Awakening1 Essay

The Awakening is a nineteenth-century novel that follows Edna Pontellier’s transfiguration from a traditionally obedient wife and mother, into an independent self-realized and sexually liberated woman. Kate Chopin’s narrative is set around New Orleans Louisiana and on the Grand Isle where her and her husband Léonce Pontellier and their two children are vacationing. Coming from a strict Protestant upbringing in Kentucky, Edna appears captivated by the free-spirited Creole culture and entranced by the island's wistful, lavish atmosphere. She undergoes a profound awakening and falls in love with their next-door neighbor on the island, Robert Lebrun, who flees to Mexico to avoid the potential scandal. Although the Pontellier family returns to life in New Orleans, Edna has changed irretrievably. Refusing her familial and societal duties, Edna moves out of her husband's home, indulges in her own artistic talents, develops eccentric friendships, and unapologetically responds to the sexual advances of the roguish Alcée Arobin. Yet Edna's deeper desires remain unsatisfied. Unhappy with her life as a piece of property and distressed at Robert's second abandonment, Edna Pontellier returns to Grand Isle and surrenders to the sea's final enchantment.

The reader thinks Edna might just be frustrated with her husband. As the novel shifts to New Orleans, it is clear that she has changed. Edna starts to feel motivated to take action. Finally the setting comes back to Grand Isle, and it is the climax of Edna’s awakening. It is also where she drowns herself. Nobody know for sure whether it was intentional or not since Chopin said, “Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions”(Chopin 58).

The setting Edna is in directly affects her temperament and awakening: Grand Isle provides her with a sense of freedom; New Orleans, restriction; the “pigeon house”, relief from social constraints. While at Grand Isle, Edna feels more freedom than she does at her conventional home in New Orleans. Instead of “Mrs. Pontellier… remaining in

The novel The Awakening is an empowering masterpiece that shows a woman stepping out of the social norm to find her bliss. Edna Pontellier is expected to be the perfect wife and perfect mother. The needs of her husband and children are supposed to triumph over her own. She is well ahead of her time because she wants independence and to live her life to the fullest. In Chopin’s story, not only is there a daring young woman who is on the hunt to find her independence, but there is also a housewife, whose life belongs to her family.

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is the story of a woman who is seeking freedom. Edna Pontellier feels confined in her role as mother and wife and finds freedom in her romantic interest, Robert Lebrun. Although she views Robert as her liberator, he is the ultimate cause of her demise. Edna sees Robert as an image of freedom, which brings her to rebel against her role in society. This pursuit of freedom, however, causes her death. Chopin uses many images to clarify the relationship between Robert and Edna and to show that Robert is the cause of both her freedom and her destruction.

As the novel progresses, Edna is able to escape from the hands of Leonce Pontellier, and she moves into a small house down the street in which she calls the pigeon house. The symbol of the bird is used here by saying she may be able to release herself from Leonce but she isn’t able to release herself from society, that she if forever trapped. In the end of the novel, before Edna’s tragedy, a bird with a broken wing crashes into the sea. This bird can be connected with the advice that Mademoiselle Reisz told Edna that she needed strong wings to soar. The connection for shadows Edna’s tragedy, and reveals her complete failure to find complete freedom and happiness.

Rebellion - Edna definitely begins to rebel from her husband, her responsibilities, and set social norms for other women during her time.

Edna’s awakening occurs during her family’s vacation in Grand Isle. It is here that she learns to freely express herself and be unreserved in her behavior and speech. Through the Creole women, Edna becomes free from the chains that bind her to societal expectations. Adele

She pales in comparison as a mother when set next to the other Creole women on Grand Isle. When the children of the other mothers need comfort, they run to their mother. However this is not the case for Mrs. Pontellier. When Edna’s children fall, rather than seeking comfort from their mother, they are more likely to instead get up and carry on playing (567). Try as she might, Edna is simply “not a mother-woman”, and finds no satisfaction in attempting to be one (567).

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.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

Once her clothes are off, there are no restrictions against her for the first time in a long time; she feels free and peaceful at last. Also, clothes illustrate the rules and conventions of society. One’s appearance shows what kind of class one is in and they must act accordingly. So, being a married to a traditional Creole man, Edna had to act like a graceful and sophisticated “mother-woman”, a woman who is obedient to her husband and a great mother, never expected to pursue her own dreams and happiness. This oppression of social expectations is what led her to be naked and thus her suicide. This nakedness focuses on the idea of rebirth; the clothes she had on in the beginning of the novel is what defined her, but now, with nothing on, her body and soul exposes her true self as an individual.

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the constant boundaries and restrictions placed on Edna Pontellier by society will lead to her struggle for freedom and her ultimate suicide. Her husband Leonce Pontellier, the current women of society, and the Grand Isle make it evident that Edna is trapped in a patriarchal society. Despite these people, Edna has a need to be free and she is able to escape from the society that she despises. The sea, Robert Lebrun, and Mademoiselle Reisz serve as Edna’s outlets from conformity. “Edna's journey for personal independence involves finding the words to express herself. She commits suicide rather than sacrificing her independent,

    The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In Chopin's time, writing a story with such great attention to sensual details in both men and women caused skepticism among readers and critics. However, many critics have different views with deeper thought given to The Awakening. Symbolism, the interpretation of Edna's suicide, and awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics.

In Kate Chopin’s novel, “The Awakening”, Edna finds herself in a society where women were socially confined to be mothers and wives. This novel embodies the struggle of women in the society for independence along with the presence of women struggling to live up to the demands that their strict culture has placed upon them. A part of Edna wants to meet the standards of mother and wife that society has set, however her biggest desire is to be a woman free from the oppression of a society that is male dominant. Readers will find that the foundation of “The Awakening” the feminist perspective because of the passion that Edna has for gaining her own identity, and independence,