Edna's Duality In The Awakening

Adele Ratignolle serves as a foil to Edna, since she is the ultimate embodiment of the perfect wife and mother. Adele belongs to a group of women “who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin 10). Adele is everything that Edna is not as a mother. Despite this, Edna and Adele find themselves in similar situations. Adele too cannot escape her children, so much so that “she has no way of conceiving of herself as a separate person” (Bogarad 160). Edna herself recognizes Adele’s entrapment, feeling “pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor of blind contentment…” (Chopin 74). The only difference between Edna and Adele is that while Edna rejects her role, Adele blindly embraces it. Conversely, Mademoiselle Reisz is unmarried with no children. She is free. Mademoiselle Reisz expresses herself through her music and she is not afraid to reveal her emotions, causing her to be seen as an “eccentric, unpleasant ‘old maid’” (Bogarad 160). Despite this, Mademoiselle Reisz’s lifestyle is what Edna desires for herself. When Edna attempts to paint she finds she only is able to when she is feeling content. She wants to express her feelings towards Robert yet they are suppressed. Mademoiselle Reisz does not face these challenges, proving that the

She leaves the care of her children to her grandmother, abandoning them and her husband when she leaves to live in the pigeon-house. To her, leaving her old home with Léonce is very important to her freedom. Almost everything in their house belonged to him, so even if he were to leave, she would still feel surrounded by his possessions. She never fully becomes free of him until she physically leaves the house. That way, Edna has no ties whatsoever to that man. Furthermore, Edna indulges in more humanistic things such as art and music. She listens to Mademoiselle Reisz’s playing of the piano and feels the music resonate throughout her body and soul, and uses it as a form of escapism from the world. Based on these instances, Edna acts almost like a very young child, completely disregarding consequences and thinking only about what they want to do experience most at that moment. However, to the reader this does not necessarily appear “bad”, but rather it is seen from the perspective of a person who has been controlled by others their entire life and wishes to break free from their grasp. In a way, she is enacting a childlike and subconscious form of revenge by disobeying all known social constructs of how a woman should talk, walk, act, and interact with others.

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.

In Chapter 8, Madame Ratignolle pulls Robert aside and asks him to leave Edna alone. She explains that Edna,” Is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously.” Chopin’s use of repetition in Adele’s dialogue puts emphasis on Edna’s uniqueness and labels her as an outcast. Adele sees Edna drifting further and further away from the social norms of their accustomed society and wishes to stop her before its too late. Chopin also uses this scene to foreshadow Robert’s unwillingness to commit to Edna as he brushes off Madame Ratignolle’s warning, seeing his relationship with Edna as a fling rather than being the passionate lover Edna craves.

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

Chopin especially reveals the growth of Edna’s inner identity through her increasingly conflicting interactions with her husband

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.

These first thirteen chapters chronicle the daily life of Edna Pontellier, The Awakening’s protagonist. The novel opens on Mr. Pontellier; he is smoking a cigar and reading the newspaper while idly observing the life and activity around him. The novel turns its attention to his wife, Edna Pontellier. She is described as “rather handsome than beautiful” and has a face with a “certain frankness of expression,” an intriguing description if there ever was one. She is accompanied by Robert Lebrun, the son of Madame Lebrun, the owner of “the house” at which the Creole aristocracy stayed on the Grand Isle. They are rather close companions; Robert has chosen to follow her around for the summer, as is later revealed to be his custom. It’s revealed that Edna is an American woman from “the old Kentucky bluegrass country.” As the day progresses, Chopin details the tiny minutiae of married life that have disappointed both Leonce and Edna; Leonce feels hurt by her dismissiveness- “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation…”- while Edna resents his overbearing conventionality- “An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish.” The Pontelliers reconcile before Leonce leaves for New Orleans

however, defied from the responsibilities women have. A woman who is devoted to her family would: “idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels (Chopin 51).” At this time the norm of an upper class women was someone who took care of the kids, devoted to their husband, and made sure that everything was running smoothly with the staff and servants. However, Edna was different since she really does not like the responsibilities women have. Edna was simply not a motherly woman since she confesses: “ There absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not

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.

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.

It truly is unfortunate the way society plays with people, sharing its toys one day and taking everything away from someone the next. Edna and Meursault were both challenged emotionally, and socially throughout their life. Edna is described to have an “outward existence that conforms, [and an] inward life which questions” (Chopin 26). Meursault also had this type of shyness and confinement in his questions which set him back from really expressing himself. Both the characters created a physiological

Through one's life, we tend to abscond from the misfortune that seems to be nonviable to defeat. But when a persistent soul comes into contact with all the tribulation that is to come, it would benefit the tenacious soul that risked its life to see the light in the darkness. The female figure has been admonishing due to societies expectations and morals that seem the need to be followed and be taken to the grave, some are the exceptions like Edna Pontellier. Edna's courageous soul broke societies norms enforcing opposing views of her character. Her alacrity and assiduous disposition prompted her to achieve her desires; Kate Chopin portrays this in The Awakening. Contradicting the rules of society can implement great awakening in one's thoughts of love, personal and social achievement that seem too abstruse which are crucial to our self-preservation.