The Awakening Essay

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.

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

Her friends see the gifts Mr. Pontellier gives Edna and assumes he is perfect, but they don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.

TOPIC #3- EXPLORE HOW EACH MAN IN EDNA’S LIFE ATTEMPTED TO CONTROL AND/OR REPRESS HER EXISTENCE..

Edna becomes used to his presence. Robert fills that empty space where Leonce rightfully should be. Roberts constant presence is much needed and accepted by Edna. Robert has done more for Edna, emotionally, in a short summer than Leonce has in their entire marriage. Robert Lebrun brings new emotions and self-awareness in Edna's life. He "teaches her to swim furthering her autonomy, and with his descriptions, which were unseemingly smooth and egotistical, of his life experiences he ignited the beginnings of Edna's self-expression (Carol Stone 23). Edna has up until this point allowed her family and acquaintances to participate in her life.

Edna is childish and foolish about her romances. She often cares for herself and not for her children or husband. Edna is very immature for her age and for having two children to look after. Mr. Pontellier; Edna’s husband; once said “If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?” (Chopin 1214). Implying to Edna that she did not care for her children like other wives took care of their children. Edna falls in love with a man named Robert. Even though she is married, Edna does not care about the consequences that could occur. She does not tell her husband, nor does he realize what Edna is doing behind his back. He is more interested in his work and studies. Once Robert leaves for Mexico, Edna finds that her friendships with Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz become stronger and stronger as time goes by when Robert and her husband are gone. They keep

Edna Pontellier spends some time with her children and feels quite lonesome once they leave. “She carried away with her the sound of their voices and the touch of their cheeks. All along the journey homeward their presence lingered with her like the memory of a delicious song. But by the time she had regained the city the song no longer echoed in her soul. She was again alone” (Chopin 95). Edna is evidently becoming more independent as the story progresses. Although a somber tone is portrayed from this quote, the author is trying to establish a more triumphant tone through Edna’s thoughts. Chopin is revealing Edna’s inner self by describing how she feels when her children leave. The specific word choice that the author chooses is specifically unique and helps portray the triumphant tone by showing that Edna is becoming happier as she becomes more independent. Although Edna feels alone, the author’s triumphant tone shows that she is gaining her identity as an individual as she is separated from her peers and family. The children in the story represent an obligation, which Edna feels she could do without. Through the triumphant tone, the author clearly implies that Edna would rather be alone than to be obligated to taking care of her kids. The specific

She fell in love with him and enjoyed the relationship she had with him. But her relationship with her husband was a different story. He was a very materialistic man and was very invested in his business life. He considers his wife more of a possession or an employee than a person. He was so invested in his business life that he does not notice that his wife has an obsession for Robert and that she is losing interest in him. Also, he does not even notice that his wife had even moved out. The relationship that she had with her husband was not satisfactory to her and in the end neither was the relationship she had with Robert. Robert decided that it was not a good idea for them to be together. So, this ties in with her feeling of weakness. It is like she is losing control of all of the things in her

    Kate Chopin's The Awakening begins set in Grande Isle which is the summer get-away for a few families of New Orleans "upper-class". It is a community of cottages owned by the Lebrun family. Edna Pontellier and her husband Leonce summer there with there two children. This is the setting where Edna also develops a close relationship with Robert Lebrun. He is one of Madame Lebrun's sons who helps her run the cottages for the Pontellier's and the Ratingnolle's. The book begins and ends with Edna and her attraction to the water. Throughout the story water plays a symbolic part in the unfolding of Edna and her relationship to Robert and also her awakening to a new outlook on life along

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.

In the novel The Awakening, which took place in New Orleans, the renowned author, Kate Chopin wrote about Edna Pontellier, a rebellious young woman that discovered her own identity, which led her to break the restraints of society placed on women in the late 1800's and live in solitude. Edna experienced a series of awakenings throughout the novel that caused her to seek emotional and sexual satisfaction, which eventually led to her suicide. Throughout the novel, there are several pieces of evidence to support the idea that Edna's suicide was not intentional, but rather an accident.

Edna's attitude towards her children is complicated. Although her love for them was genuine, it came and went in a way described in chapter seven as “uneven” and “impulsive”. It states in that chapter, that “she would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart,” but just as often, “she would sometimes forget them“. The maternal instincts expected of a mother are underdeveloped in Edna, and she does not immediately prioritize her children.

Books, unlike movies, have been around since the beginning of time. For the most part, they are more meaningful than the movies that are made from these books. This is due to the fact that an author is able to convey his/her message clearer and include things in the book that cannot be exhibited in a movie. For this reason, the reader of the book is much more effected than the viewer of the film. In the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, there is much more evidence of symbolism as well as deeper meaning than in the movie version of the book, Grand Isle. Chopin conveys her symbolic messages through the main character’s newly acquired ability to swim, through the birds, through sleep, and through images of the moon.

It was during this conversation that Edna was called to Adele’s side during the painful and dangerous childbirth of her fourth child. She asks Robert to wait for her return and leaves him alone in her home. Adele senses that Edna is changing even more and asks her to please think of her children before she completely rejects the patriarchal lifestyle that was expected of them. Edna, after seeing Adele, begins to feel guilty and thinks maybe she has acted too selfishly. She returns home and finds a note from Robert saying good-bye. Understanding that Robert wasn’t capable of breaking free of the constraints and expectations of him even if he did love and want to be with her coupled with Adele’s advice wakes Edna up to a reality that devastates her. Feeling that she is alone and unable to belong in the world she returns to Grand Isle, the location where she achieved her new sense of freedom. Her final escape is swimming out to sea thinking of all those who never understood her but knowing that she could never give herself to them in the way that they all expected and needed (The Awakening and Other Short Stories 1-240).

Edna has the “fortune” to be considered the “sole object” of her husband’s “existence.” This is at best confusing, since Mr. Pontellier spends the greater part of his time exiting: for work, Klein’s hotel, etc. It stands to reason that Edna would develop a resentment toward this man who claims to cherish her to the point of obsession, yet performs a ritual “leaving” as if it were second nature.It was interesting to note that Edna and Leonce had only been married six years---one usually perceives an “awakening” to occur in conjunction with a “mid-life” crisis of sorts, and Edna and Leonce were young, vibrant people with small children.