Edna’s Conflicting Downfall In society women have been treated differently for decades, treated as inferior to men. In the novel The Awakening Kate Chopin offers the fears and struggle of the start of women’s independence and feminism through the main character Edna. Her struggle is a microcosm for all of woman’s struggle against the male dominant society. In the end of the novel Edna suicides by drowning in the ocean. This act is analyzed as both a liberation for her and all women; and as defeat or the idea that women fall short to men. The paradoxical nature of Edna’s suicide is exemplified through the imagery of the wave. The 19th century when the novel is written is the start of women's rights. It is the beginning of feminism and equality …show more content…
It opens her eyes to the struggle that all females are facing. She uses her downfall as a triumph over the two men to prove that she is not a possession. She is proving that she is more than just who she is in love with and who she is with. She is acting independently and for herself, which is not a supported idea in society. In the novel the narrator comments on her actions and states “She wanted to swim far out, where no woman no woman has swum before” (Chopin 70). Her death is a challenge to society and all of the restrictions placed on woman. She is choosing to face the wave of restrictions and chose self transformation. When she is painting all of the time and not paying attention to her husband and kids her husband takes her to the doctor thinking that something is wrong. The doctor says that she is to just rest and that she will be back to normal soon. This even further exemplifies how Enda’s quest for freedom is the first of its kind. Women are not to have an opinion on their role in society because they are nothing but a possession to men. While Edna is going through this quest she is hit with the wave of societies restrictions.
Another idea throughout the novel proposes the narrator of the novel is at the end unable to follow what Edna is doing. This technique that Chopin uses further exemplifies how out of the normal it is for Edna to go against society. It also shows the shift in the author's attitude towards Edna and that her “Perception is quite wrong” (xiango). It is suggesting that Enda is taking her desires and takes it to the extreme. Edna pulling away from the narrator is can be seen as freedom. It can also been seen as selfish and irrational acts that is so hard to understand that even the narrator cannot even follow.
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
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.
When Edna felt dissatisfied with the life she is given, she pursues other ways in which to live more fully. She attempts painting and enters into an affair with another man. As her desire for freedom grows, she moves out of her husband’s house and tries to live life as she sees fit. She lives a life reflecting her new philosophies towards life, philosophies that are in conflict with that of society. The oppression by man caused Edna to have a social awakening, illuminating the meaning of the novel.
Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” is wrought with symbolism, foreshadowing and careful diction choices. Many of the passages throughout the novel embody Edna’s awakening sense of self-reliance, independence and sexuality. These are sy...
“A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” implies the tremendous joy that encourages her to shout, as well as underscores the significance of the experience in terms of the greater awakening, for the experience actually does provide Edna with the ability to control her own body and soul for the first time. Her “daring and reckless” behavior, her overestimation of strength, and the desire to “swim far out, where no woman had swum before” all suggest the tragic conclusion that awaits Edna. Whether her awakening leads her to want too much, or her desires are not fully compatible with the society in which she lives, she goes too far in her awakening. Amazed at the ease of her new power, she specifically does not join the other groups of people in the water, but rather goes off to swim alone. Indeed, her own awakening ultimately ends up being solitary, particularly in her refusals to join in social expectations. Here, the water presents her with space and solitude, with the “unlimited in which to lose herself.
Essentially, Edna is not able to fulfill any of the roles that are presented by Chopin in the novel: mother, sister, daughter, wife, friend, artist, lover to either man, and finally the traditional role of a woman in society. She does not quite fit into any niche, and thus her suicide at the end of the novel is the only way for Edna’s story to end. Chopin must have Edna die, as she cannot survive in this restrained society in which she does not belong to. The idea of giving yourself completely to serve another, Edna declares “that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one” (47). However, her awakening is also a realization of her underprivileged position in a male dominated society. The first sign that Edna is becoming comfortable with herself, and beginning to loosen the constrictions of not being an individual is when she asks Robert, her husband, to retrieve her shawl: "When he returned with the shawl she took it and kept it in her hand. She did not put it around her" (30). Edna is trying to establish herself as an artist in a society where there is no tradition of women as creative beings. For any woman to suggest a desire for a role outside the domestic sphere, as more than a mother or housewife, was perceived as
It is to possess the courage to overcome the confusion and frustrations with uncovering who you are. Chopin chooses to have Mrs.Pontellier’s character die at the end of novel, in order to showcase the intense overbearing burden women carry, when fulfilling their ordered position in society. She decides to end the novel this way, to expose how women sacrifice their independence and personal interests, in exchange for society’s acceptance. This being Chopin’s purpose, it correlates with her novel’s recurring theme, which is the difficulty of rekindling one’s true spirit, when contained to oppressive roles that demand one’s conformity and
...tionship she had until she was left with literally no reason to live. Throughout the novella, she breaks social conventions, which damages her reputation and her relationships with her friends, husband, and children. Through Edna’s thoughts and actions, numerous gender issues and expectations are displayed within The Awakening because she serves as a direct representation of feminist ideals, social changes, and a revolution to come.
In Chopin's Awakening, the reader meets Edna Pontellier, a married woman who attempts to overcome her "fate", to avoid the stereotypical role of a woman in her era, and in doing so she reveals the surrounding. society's assumptions and moral values about women of Edna's time. Edna helps to reveal the assumptions of her society. The people surrounding her each day, particularly women, assume their roles as "housewives"; while the men are free to leave the house, go out at night, gamble, drink and work. Edna surprises her associates when she takes up painting, which represents a working job and independence for Edna.
Her mood is vitally important in evaluating her death. We are told that during her thoughtful night, she came to realize that there was, “no one thing in the world that she desired,” (p 108) and that eventually she would be alone. She then remembers her children, but not fondly. They are “antagonists who overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days.” (Chopin 108) Her children are a burden, not a joy, for they anchor her to “soul’s slavery.” “But she knew of a way to elude them.” (Chopin 108) She knew of a way to elude her children? Certainly there are other possibilities than suicide, but coupled with the oth...
The point of this novel is to provide a personal understanding into the lives of women in the twentieth trying to break free from the restraints of society. This novel takes place in two different areas. Grand Isle, where the novel starts the journey Edna encompasses,
In the end, her internal conflict tears her apart and, to escape the feeling of entrapment, she drowns herself. Edna’s internal journey reflects the struggles of women during the Victorian era, as well as the meaning of the novella as a whole. Gender roles of the time confined women to living as married housewives with children. These limitations and expectations were a seemingly pressing issue for Chopin and other women of her time. Edna’s journey also highlights the importance of finding oneself apart from their duties.
Edna's Awakening Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" is a work of litature like none other I have read. It is not hard to imagine why this major work of Chopin's was banished for decades not long after its initial publication in 1899. Most of society did not like the fact that "The Awakenings" main character, Edna Pontellier, went against the socially acceptable role of women at that time. At that time in history, women did just what they were expected to do. They were expected to be good daughters, good wives, and good mothers.
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.
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.