A Life in Sight but Out of Reach
The 19th century was a strange and highly structured time for women and Kate Chopin highlights many of these social controversies in her novel, “The Awakening.” The book revolves around a character named Edna, who felt constantly tied down by her husband and children. Despite her commitment to them, Edna still manages to discover a sense of freedom that she has been searching for her entire life. Although Edna’s freedom was in sight throughout the novel, it remained out of reach which led to the ambiguous ending where Edna goes into the ocean to drown herself and commit suicide. Although suicide is not a glorified subject, Edna’s suicide was viewed as a victory due to the fact that she finally gained the freedom she had always wanted by taking her life into her own hands, and as controversial as it may be, Edna used suicide as a way of escape from the social and ethical chains that bound her life. To start, throughout her life Edna Pontellier was not a very typical woman of the 19th century and received outrageous criticism and critique. After explaining the disconnect Edna felt with her children in the novel, the narrator says, “Mrs. …show more content…
Her husband and children also served as a painful reminder that there was no escape from the life she was forced to live and decided that the only option left in her life was suicide. Edna may not have been able to control what happened in her life, but she had control over how long her life would continue and she embraced it. Edna’s suicide was the ultimate release, and although suicide and death are never happy things, Edna did not have very many happy times in her life to begin with so she found peace in the final display of control that she
The 19th century was a strange and highly structured time for women and Kate Chopin highlights many of these social controversies in her novel, “The Awakening.” The book revolves around a character named Edna, who felt constantly tied down by her husband and children. Despite her commitment to them, Edna still manages to discover a sense of freedom that she has been searching for her entire life. Although Edna’s freedom was in sight throughout the novel, it remained out of reach which led to the ambiguous ending where Edna goes into the ocean to drown herself and commit suicide. Although suicide is not a glorified subject, Edna’s suicide was viewed as a victory due to the fact that she finally gained the freedom she had always wanted by taking her life into her own hands, and as controversial as it may be, Edna used suicide as a way of escape from the social and ethical chains that bound her life. To start, throughout her life Edna Pontellier was not a very typical woman of the 19th century and received outrageous criticism and critique. After explaining the disconnect Edna felt with her children in the novel, the narrator says, “Mrs. …show more content…
Her husband and children also served as a painful reminder that there was no escape from the life she was forced to live and decided that the only option left in her life was suicide. Edna may not have been able to control what happened in her life, but she had control over how long her life would continue and she embraced it. Edna’s suicide was the ultimate release, and although suicide and death are never happy things, Edna did not have very many happy times in her life to begin with so she found peace in the final display of control that she