The Awakening Edna's Suicide Essay

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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.
Is Edna’s suicide an artistic statement? Many readers come to this conclusion based on Mademoiselle Reisz’ influence on Edna’s life. Edna aspires to be like Mademoiselle Reisz because she lacks a characteristic that Mademoiselle Reisz possesses, control over her own life. To gain control over herself, Edna chooses …show more content…

Edna misunderstands the situation and claims that she is the victim of Robert removing himself from her life. Robert solely wants to salvage her reputation and be a good man. He does not wish to become the man that ruined Edna’s even if it meant he could be with the woman he loves. She wholly disregards the things Roberts cares about when deciding that he is selfish for not only thinking of her. When Robert leaves her near the end of the book to protect her reputation, Edna still believed that she was the victim: “‘Good-by--because I love you.’ He did not know; He did not understand … it was too late”(125). Edna is a woman who leaves her husband, her children, and her friends all because she only cares about herself, and when she does not get what she wants, Robert, she decides that there was no more reason to live.
Though these two explanations provide equal merit, they are too different for the reader to come to any fully supported conclusion of the novel. On one hand the main character is a strong independent artist who refuses conformity. On the other, the main character is a basket case and the nature of her awakening is complete self absorbed. It seems likely that the author intended to create juxtaposition in the two different interpretations of Edna’s character

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