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How to interpret chopin's awakening to someone
A quotation about the awakening by kate chopin feminist meaning
Critical Analysis of The Awakening Essay
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Edna Pontellier
Throughout The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide.
At the beginning of the novel when Edna's husband, Leonce Pontellier, returns from Klein's hotel, he checks in on the children and believing that one of them has a fever he tells his wife, Edna. She says that the child was fine when he went to bed, but Mr. Pontellier is certain that he isn't mistaken: "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children." (7) Because of the reprimand, Edna goes into the next room to check on the children. "She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow…. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her peignoir." (7) This is the first incident in which we see Edna's depression. At first, it doesn't seem like it is that significant, but Edna then goes out and sits on the porch and cries some more: " The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir refused to dry them…. Turning, she trust her face, steaming and wet into the bend of her arm and went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms. She could not have told you why she was crying." (7-8)
As time goes on we can see that her depression grows ever so slightly, and that it will continue to grow throughout the novel. Such happenings are nothing new to Edna: " Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self understood." (8) The author goes on to describe what Edna felt during the episode: " An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day." (8)
	When Edna goes to mass with her friend, Robert Lebrun, we see another instance where she's not herself: "A feeling of oppression and drowsiness overcame Edna during the service. Her head began to ache, and the lights on the altar swayed before her eyes. Another t...
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"Despondency had come upon her in the wakeful night, and it had never lifted. There was no one thing in the world that she desired. There was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert; and she even realized that the day would come when he, too, and the thought of him would melt out of her existence, leaving her alone." (108)
With her mind already gone, Edna's body begins to swim out into the sea, not caring about what lies ahead: "She did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end." (109)
	There are definite signs of Edna Pontellier's depression, from the beginning of the novel and all the way to the end when she commits suicide. If there had been someone who had seen this, Edna might not have been driven to death, but she felt that no one could understand her wanting to be on her own. She thought of Doctor Mandelet, that he might have understood, but it was already too late, she was too far from shore and her strength was gone. So in the end there was really no one that could have saved her from this fate.
Edna seems to disregard the fact that her changes were affecting others around her, but in chapter XIX, the author reveals how Edna’s awakening has been affecting her husband. Leonce, who bared witness to the whole transformation, was able to tolerate some resistance from his wife as long as she remained taking care of her duties as a mother and wife. Leonce realized Edna had changed, but could not see in what way, he could not see the way these changes were better his wife. He saw the change in her only from the outside, he could not see how it affected her heart, and how it turned her into her true self. Edna was selfish for not thinking about her loved ones before changing her life so drastically, but her husband was selfish for not realizing she needed this change to be who she
In the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin tells of Edna Pontellier's struggle with fate. Edna Pontellier awakens from a slumber only to find that her life is displeasing, but these displeasing thoughts are not new to Edna. The actions taken by Edna Pontellier in the novel The Awakening clearly determine that she is not stable. The neglect of her duties as a wife and mother and as a woman of society are all affected by her mental state. Her choices to have affairs and disregard her vow of marriage represent her impaired judgment. The change in her attitude and interests becomes quite irresponsible, and that change along with her final decision to commit suicide tell the reader that Edna Pontellier is not capable of making valid judgments. Had Edna Pontellier been of sound mind and body, she would not have ended her young life by suicide. The fact that she can clearly and easily turn to such an alternative suggests that she is depressed and obviously in opposition to the church. The thoughts and actions of Edna Pontellier are solely determined by her manic depressive state, her apparent repressed abuse from her childhood, and her abandonment of Christianity.
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life before her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT WAS love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision TO MARRY Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS APPARENT in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.
In Chopin’s The Awakening two opposing viewpoints tend to surface regarding the main character, Edna’s, suicide. Was it an artistic statement or did Edna’s selfish and childlike character lead to her demise. These two perspectives consistently battle one another, both providing sufficient evidence. However, Chopin intentionally wrote two equally supported interpretations of the character in order to leave the book without closure.
When her husband and children are gone, she moves out of the house and purses her own ambitions. She starts painting and feeling happier. “There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day” (Chopin 69). Her sacrifice greatly contributed to her disobedient actions. Since she wanted to be free from a societal rule of a mother-woman that she never wanted to be in, she emphasizes her need for expression of her own passions. Her needs reflect the meaning of the work and other women too. The character of Edna conveys that women are also people who have dreams and desires they want to accomplish and not be pinned down by a stereotype.
