Edna's Role In The Awakening

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.

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

When Edna receives gifts from Mr. Pontellier she is forced to realize that she loves him, yet what she also realizes is that she truly does not love him. In her romance with Robert, she feels great affection and love for him. He as well feels that same for her, yet he cannot corrupt the union of marriage by being with Edna so he decides to leave and not further the relationship. Edna’s inability to attain

This itself differentiates Edna from the female population, because she would not accept the idea of being someone who she wasn’t, just so that she could fit a certain image for the public.

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

Acting upon desires is not becoming of a woman of Edna’s social class. She is expected to consult her husband on her decisions so that she only acts to keep up his social standing. The idea that a woman of Edna’s wealth would even have desires is unthinkable. Edna is not an animal that acts upon its self serving desire for survival or a fallen women who acts upon desires for sexual pleasure. She is a fine women, without passion or desire. If she has a desire at all it is that her sons are well cared for and her husband is looked upon with esteem. But, these are not desires of a woman at all. These are the desires of society. Women should not have any self serving desires, but Edna does. By having self serving desires Edna has stepped outside of her role as a wife, mother and society woman and into the role of Edna. She has acknowledged herself as a person with feelings, needs and wants. She wants to listen to Mademoiselle

In The Awakening, Edna constantly battles between her heart’s desires and society’s standard of a woman in the late 19th century. “Every step she took toward relieving herself of obligations added to her

By giving her children a sense of independance early which may enable them for success later on. While other children of the times may have a pseudo unhealthy reliance on a mother, much like Robert's brother Victor who still lives at home. Another more risky thing she did was make a statement that most women even now wouldn't agree with. Edna states: “I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself.”(Chopin 47) This statement holds quite a lot of weight in the way we can view edna. Some may call her selfish for a lack of an undying love for her children. But I view it as brutal honesty. The fact that edna is coming to this conclusion and fighting the ever pushing stream of society really shows how she is trying to fight. Giving up one's self is a very dangerous thing to do. For once you give too much you can lose who you are. But too little and people can lose sight of what you can be/who you are. As a mother edna realizes this and decides to make herself known in a different way than as a mother-woman.

At the end of the novel Edna is devastated by the note Robert leaves her. She knows that the note most likely means that she will never see Robert again. One of the main driving forces that pushes Edna against early 20th century societal rules in the beginning of the novel is the hope that she may one day be with Robert. When she realizes that Robert will no longer be part of her life, she no longer has any reasons to utilize her free will. Edna may have felt that her marriage with Mr. Pontellier was an obligation and the only way to relieve this obligation was to run away with Robert.

Edna is better off on just giving herself gratification, of going wherever she wants to without her husband permission. Edna has also had affairs with other men, while Leonce (husband) is out of the states and not care about the

This idea of freedom counteracts the view of Edna as a selfish individual and presents her in a more positive light. In this view, the author presents Edna as strong minded woman who wants to live the life that she feels she

Edna realizes that the patriarchal society is quick to condemn particularly a freedom-seeking woman who neglects her children since she is “intended by nature” to take care of them (Dyer 126). She is "uneven and impulsive" in her affections for her children. When they leave to visit their grandmother, she is relieved because she is not suited to the responsibilities of motherhood. Edna’s mind was at rest concerning the present material needs of her children:

Unlike most women at the time, Edna refuses to conform to simply being a housewife. Edna tells Madame Ratignolle, “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.” indicating that even in the early stages of her awakening she had accounted herself more pretentious than society proclaims. At the end of the story Edna stands by her word by ending her life due to the level of unhappiness she was feeling. A housewife of those times would have simply lived her life unhappy and suffered until she possibly couldn’t. Edna on the other hand, chose to take actions into her own hands and take control of what is to happen in her life resulting in her suicide.

rather than relying on their husband. Edna demonstrated this by her reliance on her husband early

From even the first few chapters of the novel it is evident that Edna is becoming aware of her concealed wants and desires as she begins to distance herself from the society that she considers herself to be an outsider in. While walking in town Edna