The Awakening Literary Analysis

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 The Awakening and A League of Their Own both Kate Chopin and director Penny Marshall show how a woman’s role were during the 20th century. Though both may have a different setting they both illustrate feminism very well. The Awakening is a short story written about a woman, who practically dreams a life of independence. She shows interest in a man while married to a strict business man with two kids. Edna soon escapes her trapped world by committing suicide, drowning herself in the calm waters of the ocean. A League of Their Own, illustrates the 1940’s during WWII when baseball players were drafted to the war. To keep baseball running they selected several women to make the

The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman into her own person, in spite of the mold society has formed for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier through about a year of her life. During this time we see her struggle to find who she really is, because she knows she cannot be happy filling the role of the mother-woman that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society, and ends up taking her own life. Should readers sympathize with her death? The answer is no.

During a character’s development, past events are a huge factor in how they grow and change. Edna Pontellier is the character in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening that goes through this change. The book’s overall purpose was to show how women in this time period started to rebel against the societal expectations and gender roles that were commonplace. Mrs. Pontellier’s struggle to become an independant woman and the novel’s overall meaning is directly affected by the experiences she had with her husband prior to the book's beginning and how they changed drastically throughout the book.

Edna blindly struggles to leave behind the conventions of society and her own life. She first begins her transformation while at the beach. The water shows her desire to change and flow with her life instead of being stuck in the life that she has. Each time she becomes unsure of her new path, she returns to the water to reconnect with the flow that she wants to create. Ultimately, however, the requirements of change become too great for her, and Edna is defeated by the process. When she realizes that she cannot make the necessary changes in her life she returns to the water to end her life. The water and her drowning show how Edna is in over her head and cannot tread any longer to stay afloat.

One central theme in the Awakening is freedom. "Edna, left alone in the little side room, loosened her clothes, removing the greater part of them. She bathed her face, her neck and arms in the basin that stood between the windows. She took off her shoes and stockings and stretched herself in the very center of the high, white bed. How luxurious it felt to rest thus in a strange, quaint bed, with its sweet country odor of laurel lingering about the sheets and mattress!" (Chopin 13) "A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before."

The Awakening novel written by Kate Chopin is about a women’s search for her true identity. The story begins with Edna Pontellier living in Louisiana within the upper-class society. Edna is a mother of two and is married to her husband Léonce. Throughout the story, Edna becomes more aware of her needs to escape her orthodox life as a housewife. She finds herself falling for another man, Robert Lebrun.

“She could only realize that she herself – her present self – was in some way different from the other self” (Chopin 67). The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a compelling story of a woman who is awakened from the miserable duties of a housewife and mother to a woman who falls in love and finds herself. This story is not to judge a woman for having an affair with her husband, but it is to make the reader fall in love with this woman named Edna and go with her on her journey of finding herself. Edna is an extraordinary character in The Awakening, and it makes the reader see the basis of independence, and also giving the reader his or her own journey and reflection of their own life throughout the novel. The

For this long work essay, the story I chose to write about is Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”. I chose this story because I feel like I can relate to it personally, which makes a story a lot more interesting to read to me. Also, I chose this story because I feel like it is timeless, and one that should be important for readers for years to come. The protagonist of this story is Edna Pontellier, and the story tells of all the struggles and other things she faces as a woman back in her time. Edna is a very complex character, whose true feelings and her actions ultimately lead to her self-inflicted death. One important theme throughout this story was the theme of self-expression. I found this theme to be important because it really shows and defines Edna as a character.

Immersion into the frame of mind of Edna Pontellier, in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, is a fascinating experience, one with many conflicting internal and external influences. Like a marionette, Edna acts as a slave to her perceived social constraints in the beginning of The Awakening, a poignant contrast to her emotionally fueled, self-destructive choices towards the end. In the opening chapters of Edna’s story, she is described from an external viewpoint. Readers do not especially see the interworking of her thoughts and feelings through Chopin’s initial character sketch, “Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes were quick and bright; they were a yellowish brown, about the color of her hair” (5). Such a description is effective in producing a mental image of her appearance, yet her inner-identity remains a mystery. Although there is some foreshadowing lending readers to assume Edna’s dissatisfaction with her life, “She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life” (Chopin 8). The true reasons for her distaste of being a housewife and mother are not revealed until later on. Eventually, the reader forms an understanding of Edna’s “lack of identity”, manifested through the relationships she becomes tangled in, from friendships to romance.

Further Edna’s emotional abuse soon escalates into physical beatings. In addition, she also forces him out onto the street where he endures isolation and beatings from neighborhood bullies. Stating, “You are to remain in the street from the end of school until supper, and from after supper to bedtime” (Lee 65). She even nixed his sister’s invitation to join her, responding, “No. You [Kai] belong on your own block, where I can whistle for you” (Lee 65).

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening addresses the role of women within society during the late nineteenth century. The novel is set in South Louisiana, a place where tradition and culture also play a vital role in societal expectations. The novel’s protagonist, Edna Pontellier, initially fulfills her position in society as a wife and as a mother while suppressing her urges to live a life of passion and freedom. Edna’s relationship with her husband, Léonce Pontellier, represents her expected role in a marriage that lacks passion and excitement. Edna’s relationship with her lover, Robert Lebrun, represents her indulgence in her passion and freedom. Chopin juxtaposes the

Quote Literary Styles/Elements Comments Additional Ideas "The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clearing, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in the abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." (Chapter 6, pg. 17) -Personification of the sea -Touch Imagery -Sound Imagery Chopin is personify the sea into an object that possess immense freedom and full of energy; however, it also possess a great deal of temptation and solitude, almost like a siren’s song of positive, while being rather negative in reality.

R clay tries to look through Hannah’s point of view like walking to the check points on the map she gave him.

character, Edna Pontellier, is vacationing with her husband and two children in Grand Isle. Edna and fellow vacationer Robert Lebrun grow closer and soon become secretly infatuated with one another. Robert’s attention leads to Edna experiencing an emotional awakening by realizing that she has discarded her youthful dreams and her that current role in life is unfulfilling. Knowing that Edna is married and nothing can become of his infatuation, Robert abruptly leaves Grand Isle for Mexico. Edna is devastated, and her feelings of unhappiness continue to grow when she and her family return to their home in New Orleans. She decides it’s time to take charge of her own life and starts abandoning her wifely and motherly duties. As her need for self-fulfillment increases, she moves out of the family home and into a smaller house a few blocks away. Although Still deeply longing for Robert, Edna finds herself in a heated affair with Alcee Arobin. While she has no romantic feelings for him, she feels a strong physical attraction to him, and has now been awoken to her sexual desires as well. When Robert suddenly returns, Edna’s mind is constantly reeling over the thought that Robert might have feelings for her as well. Driving herself mad and not being able to take it anymore, she kisses him and they both confess their love for one another. Soon though, Edna leaves and returns to find Robert had left a note saying he loves her but cannot be with her. It is then that Edna finally recognizes that she owns herself, that she is not property – not just someone’s wife, mother, or even lover – she is her own person. This final awakening is what ultimately leads her to a point of no return.