Individualism In Kate Chopin´s The Awakening

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Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is about the slow awakening of Edna Pontellier, a young married woman who pursues her own happiness of individualism and sexual desires in a Victorian society. As a result, Edna tries to makes changes in her life, such as neglecting her duties as a “mother-woman” and moving into her own home. But she soon realizes that nothing can change for the better. Feeling completely hopeless, Edna chose to die as a final escape from the oppression of the Victorian society she lives in. Back at the beach at Grand Isle, Edna walks along the beach and watches a bird with a broken wing crashing down into the waves right before her eyes. She then removes her clothes before entering the water. Edna swims out and embraces the waves of the ocean while thinking about her husband, Leonce, her two children, Robert, Mademoiselle Reisz, and finally her childhood before surrendering her life to the ocean. In looking at Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s impulsive action to be naked, the image of the bird, and the ocean helped her realize that she is overwhelmed by her new power of the independent life she now leads, which ultimately caused her to commit suicide by drowning in the ocean.

Edna Pontellier’s impulsive action to be naked upon entering the water in the end of novel helped her realize that she cannot handle her new independent life, which caused her to drown herself. By taking off her clothes, she seems to make a statement that wearing clothes are like giving in to the bonds of social conventions. So when she took them off,

“But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the op...

... middle of paper ...

...to face her fate of her inability to fully embrace her individualism in society as she surrenders her life to the depths of her soul in the ocean. Also, the last thing Edna thinks of before she drowns is the sound and smell of nature. In this prospective, she dies as she embraces the freedom of nature with her soul. These memories of her childhood is a sure sign that Edna has died because most people have flashbacks to when they were the most happiest before they die. In conclusion, Edna Pontellier’s nakedness, the fallen bird, and the ocean helped her commit suicide by helping her to realize and come into terms that there is no space for her individualism and sexual desires in this Creole society and that her vision of an independent life may be more than she can handle.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc

Subsequent, 1994

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