Narrative Essay On Edna's Freedom

Freedom:

""Tired out, Edna? Whom did you have? Many callers?" he asked. He tasted his soup and began to season it with pepper, salt, vinegar, mustard - everything within reach.

"There were a good many," replied Edna, who was eating her soup with evident satisfaction. "I found their cards when I got home; I was out."

"Out!" exclaimed her husband, with something like genuine consternation in his voice as he laid down the vinegar cruet and looked at her through his glasses. "Why, what could have taken you out on Tuesday? What did you have to do?"

"Nothing. I simply felt like going out, and I went out."

"Well, I hope you left some suitable excuse," said her husband, somewhat appeased, as he added a dash of cayenne

pepper to the soup.
"No, I left no excuse. I told Joe to say I was out, that was all."
"Why, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things; we've got to observe les convenances if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession. If you felt that you had to leave home this afternoon, you should have left some suitable explanation for your absence." (Chopin 17)
This scene takes place soon after the Pontellier family returns home from Grand Isle. It is the beginning of Edna Pontellier's "acting out", or the start of her acting and doing what she wanted to do. The start to her journey to a freedom she had not known, being herself and discovering who that is.
"Then flinging herself upon the uncomfortable sofa she said, "Mademoiselle, I am going to move away from my house on Esplanade Street."..... "Just two steps away," laughed Edna, "in a little four-room house around the corner. It looks so cozy, so inviting and restful, whenever I pass by; and it's for rent. I'm tired looking after that big house. It never seemed like mine, anyway - like home. It's too much trouble. I have to keep too many servants. I am tired bothering with them."" (Chopin 26)
Edna's decision to move out of her home on Esplanade Street and into the "pigeon-home" as she referred to it later in the text was equivalent to her breaking away from her husband's control.

She didn't wait for his approval nor did she expect it or care, she didn't take anything from the old home that was his, and she paid for it on her own without taking any of his money for it. The "pigeon-house" represents Edna's freedom in acting as her own person.

Sexism:

""Has she," asked the Doctor, with a smile, "has she been associating of late with a circle of pseudo-intellectual women - super-spiritual superior beings? My wife has been telling me about them."

"That's the trouble," broke in Mr. Pontellier," she hasn't been associating with any one. She has abandoned her Tuesdays at home, has thrown over all her acquaintances, and goes tramping about by herself, moping in the street-cars, getting in after dark. I tell you she's peculiar. I don't like it; I feel a little worried over it."" (Chopin

22)
When first reading this quote a conversation between a doctor and a husband discussing the mental health of a wife calls to mind women thrown into asylums for hysteria when their husbands saw fit. However, when you remember the time period the text is set in and make connections to history This would have occurred around the time the women's right movement was gaining attention, which could be the intellectual women the doctor refers to and also why he doesn't seemed to concerned with Edna being caught up in it for too long.
""You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, 'Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,' I should laugh at you both."
His face grew a little white. "What do you mean?" he asked." (Chopin 36)
Edna here is telling Robert that is belongs to nobody but herself, a concept contradictory to that time where women were in fact considered their husband's and happily so without complaint. This of course confused Robert as he does not understand being a man in that time period and having just been told that she does not belong to her husband nor him, the man who she said she loves.
Search for self:

