Edna Pontellier's Suicide In The Awakening

The ending of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is both controversial and thought provoking. Many see Edna Pontellier’s suicide as the final stage of her “awakening”, and the only way that she will ever be able to truly be free. Edna’s suicide, however, is nothing more than her final attempt to escape from her life. Edna Pontellier’s life has become too much for her to handle, and by committing suicide she is simply escaping the oppression she feels from her marriage, the suppression she feels from her children, and the failure of her relationship with Robert.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin ends with the death of the main character, Edna Pontellier. Stripping off her clothes, she swims out to sea until her arms can no longer support her, and she drowns. It was not necessarily a suicide, neither was it necessarily the best option for escaping her problems.

Love is an overpowering feeling. In “The Awakening,” Edna Pontellier experiences this first hand. Her life, although seemingly

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, two people who have the ultimate influence on Edna are Mademoiselle Reisz, and Robert Lebrun.

When Edna eats dinner with Leonce after going out on Tuesday, he exclaims, “Out!... Why, what could have taken you out on Tuesday? What did you have to do?” (Chopin 85). Leonce’s remark of disgust and anger exemplifies the harsh social structure of the Creole society. Edna wants to go out while in New Orleans, but society’s gender roles see it as inappropriate; yet, Edna still goes out and follows her heart, showing another chapter in her awakening. When Edna has her party at the pigeon house, she shows another chapter in her awakening, “this time, however, she casts herself as a queen, as opposed to the virginal Snow White she enacted at Madame Antoine's” (Euripidies). When Edna is finally in a setting where she does not have social restraints she shows her true self and comes off as a queen – something most women of this era are not capable of. This image gives Edna a sense of independence and liberty, which is yet another milestone in her awakening.

In the iconic debated novel “The Awakening”, Kate Chopin’s novel takes place in the Victorian Era, which is in the 19th- century, similarly the novel was published in 1899. Edna is depicted as a woman longing for more, a woman who was looking for more than just a life of complacency and living in the eyes of society. The story uses Edna to exemplify the expectations of women during this era. For example, a woman’s expression of independence was considered immoral. Edna was expected to conform to the expectations of society but the story reveals Edna’s desires which longed for independence in a state of societal dominance. Throughout The Awakening, Chopin’s most significant symbol,

But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul" (504).  Although Edna did perform her duties as a wife for some time, she is not the typical housewife.  She does not worship her husband or idolize her children, which makes both Edna and Leonce begin to sense that Edna is different from the other mother-women (Lin 1).  Edna never realized the reasons she neglected her duties as a wife until she fell in love with Robert and acknowledged that her desires and needs exist outside of her marriage.  Thus, after her experiences with Robert, Edna is ready to neglect her husband even more, because she now realizes that her husband is holding her back from her needs.  When Leonce tries to make Edna act like the other women that obey their husbands, his attempts to control Edna further instigate Edna's desire for independence from him.  For example, the scene when Edna is lying in the hammock, Leonce says: "I can't permit you to stay out there all night.  You must come in the house instantly," Edna replies: "I mean to stay out here.  I don't wish to go in, and I don't intend to.  Don't speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you" (492).  Edna is carefree and spirited, and she refuses to conform to her husband because she does not want to lose herself.  Becoming the perfect, obedient wife would mean losing her individuality, and Edna realizes she can gain no fulfillment

She is moved by music. During that summer Edna sketches to find an artistic side to herself. She needs an outlet to express who she is. Edna feels that art is important and adds meaning to her life. After the summer is over and they are back to the city and Edna is a changed woman. She makes many steps towards independence. She stops holding "Tuesday socials", she sends her children to live in the country with their grandparents, she refuses to travel abroad with her husband, she moves out of the Lebrun house on Esplanade Street, and to earn money, she starts selling her sketches and betting the horses. She also starts a relationship with another man Alcee Arobin. He meant nothing to her emotionally but she used him for sexual pleasure. Edna evolved above her peers she did not believe that sexuality and motherhood had to be linked. The last step of her "awakening" is the realization that she can not fulfill her life in a society that will not allow her to be a person and a mother. Edna commits suicide in the ocean at Grand Isle.

A different option would have been that Edna decides to live the life of an artist. She could

Edna Pontellier is a woman of great needs. Although she has a husband who cares for her and two children, she is very unhappy. She plays her roles as a mother and wife often, but still keeps doing things unmarried, barren women should do: enjoy the company of other men, ignore her children's cries, dress unladylike for the times. The story is set in the late 1800's, when women were to be in the kitchen preparing a meal for their family, giving birth to more children to help with daily chores, or sitting quietly at home, teaching the children while the husband was at work. Edna Pontellier was a woman not of her time. At only 28, she would have rather been out gallivanting with different men, traveling with them, and painting

Kate Chopin’s novel, the Awakening, explores many feminist ideologies. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, experiences a gradual yet full-fledged “awakening.” There are many events throughout the story that portray this progression of self-awareness; most of these events revolve around Edna’s relationship with water, especially of her stay at Grand Isle. Chopin captures Edna’s relationship with water through its symbolism of both rebirth and death and the repeated string of gerunds at the beginning and end of the novel.

A High-Quality Husband With a Low-Quality Wife Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, published in 1899, explores a misfit mother’s search for her true self and independence. The novella follows Edna Pontellier while her family vacations at La Grand Isle in the late 1800s. Instead of spending time with her kids and husband, Leonce Pontellier, Edna befriends a young man named Robert Lebrun. Over the course of the story, Edna grows deeply in love with Robert while ignoring her motherly obligations, which becomes stressful for her husband, Leonce.

Throughout “The Awakening”, Edna is immersed in a constant clash with society over the significance of the difference between her life and her self. To Edna, the question of whether or not she would die for her children is somewhat simple. Edna attempts to explain this concept to her good friend, Adele Ratignolle, but to no avail, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin 62). Not only does Edna consider her life unessential, she categorizes it as equal with material objects such as money. The idea of self, on the other hand, lies on a completely different level in Edna’s mind. The most important goal to Edna in her life is the journey to discover her true character. The idea that her inner self is more essential than life or even her children causes Edna to stray farther from the social constraints of the typical domestic woman. Kathleen M. Streater weighs in on Edna’s situation and placement in

The Awakening begins on the Grand Isle where Edna Pontellier and her family are vacationing. While there, Edna meets Robert Lebrun, and she feels a special connection to Robert. Her time on the island’s beach only intensifies her attraction towards Robert as her more erotic side shines through. Because the beach acts as the backdrop for her new, tempting nature, the Grand Isle represents Edna’s change in mentality about how she is living her life. The Grand Isle represents her freedom. Freedom from society and others telling her what she is expected to do. The Grand Isle represents Edna’s realization that she wants to lead a more meaningful life than the one she has been living. A life where she is

The novel begins with Edna, her husband Leonce, and her two children vacationing in the island of Grand Isle for the summer. When Edna is in Grand Isle her life still consists of her husband who suffocates her identity as an individual the same way the water traps the land of Grand Isle. There is no “easy” escape from it, because it would have been easier to simply carry on than to go against the time period. Therefore, the vacation also represents her “easier” life, though it may feel unfulfilled; she is able to find some temporary liberation from the house in New Orleans. Edna must discover the island within herself. In the beginning of the novel Edna’s character is introduced into the novel, she is titled as the wife of Leonce, yet the rest of the characters are mentioned simply by name and possibly followed by a physical description, with no explanation of their relevance or relationship to the situation. This is done to illustrate the idea that Edna, at this point in time, is not an individual. Her role in society and her community is defined by her bounding ties to her marriage and the