Verbal Abuse In The Awakening

Throughout most of her life, Edna Pontellier’s true self was majorly suppressed by her husband, as well as her duties as a mother, and society’s image of

Edna and Mrs. Mallard are both victims of the 1800s, they both show that by their displeasure in being married. Edna shows her displeasure in novel by frolicking around with other men, and by openly disagreeing with her husband which at that time was a social faux pas. Mrs. Mallard showed her displeasure by simply liking the fact that she was finally

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

The author is insinuating that Edna no longer wants to be with her husband. Kate Chopin does this by slowly making Edna Pontellier leave the presence of her old life. This also shows that Mrs. Pontellier is becoming very independent because she is no longer living off of her husband and she is doing what she wants to do when she wants to do it. This was very uncommon for a mother of two children during the 1800's. Edna Pontellier's thoughts and feelings change throughout the book and this also helps better reveal her character.

First let us start with Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin’s great novel, The Awakening. As the novel begins we meet the Pontellier’s family and most importantly Edna. We see through the exposition that Edna is a twenty-eight-year-old wife of a New Orleans businessman who see’s her as a mere possession that is the most fragile and important possession to have, but still just as a possession. Based on the culture around her we see her servility to her husband and her everlasting devotion that her life is to be controlled by whoever she marries(1878–1899: Lifestyles). This becomes very clear when reading on page two. In this situation we see Mr.

Although she hails from a seemingly completely disconnected culture, Janie experiences in her Southern life stifling, patriarchal pressures similar to those which Edna felt some thirty years earlier in Victorian-era New Orleans. While still in her teenage years, Janie is forced into a loveless marriage in the name of protecting her in ways she would not be able to independently. Like Edna who stays with Mr. Pontellier despite her hesitations about their relationship and her insincere reasons for marrying him, Janie lingers with her husband Logan for over a year trying to find the love she senses is missing. " 'You told me Ah mus gointer love him,'" Janie laments to her grandmother, "'and Ah don't'" (Hurston 23).

There are certain ideals that need to be met while being in a relationship; they play concrete roles in the stability of the partnership. The idea of Edna being confined in a marriage with Mr. Pontellier who doesn’t

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

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

1. Edna’s position in life is a wife and mother as well as being a trophy wife for her husband; she is someone that he can show off and shower with gifts in return for her undying affection. It appears he is greatly concerned with her appearance more than how she feels when he comments that she is “burnt beyond recognition” while “looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage”(4). Edna is expected to carry out duties that fall under the Cult of Domesticity, such as caring for her children, tending to house orders, ensuring that she is always respectable-looking and ready for visitors. Mr. Pontellier

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.

Due to the restrictions put on Edna not only by her husband’s dedication to appearance, but by the society that encourages women to be viewed almost as property in a marriage instead of an equal participant in the relationship, Edna grows increasingly dissatisfied with her lifestyle, and feels as if she has been living two separate lives. The reader can sense this duality within Edna, even before she meets Robert leading the reader to believe that while the affair was the lynchpin for her awakening, there was always some dissatisfaction with her role in society. Chopin illustrates this when she describes Edna’s duality, stating: “Even as a child, she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended

The subjects of the two novels, Edna Pontellier and the Narrator, undergo a similar change; at the onset of the novel they meet all societies expectations and standards for women of their time- Mrs. Pontellier is described as shy and reserved and neither protagonist ever disobey their husbands- but with each coming page, the women convert into someone unrecognizable to their antierior selves. Though their metamorphose are both ignited by a new environment, they had internally harbored yet suppressed their need for independence and freedom. Like these two, every woman holds creativity and free will; however during this time they were unable to practice them, as doing so was almost unheard of and rarely tolerated. The Narrator and Edna themselves serve to represent the healthy creative urges within women that have been suppressed.

Chopin confirms this by saying, “Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself…” (Chopin, 2005, Chapter 7, para. 1). Over the summer, even though she was already married, Edna met a young man by the name of Robert Lebrun and surprisingly fell in love. “The action was at first a little confusing to Edna, but she soon lent herself readily to the Creole’s gentle caress. She was not accustomed to an outward and spoken expression of affection…” (Chopin, 2005, Chapter 7, para, 19) meaning Robert gave Edna the kind of attention that she never got from her husband, Leonce Pontellier. She became ignorant of her surroundings and carried on into this “fantasy” (Chopin, 2005). Edna’s passions became overpowering to her self-control. This was a feeling that she had not felt with her husband even when she married him. Robert decided at the spur of the moment, he would leave on a business trip to Mexico without telling Edna. This caused Edna to feel even more alone and confused because she did not enjoy being married. Chopin proclaims, “Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in the respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate” (Chopin, 2005, Chapter 7, para. 24). Her husband was never home and the man she ultimately loved left her