Edna's Consciousness In The Awakening

In “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the paradoxical nature of Edna’s life is heroic because she

The story, The Awakening, is about Edna Pontellier’s internal conflict between her desire for independence and her need to remain a high-class member of society. When away on summer vacation Edna has the realization that she has control of her own life and begins to focus on her self and not what others think. During her awakening, Edna is faced with much resilience from her husband and friends and instead of becoming someone she is not, Edna Pontellier ends her own life as she sees it is her only option. The author, Kate Chopin, uses many characters to exemplify the conflicting ideals emerging in Edna; particularly Madame Ratignolle acts as a foil to Edna’s newfound persona, instead symbolizing the conservation of a traditional

Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening controversial protagonist - Edna Pontellier - lives a personally unsatisfying life with her idealistically perfect husband; a marriage that exists solely on the satisfaction of the Creole society they live in. In the beginning of the novel, she starts to struggle with the dominance of her outer identity that consists of how everyone sees her as the beautiful wife to a perfect, rich husband. But, when she is alone or with Robert, she begins to self-reflect on her inner identity that consists of how she sees herself and the new, rebellious freedoms that she desires. In The Awakening, the frequent symbolization of birds and the manner with how Edna interacts with music and the different men in her life illustrates

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,

Explanation Edna Pontellier is awakened during this book. She discovers herself and discovers her own interests during the course of this novel.

As a comment on the resolution to Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, an anonymous figure once stated, “A defeat and a regression, rooted in a self-annihilating instinct, in a romantic incapacity to accommodate to the limits of reality.” The main protagonist of The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, is initially met with joy and excitement with her transition from complacency and dissatisfaction to newfound independence and self-expression. However, as the anonymously declared statement implies, signs that appear throughout the story point towards a sort of self-annihilation to come, which in fact did come in the form of Edna’s implied death. Three main factors foreshadow a premature end to Edna’s ecstatic behavior and newly awakened persona:

Kate Chopin’s controversial novel, The Awakening, comprehends the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman’s life as she attempts to cope with the strict cultural demands. The protagonist Edna Pontellier challenges the norms of society as she abandons the stereotype of a “mother-woman”. The novel accounts Edna Pontellier’s journey toward a new vision of female and constantly examines and challenges the boundaries of a “mother-woman”. The continuous characterization of Edna throughout the book presents the idea that individuality and freedom of women could not be earned in the inhibiting society that she was trapped in.

In this novel, the writer often highlights the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society, through several things. One of them being music, other being pride. One of the biggest theme in this book, that Edna was alienated on, was the fact that she wanted to do things differently than the average stay at home mom. Some other themes, that are criticized by society, in this book is music, paintings, and decisions. Decisions stand for all the decisions made by mademoiselle reisz, and Edna. Some of these decisions, are how they handle certain situations, or how they start to pick up hobbies or even how they want

    One theme apparent in Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, is the consequence of solitude when independence is chosen over conformity. The novel's protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is faced with this consequence after she embarks on a journey of self-discovery. "As Edna's ability to express herself grows, the number of people who can understand her newfound language shrinks" (Ward 3). Edna's awakening from a conforming, Victorian wife and mother, into an emotional and sexual woman takes place through the use of self-expression in three forms: emotional language, art, and physical passion.

In portion of the reading, we see that Mrs. Montpellier behavior have change drastically. The turning point for this kind of attitude was went she learn to swim and she became to feel empower for the first time since the beginning of the story. She became to stand up to Mr. Pontellier who always seem to control her life. For example, went she came from the beach that night she laid in the Hammock and Mr. Pontellier told her to come in but we see her being very stubborn and didn’t heed to his warning. Maybe she intentionally waited for him to come home so she could express the feeling she felt that night or a wife who have finally realize that it her duty to look after her family. Edna also became to care about her firmly or show affection that we haven’t seen before. She became to care for the kid, putting them to bed at one point we see her showing concern when the kid were playing under the blazing sun.

The ambiguous ending of Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, forces the reader to determine the cause of Edna’s suicide. Set in the South in the 1800’s, the novel displays the struggles Edna has against feminism and societal roles. One can see, through textual evidence, that suicide was Edna’s way of escaping social and familial confinement. To begin, one must discover why suicide is Edna’s only option for escape.

The general term of Self-actualization is explained in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is the last level of the psychological development that can only be attainable when all other basic and mental needs are satisfied. In the novel Edna seeks an awakening to reach her full potential where she can finally be herself and feel happy. To experience this happiness that she yearns for, she looks to find herself. To achieve the finding of ones self or this self-actualization, it is required of her to look beyond the social conditions and circumstances that she is presently experiencing or has experienced in the past. She has to make a conscious choice to experience the world and all that has been made available to her, in this case it is seeking

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,

In the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin (2005) uses deep symbolism to show how the main character, Edna Pontellier, discovers her own independence in the society in which she lived. Edna was a traditional mother and wife seeking freedom and independence throughout her adult life. Chopin portrays Edna as being a rebel against her own life. The story takes place in the 1960s when women were to follow certain rules made by the society they lived in. Chopin also foreshadows the things that occur in Edna’s life through nature and death itself. Based on the many ways Chopin uses symbolic meanings through the novel, we can see the events of Edna’s life as one that rebels against society. Throughout this novel, Chopin proves that Edna’s actions