Mariequita that he should not be going on trips with a married woman saying “ Francisco ran away with Sylvanos wife, who had four children. They took all his money and one of the children and stole his boat.” (pg 34)Yet Robert still pursues Edna asking her “ Let us go to Grand Terre to-morrow ?” (pg 34) to “climb up the hill to the old fort and look at the little wriggling gold snakes, and watch the lizards sun themselves.”(pg 34) , again picking at her weakness of loneliness. Another act of his controlling
manipulation is his sudden departure to Mexico, and his even more secret letters to Madam Raisz. After building a relationship with Edna and realizing that she desires him, he decides that he is just going to leave without telling Edna. However Edna finds out at a dinner party by the guest even though Robert had been with Edna all day. On pg 41 Edna states “He had been with her, reading to her all the morning, and had never even mentioned such a place as Mexico.” Then after moving, Edna had not heard a word from Robert until the letters were sent to Madam Raisz. This is a control and manipulation because he is purposely not writing to Edna for her further desire him. But he starts to fall for his own tricks because he begins to fall for Edna. Madam Raisz says on page 80 that he does not write to Edna and the reason why she says is “Because he loves you.” At this point Robert starts to become repressive because Edna doesn’t want a relationship. Robert find this out and says “Good-by- because, I love you” (pg 116) in a note. This is repressive of who Edna is because she wants to be independent and on her own and she says “he did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand.” (pg 116) and she walks out into the sea and drowns herself. I believe that the fact that she realized that in that era of time she would always be either repressed or controlled by men, she really rejected that lifestyle is what led her to suicide. For her suicide is her escape. Throughout the book Edna is constantly repressed and controlled by men and because of this she craves freedom. Ednas death is a symbolic rejection of the repressed and controlled way of living. Edna in turn committed suicide for freedom and in my opinion death is her freedom. In today’s world Edna might be looked at as a coward, but if you were ever trapped in a society where you were stagnant as a person wouldn’t you want to leave? Wouldn’t you want a way out? Men should not have power over woman like that ever again to drive them to the point of break.
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.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.
Leonce Pontellier, the husband of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, becomes very perturbed when his wife, in the period of a few months, suddenly drops all of her responsibilities. After she admits that she has "let things go," he angrily asks, "on account of what?" Edna is unable to provide a definite answer, and says, "Oh! I don't know. Let me along; you bother me" (108). The uncertainty she expresses springs out of the ambiguous nature of the transformation she has undergone. It is easy to read Edna's transformation in strictly negative terms‹as a move away from the repressive expectations of her husband and society‹or in strictly positive terms‹as a move toward the love and sensuality she finds at the summer beach resort of Grand Isle. While both of these moves exist in Edna's story, to focus on one aspect closes the reader off to the ambiguity that seems at the very center of Edna's awakening. Edna cannot define the nature of her awakening to her husband because it is not a single edged discovery; she comes to understand both what is not in her current situation and what is another situation. Furthermore, the sensuality that she has been awakened to is itself not merely the male or female sexuality she has been accustomed to before, but rather the sensuality that comes in the fusion of male and female. The most prominent symbol of the book‹the ocean that she finally gives herself up to‹embodies not one aspect of her awakening, but rather the multitude of contradictory meanings that she discovers. Only once the ambiguity of this central symbol is understood can we read the ending of the novel as a culmination and extension of the themes in the novel, and the novel regains a...
Chopin’s novel is filled with different themes. Her themes are what really gets her message to her readers. one of her themes is identity because becoming the person that you want to be is what The Awakening is all about. Knowing who you are is a big component in becoming free. That is why Chopin created an identity theme in her novel. Edna is constantly trying to find out who is wants to be. Edna knows that she is not the perfect mother and wife like Madame Ratignolle, and she also knows that she would never want to live alone like Mademoiselle Reisz. Who is the true Edna P? That is what Edna is find out, and that is the question most women should ask themselves. Who is the true me? Chopin has another theme that pushes her message even more.