"She held up her hands, strong, shapely hands, and surveyed them critically, drawing up her lawn sleeves above the wrists. Looking at them reminded her of her rings, which she had given to her husband before leaving for the beach. She silently reached out to him, and he, understanding, took the rings from his vest pocket and dropped them into her open palm. She slipped them upon her fingers; then clasping her knees, she looked across at Robert and began to laugh. The rings sparkled upon her fingers. He sent back an answering smile." (Chopin 1) vs "She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet." (Chopin 17)
These two quotes show a small part of Mrs. Pontellier's change as a person between chapter 1 and 17. Chapter 1 describes Edna to be a model wife and this quote shows her wanting her wedding rings, a stark contrast to in chapter 17 when she tries to break the ring after an argument with her husband first about her lack of attendance at home for her callers and then because of her husband's complaints against the cook. This type of contrast in scenes shows the growth of Edna Pontellier over time as she is searching for herself.
"Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life - that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions."
Even early on in life, Edna assumed an outward character, one that fit what women were expected to be at the time. While inwardly, she had always had questions about the world and had a different persona to what would seem ladylike in society at that time. Her journey in search of self was not as much finding herself as it was accepting her inwards self and letting it also become her outwards sense.
Public vs private life:
"Mrs. Pontellier's mind was quite at rest concerning the present material needs of her children, and she could not see the use of anticipating and making winter night garments the subject of her summer meditations. But she did not want to appear unamiable and uninterested, so she had brought forth newspapers, which she spread upon the floor of the gallery, and under Madame Ratignolle's directions she had cut a pattern of the impervious garment." (Chopin 4) & "She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing. Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her.
Edna did not reveal so much as all this to Madame Ratignolle that summer day when they sat with faces turned to the sea." (Chopin 7)
Both quotes above show Mrs. Pontellier thinking something but acting against it as to not give off a bad appearance. In the first quote she sees no reason to start working on the children's winter clothing in summer but since she didn't want to seem uninterested, especially in front of someone like Madame Ratigonelle who is a very motherly person contrary to Mrs. Pontellier herself. The second shows her thinking again about how despite the fact that she undoubtedly loves her children she does not feel a strong maternal instinct towards them and is at times relieved to forget them, however these thoughts she kept to herself rather than share with Madame Ratigonelle who she did not think would understand as it is believed to be women's roles as mothers at the time, a role Madame Ratigonelle takes on happily.
"Furthermore, in one of the daily papers appeared a brief notice to the effect that Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier were contemplating a summer sojourn abroad, and that their handsome residence on Esplanade Street was undergoing sumptuous alterations, and would not be ready for occupancy until their return. Mr. Pontellier had saved appearances!
Edna admired the skill of his maneuver, and avoided any occasion to balk his intentions. When the situation as set forth by Mr. Pontellier was accepted and taken for granted, she was apparently satisfied that it should be so." (Chopin 32)
Edna's husband objects to her moving out of the house more because of image than his concern for his wife. At this point in the story he believes there might be something wrong with Edna to cause her to act the way she had been but has left it alone on his doctor's advice. However, Mr. Pontellier, knowing that as she had been recently Edna would more than likely move out without waiting for his approval, in order to avoid public gossip about the stability of the household took action in spreading word that their house on Esplanade street was being renovated. This would avoid question as to why Edna moved into a much smaller home without the children while Leonce what abroad, and protect his image around the people of the community without revealing the reality of the situation.
Can these two intersect? Based off the events of the Awakening it seems public and private life are not meant to intersect. Image, reputation, and respect mean everything and what goes on in a person's private life if made public could/would weaken the image of them that the public knows. Mr. Pontellier is incredibly worried about how people see him and his family which is why he is so adamant about properly fitting society's expectations. He is in the frame of mind that damage to one's reputation will damage one's entire life, which isn't completely untrue. While Mrs. Pontellier understands this concept but simply chooses to ignore it as she becomes more confident is her actions and is more then happy to let her husband deal with their image.

Personal Reflection Focus
You could ask many "If" questions, if she had not traveled to Grand Isle neither at the beginning or the end of the book, if Robert had not left her house that night, if Leonce came back sooner, if Robert never came back from Mexico, if he didn't confess his love to her, if the children had been with her, etc, but ultimately I think things had to end the way they did if not similarly for Edna Pontellier.

Edna had wanted to be a free woman, her own woman, and in a way she had become an independent woman but you have to consider what would have happened when Leonce came back in March and the children returned home. Robert understood Mr. Pontellier saw his wife as his possession, and he would never let her go and stake his own image on a wife who loved another. Robert would not take her from the children. He would not ruin the life she leads for a fight he would ultimately lose to Mr. Pontellier no matter that she loved him back. So one way or another Robert would eventually have left, and Mrs. Pontellier would have been left heartbroken. On top of this one must consider Mr. Pontellier's conversation with the doctor, if Mrs. Pontellier's actions only escalated what would he have done? Would she even still find reason to search for herself after Robert left, him being the one that sparked it all back on Grand Isle over summer? It is sad to say that there is not a way you can logically imagine that Mrs. Pontellier would have ended up

happy.