The Role Of Reinvention In The Awakening

Eivette Lopez

Ms.Elam

AP English

Per.2

April 26 2017

The Struggle of Reinvention

Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier, ventures through a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mrs.Pontellier is a mother and wife who begins to crave more from life, than her assigned societal roles. She encounters two opposite versions of herself, that leads her to question who she is and who she aims to be. Mrs. Pontellier’s journey depicts the struggle of overcoming the scrutiny women face, when denying the ideals set for them to abide. Most importantly the end of the novel depicts Mrs.Pontellier as committing suicide, as a result of her ongoing internal

conflict. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin discusses the struggle of self-discovery among Mrs.Pontellier, in order to explore the oppressive role women conform to within society.
Throughout the novel, Chopin demonstrates that Mrs.Pontellier constantly battles with two conflicting sides of herself. She is troubled with choosing her role as a mother and wife, over her desire to be a more independent woman. This internal clash eventually leads to Mrs.Pontellier’s suicide at the end of the novel. This event expresses the theme of The Awakening, which is the difficulty to achieve self-discovery when overwhelmed with overbearing societal standards. Chopin contrasts these standards and Mrs.Pontellier’s personal values with, “In short, Mrs.Pontellier was not a mother-woman...They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels”(Pg.8). In the beginning of the novel, Chopin links this disconnection of values to Mrs.Pontellier’s character, in order to fully develop the increasing loneliness and confusion that led to her suicide. She explicitly states how the “perfect” woman must erase who they are, in order to fulfill their marital and maternal duties as obediently as they can. Chopin does this, to create an image of the unreachable epitome in which Mrs.Pontellier does not identify with. In her final moments, Edna Pontellier recalls, “She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul”(Pg.116). Mrs.Pontellier’s suicide is the ending point to the desperate search of uncovering who she truly is. She acknowledges her partner and children as significant to her life, but will not allow them to become her reason or purpose for existing. Chopin includes this particular thought, in order to convey how women feel oppressed due to the roles they are restricted to identify with. In fact, Chopin has written other texts with this message such as “The Story of an Hour”, which depicts a wife known as Mrs.Mallard, who receives news of her husband’s alleged death. Rather than becoming distraught at her husband’s death, Mrs.Mallard’s initial thoughts are described as, “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long”(Par.17). Chopin’s point is to suggest that women feel trapped by the responsibility placed on them, to fulfill their husband’s life rather than their own. Both Mrs.Pontellier and Mrs.Mallard do not feel content or satisfied with their relationships, which leads them to their deaths. However, unlike Mrs.Mallard, Mrs.Pontellier was able to follow her crave for independence, which leads her to more inner turmoil and significant events before her suicide.
These equally important events, occurred during the middle of Mrs.Pontellier’s journey of becoming her own person.

She pursued activities that would allow her to become more individualistic, such as painting or art. Chopin decides to have Mrs.Pontellier’s character explore art, so she can address Mrs.Pontellier’s relationship with herself and her struggle to become an expressive artist. Throughout this short period Mrs.Pontellier constantly visits an accomplished female artist, Mademoiselle Reisz, who has abandoned the suppressive ideals of her time. Mademoiselle Reisz remarks, “I do not know you well enough to say. I do not know your talent or your temperament. To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts-absolute gifts-which have not been acquired by one’s own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul”(Pg.63). Chopin includes this, to show how Mrs.Pontellier is becoming ambitious and developing personal goals and interests. The significance of this pursuit of creativity is to reveal the importance of becoming her true self, in order to produce her own signature art. The underlying message is that to be an artist, one must have their own style, perspectives, opinions, and self assertiveness. Mrs.Pontellier however, is stuck between being a devoted mother and wife, or an artist who defies the standards upon her. Alongside this, Chopin conveys that with the absence of her husband, she has the opportunity to reflect on who she

is without him. Similarly in “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs.Mallard experiences a moment of revelation when she takes in her husband’s sudden departure from her life. Chopin chronicles Mrs.Mallard’s reaction with “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”(Par.4-5). This visual is utilized by Chopin to communicate how without her husband, Mrs.Mallard can spring into a new life. She need not to exhaust herself physically or mentally, in order to please her husband’s every whim. This springing away, connects to Mrs.Pontellier’s attempt to break free of the labels limiting her to only a mother and wife. This attempt is later recalled in her final thoughts, as she swims out to sea to commit suicide. Chopin states, “How Mademoiselle Reisz would have laughed, perhaps sneered, if she knew! ‘And you call yourself an artist! What pretensions, Madame! The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies”(Pg.116). The author’s purpose in including this thought during Mrs.Pontellier’s suicide attempt, is to suggest that she was not able to fully possess a courageous soul. This means she was not able to defy the roles she had been shelved into by society, and could not accept the reality of who she truly was. Mrs.Pontellier’s suicide at the end of the novel, signifies the release of her frustration and loneliness which granted her true freedom in death.
In The Awakening, the overall message is to not allow the standards of society to suffocate who you are.

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

obedience