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
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was a game changer in both the Civil War and modern war efforts. Not only did Barton introduce new ways of bringing care to wounded soldiers, she also transformed the ways people viewed women working on the battlefield. Clara Barton was the first woman to stand up for the better of both soldiers on the battlefield and women in the working force. Similar to Clara Barton, Kate Chopin’s protagonist Edna Pontellier, in her novel, The Awakening, serves as a turning point in the Victorian Era for women through her feminist ideals and rebellions against the norms of society. For example, Edna pursues herself as an individual rather than conforming to the expectations of the world around her. Edna also pushes the envelope by exploring her sexuality, a scandalous action for a married woman in the
In the novel, during many instances, intricate intimacies are illustrated. “No multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silences, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire.” (30) Robert, in pursuit of Edna unlocks her sexual awakening alongside his social awakening. Robert becomes aware that he must step out of the boundaries and evolve as a man. Yet Robert still stumbles in his path. He and Edna have a common bond. They both attempt to defy the norms of society. Robert respects Edna’s yearning for individualism and only seeks to accompany her on that journey by form of marriage. However, he struggles to fight what societal ordainment. He lacks the key to break societies chains. He can’t simply let go of the expectation of marriage within this era. On the contrary his relationship with Edna gives him an optimistic view on his love life. “His search has always hitherto been fruitless, and he has sunk back, disheartened, into the sea. But to-night he found Mrs. Pontelllier.” (29) His passion for Edna, conveys his innocent hope for repressive love between himself and Edna. He and Edna
Robert finally realized what was happening between Edna and him. He started to have feelings for her that he could not control. When he told everyone that he was going to Mexico for business, it was actually to get away from ...
In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.
In fact, Edna seems to drift from setting to setting in the novel, never really finding her true self - until the end of the novel. Chopin seems highly concerned with this question throughout her narrative. On a larger scale, the author seems to be probing even more deeply into the essence of the female experience: Do women in general have a place in the world, and is the life of a woman the cumbersome pursuit to find that very place? The Awakening struggles with this question, raising it to multiple levels of complexity. Edna finds liberation and happiness in various places throughout the novel, yet this is almost immediately countered by unhappiness and misery.
Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening. In Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening, the reader is introduced into. a society that is strictly male-dominated where women fill in the stereotypical role of watching the children, cooking, cleaning and keeping up with appearances. Writers often highlight the values of a certain society by introducing a character who is alienated from their culture by a trait such as gender, race, or creed.
Her transformation and journey to self-discovery truly begins on the family’s annual summer stay at Grand Isle. “At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life- that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions. That summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little of the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her” (Chopin 26). From that point onward, Edna gains a deeper sense of desire for self-awareness and the benefits that come from such an odyssey. She suddenly feels trapped in her marriage, without being in a passionately romantic relationship, but rather a contractual marriage. Edna questions her ongoing relationship with Leonce; she ponders what the underlying cause of her marriage was to begin with; a forbidden romance, an act of rebellion against her father, or a genuine attraction of love and not lust? While Edna internally questions, she begins to entertain thoughts of other men in her life, eventually leading to sensuous feelings and thoughts related to sexual fantasy imagined through a relationship with Robert Lebrun. Concurrently, Edna wavers the ideas so clearly expected by the society- she analyzes and examines; why must women assimilate to rigid societal standards while men have no such
For example, he treats some women with little respect. The novel states, “ And [Robert] related the story of Alcee Arobin and the consul’s wife; and another about the tenor of the French Opera, who received letters which should never have been written…” (20). This shows that Alcee has been with multiple women, and he has, from what can be inferred, written bad letters to them. He seems to have casted these women aside now and moved on showing little respect for them which was not what a man should have. Moreover, he moves in on married women. The novel states, “When he leaned forward and kissed [Edna], she clasped his head, holding his lips to hers” (84). Although Edna returned the kiss, it still does not excuse the fact that Alcee initiated the kiss on a known married women. Men during the time did not try to take what other men already had as the reader is shown when Robert says goodbye to Edna for the reason of her marriage to Leonce. Additionally, Alcee does what he wants to women. The novel states, “‘ I am, after I have said good night[,]’ [said Alcee.] ‘Good night,’ [Edna] murmured. He did not answer, except to continue to caress her. He did not say good night until she had become supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties” (94). Edna tries to tell Alcee to leave, although not in a very commanding way, but he refuses until he gets what he wants from her. Men at the time had more respect from
Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a literary work full of symbolism. Birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are powerful symbols which add meaning to the novel and to the characters. I will analyze the most relevant symbols presented in Chopin's literary work.
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.