Social Norms 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.

For Edna, swimming represents freedom. When she learns to swim, "A feeling of exultation [overtakes] her, as if some power of significant import [has] been given her to control the working of her body and her soul" (73). Because Robert is the one who teaches her how to swim, he is seen as her liberator. She fears the water, just as she fears freedom. When she does taste freedom, she desires more of it. This is paralleled when she learns to swim. "She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before" (73). Robert aids in her independence, but

Whether coerced or through self realizations, there were many awakenings in the book. The first was that Edna was not the traditional mother like Adèle, the second was that she enjoyed doing things for herself instead of for her children and husband. This second awakening is shown when Edna takes time to talk

Edna realizes that "she had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles" (96). In the novel the struggle begins and it is against the demands of her husband and children. As she walks into the ocean at the end of the novel to escape her life she thinks, "they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul" (176). Emily Toth claims, "an escape from confinement is the overriding theme of The Awakening" (242). The primary means for this emotional confinement is the societal expectation, held over from the early Republican era of America, that "'the best way of a married woman to carry her points is to yield sometimes.'" Jan Lewis says that in early America "it was the wife who had to bend" (712). This remained true at the middle of the century when William Alcott declared "the balance of concession devolves on the wife. Whether the husband concede or not, she must" (32). Edna comes to understand that earlier in her life she followed this dictate without even thinking; she conceded in all cases, "not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand or go through the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us" (78). But she now realizes that this pattern was a mere treadmill whose path was always determined by

Edna’s suicide was victory of self-expression. Edna undergoes a gradual awakening process in which portrays not to only her newly established independence from the constraints of her husband, but also her ability to go against the social norms of society in order to individually express herself. Her suicide encompases the question and critique of living life through the perspective of society such as being responsible for taking care of the kids, cleaning the house, and entertaining any guests that the husband may have over anytime. In the first couple of capters, the novel is quick to emphasize the gerneralized roles kthat are placed onto females, making it apparent that fe,ales are expected to successfully fulfil these roles. For example, Leonce enters home after being out and stated one of the kids had a fever. Edna was certain the child had no fever but Leonce belittles her capability as a mother for indifference with him. “If it was not a mother’s place to look after the children, whose on earth was it?” (27capac).

In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Orleanna Price, the mother of 4 and the

She must be a “mother-woman”, a woman 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). Edna often does not conduct herself in a way that a woman at the time is expected to; she is not devoted to her husband or dedicated to taking care of her children. This aspect of the setting is crucial to the novel; during this time period, Edna is expected to be a dutiful wife and mother, which she does not want to do. Furthermore, she cannot divorce her husband, as she knows it will severely hurt her children. Therefore, Edna struggles between her identity and her desire for independence while balancing the expectations and restraints of society during that time. Enda tries once more to find a sense of identity in what she terms the “pigeon house”, a smaller house in New Orleans that she wishes to inhabit. This new house, separate from her husband, her children, and her life at her family home, is important to Edna’s search for her identity. When visiting the pigeon house, it is clear what effect the house has on Edna: “Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes. . .” (Chopin, 127). However, even with the addition of the pigeon house, Edna cannot escape the expectations of society,

Edna goes through many physical changes throughout her awakening process. One example of this change is her wearing more comfortable clothing. Instead of “wear[ing] her usual Tuesday reception gown; she was in ordinary house dress"(pg. 56). This shows how she’s is freeing herself

Kate Chopin tells a story about a young woman named Edna in the late 1800’s. Edna is a childish woman in the beginning of the story but as the story goes on she grows up and wants to be as independent as she can. Edna is very rebellious of her husband, Leonce Pontellier; she grows to no longer love him. She finds her new born self in a secret lover named Robert but she does become depressed once he leaves for Mexico without notice but for one day. She breaks the social norms of society and does things her way and does not care to please anyone else but herself.

Edna does not care about society or even about being married but Robert knows that they can not be together. Robert leaves and essentially breaks up with Edna. Edna then realizes that she cannot be independent or just be who she wants to be without society judging her but she does not want to go back to how she was. “Despondency had come upon her there in the wakeful night and had never lifted.

The ideals Edna had were very progressive for her time. Just as expected she met a lot of push back from most since people do not like the idea of change But one of the biggest leaps she took was moving out of her own home. An understandable gesture for a woman coming into her own, for with a change of heart of change of setting is also needed. She tells

The Awakening begins in Grand Isle, while Edna and her husband are on vacation from New Orleans. The society of the time dictated that Edna was tied to her husband, her children and her home. Many of the rules of New Orleans society are relaxed in Grand Isle and Edna is free to explore many new things. The simple act of learning to swim becomes liberating for Edna. When she is swimming, she feels as though she is completely free of the oppressive circumstances of her life. Edna’s relationship with Mademoiselle Reisz further helps her learn new things and empower herself. Mademoiselle teaches her basic artistry skills which allow her to fully explore her talent and creativity. This artistic freedom is part of the culmination of Edna’s freedom within society. The harsh constraints placed upon women in the society which Edna lives make total freedom and independence almost unattainable. Edna’s inability to escape her husband and her attachment to her children led her to her ultimate downfall. Having no place to turn or escape to, Edna commits suicide, which appeared to be the only possible means for achieving freedom and liberation.

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:

“Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (547). She looked at and heard things as if for the first time. “The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier’s spinal column” (556). She decided that she would move out of her house with her husband and children and would move into a small apartment by herself. This is something that women of her day simple did not do. Edna was different.

As the title of the novel reveals, awakenings are the most important as well as the most emotional parts of the story. Edna slowly awakens to her true self. She begins "daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world." She creates her own awakenings with dreams and paintings (Gilbert 104). It is as if she tried to begin again, making a life that she could control and to become a new woman and be herself rather than what she was expected to be. Edna's awakenings were all a part of her defining her own self(Rosowski 44). She feared to have the conventional life that so many women had become trapped in. As she awakens, Edna becomes less and less traditional by stripping