Essay about Finding True Freedom in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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

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.

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

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.

Leonce Pontellier, the husband of Edna, is the story 's antagonist. He is materialistic, due to him being a wealthy businessman, and also forty years old. His high status came at a cost; he is very concerned with appearance and how others view him."The way to become rich is to make money, my dear Edna, not to save it," he said. He regretted that she did not feel inclined to go with him and select new fixtures. He kissed her goodbye, and told her she was not looking well and must take care of herself. She was unusually pale and very quiet” (18). He also treats Edna as mere property "You are burnt beyond recognition," he added, looking at his wife as one

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 married Leonce not because she loved him but because she could not refuse his admiration and persistence. This marriage thrusts Edna into a foreign culture. She questions her role as a mother because she is different from the typical Creole "mother-woman." Edna defies the central perception that women are mothers first

She was pressured to marry Leonce by her father and older sister. Along with marriage came the pressure to have children. She is forced into these roles but never actually succumbs to them. Edna not only has Madame Ratignolle's friendship and her marriage to wake her up to her dreams and emotions, her affairs wake up to her desires. The way the different male characters treat her reminds her that she will never happily fit into the role of a wife and mother, therefore awakening her.

We further notice Mr. Pontelllier’s traditional thinking in Chapter three, when he notifies Edna that one of their sons is suffering with a high fever. When she doesn’t instantly jump up and run to check on her son (whom she is quite sure did not have a fever), he accuses her of being neglectful and notifies her that it was her place to look after the children. This scene is where we first take notice of Mrs. Pontellier’s dissatisfaction with her marriage and perhaps her life.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening depicts Edna Pontellier’s struggle to find and assert herself within the cultural constraints of late 19th century America. Like her name “Pontellier”, which means “one who bridges,” it implies that Edna is in a transition between two worlds but not fully embedded in either. Her intent is to bridge the limited world of the mother-woman to that of selfhood.

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 Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the author frames the notions of freedom and responsibility by contrasting them within an opposing dichotomy portrayed through the main character, Edna Pontellier, and through her subconscious denial of Creole responsibility while attaining freedom for her body, mind, and soul. Within this dichotomy the notions change inversely: the more freedom that is exercised by Edna because of unknown, and undisclosed, subconscious analysis deep in her mind, her sense of Creole responsibilities ebb proportionately. As these opposing forces ebb and flow, Chopin shows freedom in its basic and natural light—as being instinctive and as the normal state of a human being, evidenced by Edna Pontellier's actions flowing

The plot of The Awakening by Mary Chopin shows Mrs. Pontellier’s journey to self-expression and personal happiness. Mrs. Pontellier has a moment of awakening, when she realizes that the way that she lives her life does not make her personally happy, and spends the rest of the novel trying to change her life for the better relentless of how the rest of the society will react to her decisions. This tension between outward conformity and the inward questioning present in the plot of The Awakening helps demonstrate Edna’s journey of self-expression.

Early in the novel on page 18 it mentioned that she was “fond of her children” in an “uneven, impulsive way”. Sometimes she would forget them but other times she loved them compassionately. Fond is defined as having a liking or affection for, which suggests Edna didn’t have strong opinions about her children most of the time. Until the very end when one of the significant reasons she ends her life is because she wants to protect her children as being seen as the children of the adulterer or the one who left her husband. Even on page 116, she recognized she didn’t want to be possessed by her children as if they were owning her or holding her back from being herself yet she bases this huge decision off of them to look after them.

Perspectives upon certain stereotypes throughout centuries, regarding the role of women in any society has varied tremendously. A women’s perceived role in 19th century America has influenced, to an extent, the way a woman acts in any society today. Predominantly, feminist thought has impacted a women’s behavior as well as played a factor in the way society views them. In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the protagonist Edna Pontellier, questions her social standards regarding her role as a woman during her era. Her ambivalent nature is drawn out by the social norms of this era in conjunction with the enforcement of submissiveness which was forced upon the women of this time.