Who Is Edna Pontellier's Fatal Flaw

Albert Camus once stated, “In the end, one needs more courage to live then to kill [themself].” When it comes to the act of committing suicide, more courage is needed to push past the urge and refuse defeat than simply throwing the towel in. In Kate Chopin’s scandalous novel, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier fails to muster up enough courage to prove herself victorious against her life battles, which, unfortunately, leads to her pathetic defeat. By examining Mrs. Pontellier’s epiphany regarding her “accidental” husband, her bold first swim, Madame Ratignolle’s birth scene, and how hastily she gave up on her final swim, her inferred suicide must be seen as a pathetic defeat. In addition, Edna Pontellier consistently repudiates the notion of growing

up and she is unable to fully deviate from the proper and Victorian society that she endures. After realizing this unhealthy lifestyle, Edna still refuses to verbally accept defeat and cheats her way out of the mess she made by committing suicide.
Kate Chopin provides the audience with an abundance of irony when it comes to the maturity of Edna Pontellier.

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

regarding the existing dangers of swimming alone and does it anyways. Yet again, she does not consider the possible consequences, but rather places herself in danger for the sake of rebelling against her hesitant and cautious self—something an adolescent is known to do. Cynthia Griffin Wolff also points out that after the conclusion of an unfaithful meeting with her lover, Robert, Edna portrays the Disney princess, Sleeping Beauty. When she wakes up the next morning, she immediately inquires, “how many years [she has] slept” (Wolff 232). In addition, Edna predicts that “a new race of beings have sprung up, leaving only [Robert and herself] as past relics” (Wolff 232). Both of these mythical observations that Edna reveals to Robert display a child-like state of being. Numerous adolescent girls look up to fantasy characters, such as Sleeping Beauty, and Edna appears to be idolizing the fantasy, as well. Aside from her constant refusal to psychologically mature, Edna Pontellier also allows her pathetic defeat to be the result of depending on other’s for her happiness.
Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel, Edna Pontellier makes her wish to abandon the Victorian, matriarchal culture quite clear, both, verbally and physically. The Victorian society that Edna Pontellier suffers in calls for “women who idolize their children, worship their husbands, and esteem it a holy privilege [to be mothers]” (Franklin 512). Unfortunately for Edna, she lacks the true understanding as to what is so great about being a mother in the first place. Due to Edna Pontellier’s disgust with this traditional Victorian society, she soon is unable to repress the urges to break free from the matriarchal abyss.
Edna greatly differs when it comes to “esteeming the holy privilege” and continuously recalls that she “was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way” (Chopin 40).

To a traditional Victorian mother, this observation can be seen as almost blasphemous. Furthermore, when Edna Pontellier’s children are not with her, she allows herself to admit “she did not miss them (...) their absence was a sort of relief” (Chopin 40). Succeeding Madame Ratignolle’s birth scene, Edna is left emotionally scarred—even though she has given birth to two children of her own—and also indifferent in some aspects, as well. Dr. Mandelet realizes the severity of the scene and convinces Edna that it was “no place for [her]” (Chopin 134).” This statement by Dr. Mandelet further proves that, despite giving birth to two children of her own, Edna is not psychologically prepared to witness such a sight. Moreover, during Edna’s conversation with Dr. Mandelet, she retorts that she “shouldn’t want to trample upon the little lives.” (Chopin 135). The specific diction that Edna uses alludes to the fact that she does not have any major opposition to “trampling the little lives”—the lives being her kids’. She chose the word “shouldn’t” over “wouldn’t,” and notwithstanding the seemingly insignificant diction, it allows the reader to believe that she understands the lack of opposition and recognizes how wrong that is for a Victorian mother to say. Therefore, she immediately ends the discussion after the slip

up. Lastly, while daring herself to keep pushing herself to swim farther out, Edna only briefly “thinks of Léonce and the children” (Chopin 139). Relating back to the resemblance of a rebellious teenager, Edna, again, casts away the apprehensions regarding her children and husband and continues to swim. As “exhaustion [presses] upon and [overpowers] her” (Chopin 139), Edna refuses to turn back. By this point, Edna knows very well that if she swims any further, she will most definitely succumb to a pathetic defeat, however, she still continues on. A traditional Victorian mother would be horrified by the idea of leaving her family, but not Edna Pontellier.
In conclusion, Kate Chopin foreshadows Edna’s eventual pathetic downfall throughout the novel by making Edna psychologically deteriorate after every life battle she tries to endure. Chopin foretells this defeat through Edna’s admittance to “accidentally” marrying her husband, her first swim—which was overly confident—, Madame Ratignolle’s tortuous birth scene, and how hastily she succumbed to the power of the ocean on her final swim. Despite the deep-set urge to escape from the oppressive Victorian matriarchy and the refusal to free herself from an adolescence state, Edna Pontellier eventually is overwhelmed by her life and accepts defeat by committing a thoughtless suicide.