Throughout Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main protagonist, experiences multiple awakenings—the process in which Edna becomes aware of her life and the constraints place on it—through her struggles with interior emotional issues regarding her true identity: the confines of marriage vs. her yearning for intense passion and true love. As Edna begins to experience these awakenings she becomes enlightened of who she truly and of what she wants. As a result, Edna breaks away from what society deems acceptable and becomes awakened to the flaws of the many rules and expected behavior that are considered norms of the time. One could argue that Kate Chopin’s purpose in writing about Edna’s inner struggles and enlightenment was to
In Kate Chopin's, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier came in contact with many different people during a summer at Grand Isle. Some had little influence on her life while others had everything to do with the way she lived the rest of her life. The influences and actions of Robert Lebrun on Edna led to her realization that she could never get what she wanted, which in turn caused her to take her own life.
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.
Something rarely mentioned when discussing The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the possibility of the main character, Edna Pontellier, having a mental illness. Her unconventional awakening and suicide is often attributed to Edna, not being able to withstand the pressures and standards of society. However, there is a deeper reason for her motives. Edna Pontellier struggled with depression and other mental illnesses throughout her life, which ultimately resulted in her awakening and suicide.
Chopin carefully establishes that Edna does not neglect her children, but only her mother-woman image. Chopin illustrates the idea by telling the reader, "...Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman" (689). Edna tries to explain to Adele how she feels about her children and how she feels about herself, which greatly differs from the mother-woman image. She says, "I would give up the unessential; I would give my money; I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me" (720).
In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s suicide is an assertion of her independence and contributes to Chopin’s message that to be independent one must choose between personal desires and societal expectations. Chopin conveys this message through Edna’s reasons for committing suicide and how doing so leads her to total independence. Unlike the other women of Victorian society, Edna is unwilling to suppress her personal identity and desires for the benefit of her family. She begins “to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relationship as an individual to the world within and about her” (35).
In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a married woman with children. However many of her actions seem like those of a child. In fact, Edna Pontelliers’ life is an irony, in that her immaturity allows her to mature. Throughout this novel, there are many examples of this because Edna is continuously searching for herself in the novel.
Something rarely mentioned when discussing The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the possibility of the main character, Edna Pontellier, having a mental illness. Her unconventional awakening and suicide is often attributed to Edna not being able to withstand the pressures of society. However, there is a deeper reason for her motives. Edna Pontellier struggled depression and other mental illnesses, which ultimately resulted in her awakening and suicide.
According to Rosemary Franklin, Edna possesses “infantile and regressive traits” (Franklin 510), throughout the entire novel. Despite being a married twenty-eight year old woman with two kids, she consistently embodies a retrogressing individual. After the conclusion of the novel, it is quite evident that Edna Pontellier starts off as a mature, young adult, however, as the novel progresses, one cannot help but notice how easily her maturity deteriorates. For instance, in the beginning of the novel, Edna Pontellier admits to herself “her marriage to Léonce Pontellier was purely an accident” (Chopin 39). She gave Mr. Pontellier her hand in marriage simply because of the “violent opposition of her father and her sister” (Chopin 39). This defiant action clearly resembles a feat that a rebellious teenager would happily do and not what a “mature” twenty-eight year old would do. Furthermore, when Edna Pontellier begins to learn how to swim—with the help of her new lover, Robert Lebrun—she “[grew] daring and reckless” (Chopin 49). For this Victorian time period, it is rare to see a grown woman being intrepid and reckless. Notwithstanding the blatant fact that Edna is not a strong swimmer just yet, she is “like [a] child, who a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldy and with over-confidence” (Chopin 49). Edna Pontellier pushes the trepidations
The sexual aspect of Edna’s awakening is formed through her relationship with a supporting character, Robert LeBrun. In the beginning of the novel, Robert assigns himself to become the helper of Mrs. Pontellier and his advances help to crack the barrier in which Edna is placed in due to her role as a woman of the Victorian era. Her feelings begin to manifest themselves as she intends to liberate herself from her husband and run away with Robert. He on the other hand has no intention of having a sexual affair because of the role placed upon him as a man of the Victorian era which is not to destroy families. Her quest for complete independence ultimately brings her to committing suicide at the end of the story. Her suicide does not represent a disappointment in how she cannot conform to the society around her but a final awakening and symbol for her liberation.