Edna Pontellier In Chopin's The Awakening

Edna Pontellier’s marriage is a failure in her own eyes. Although when thinking of other husbands she at one time admits that, “she

Edna’s artistic pursuits are very different than Madame Ratignolle’s. Edna’s art represents her quest for individuality (Boren 181). Her form of art does not provide pleasure or enrichment to her household. Instead, it takes her away from her family and her domestic duties (Dyer 87). Edna paints in her “atelier” (Chopin 579). Mr. Pontellier chides Edna for spending too much time in her atelier; he says that she would “be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family” (Chopin (579). Edna makes good progress in her painting; she dreams of “becoming an artist” (Chopin 584). However, her devotion to art is contrasted to that of novel’s true artist.

Edna Pontellier was a very respectable woman from the 1800's that was unsatisfied with her situation in life. Mrs. Pontellier was a mother of two sons and had a husband whom she adored at the beginning of their marriage, but overtime they have became distant and her sexual desires were no longer being fulfilled. She soon broke the role society had casted upon her and became rebellious by leaving her womanly duties behind. Kate Chopin reveals Edna Pontellier's character through the her actions, through dialogue, and by telling the reader the thoughts and feelings that are circulation through Mrs. Pontellier.

    "How do you honor the deepest truth you know?" --Ram Das        In order to honor one's deepest truth, one must first discover what that truth is and then apply that truth to everyday life.  The life of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening signifies the search, discovery, and application of an individual's deepest truth.  Edna, a wealthy New Orleans housewife, at first attempts to find the deepest truth about herself by conforming to society's norms.  She marries a well-respected man, Leonce, and bears him children.  However, Edna discovers that she wants more out of life; something about her marriage is not allowing her to achieve fulfillment.  Through her relationships,

After returning from vacation, Edna is a changed woman. 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.

“It was not despair, but it seemed to her as if life were passing by, leaving its promises broken and unfulfilled” wrote Kate Chopin in her book The Awakening. Chopin is describing her main character’s unhappiness with her life. Edna Pontellier, the main character, decides to chase her passions and live independently instead of living with the feeling that her life is just passing by. In doing so, Edna Pontellier avoids her responsibilities as a wife, mother, and a respectful woman in society and as a result, her relationships with her husband, children, and friends are ruined.

In “The Awakening”, Kate Chopin demonstrates Edna’s early mother who experiences a melodramatic phase of transformation that she “awakens” to the boundaries of her old-style society and growing with freedom. Then, we look at Edna Pontellier awake in circumstances that have metaphorical awakenings to a new modern woman with sexual experiences. Edna fights off the common and ordinary structures of maternity that force her to be well-defined by her designation as spouse of Leonce Pontellier and mother of Raoul and Etienne Pontellier, instead of being her own, self-defined individual. Chopin’s focus on two other female characters, Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna’s pathways of life. Chopin portrays distinct types of characters that

Since the beginning of time social constrictions have always retained a firm grasp on the ideas and actions of humanity. While it remains a formidable foe, still some choose to fight back against the norm. This never-ending war is responsible for major advancements in the social order, but not every story is so successful. In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, Edna Pontellier finds herself fighting this very battle that, although begins with a positive outlook, ultimately ends in her demise.

Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening details the endeavors of heroine Edna Pontellier to cope with the realization that she is not, nor can she ever be, the woman she wants to be. Edna has settled for less. She is married for all the wrong reasons, saddled with the burden of motherhood, and trapped by social roles that would never release her. The passage below is only one of the many tender and exquisitely sensory passages that reveal Edna’s soul to the reader.

Chopin tells of this younger woman with an older husband who runs with her intuition in search of her own mind. Another presentation of Romanticism in The Awakening is described during Edna's search for individualism when she says of her that "...no longer was she content to 'feed upon opinion' when her own soul had invited her" (124). Edna Pontellier has a desire to be her own person in her own world when she is placed in a setting that refuses to permit such an action.

Edna’s life completely lacked passion: passion for her husband, passion to be a mother, or even passion towards her art. Edna lacks the internal motherly instincts expected of a woman, “She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing.

Characterization is a major part in how Chopin used American culture to shape the novel. Edna Pontellier, the main character, is a respectable women in the late 1800s who not only acknowledges her sexual desires, but also has the strength and courage to act on them. She broke through the role society gave her and discovers her own identity independent of her husband and children. This is a major concept for that time period that women could actually be someone that society didn’t appoint them to by gender and they can be anyone they want to be. Edna is a heroine that is very openly rebellious. At the beginning of the novel, Edna exists in a sort of semi-conscious state. She is comfortable in her marriage to Leonce and unaware of her own feelings and ambitions, which is the typical role of women during that time period. Edna had always been a romantic, but she saw her marriage to Leonce as the end to her life of passion and the beginning of a life of responsibility. That was typical of a women at that time- when she got married, she

Edna Pontellier is a married mother of two living an affluent lifestyle with her husband, Léonce Pontellier before she undergoes a spiritual awakening with prompts her to leave her comfortable life in pursuit of freedom, art and sexual liberation. “The little glimpse of domestic harmony which had been offered her, gave her no regret, no longing. It was not a condition of life which fitted her, and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui” (Chopin, 107).

From a Marxist approach, there is a relationship between The Awakening and actual social/economic reality during the time period this work was written. This relationship is much like cultural ideals or conditions introduced in the Historical approach. Edna Pontelleir is an upper-class woman in the late 1800's who is surrounded by life's greatest luxuries but as she "begins to realize her position in the universe" (Chopin 57) one can see that her true potential is stunted by the expectations of society.

Edna is a housewife who is not happy in her situation. She has two children and a husband that admires and cares for her. However, her husband is always busy with work. He is often gone on business. Edna spends a good portion of her time with a female friend (Chopin 1275). This friend has shown Edna the liberation she unconsciously desires. Over time, her personality starts to change. Already, there is the beginning of change. Edna is starting to challenge