Edna performs the most controversial action of exploring her sexual longings, exemplifying the principle of a woman’s freedom of expressing desires. Her clashes with Adele’s embracing lifestyle and Alcee’s flirtatious attitude throughout the novella assist her with researching these cravings. All through her life, society forces Edna to conceal and cravings which limits her knowledge in physical contact. Everything changes when her interactions with Adele Ratignolle bring forth a new view in communication that is locked away from her. Mrs. Pontellier determines to research these urges, as it allows her to happily express herself.…
In The Awakening, the family acts like the society with rules put in place for each gender. This, in turn, becomes problematic for Edna as her husband always overrules her. He believes, “if it is not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?” (P.13) Léonce is very dismissive of Edna’s mothering skills. Edna’s role in society is in the private sphere and is very constraining; by Léonce undermining her he is not caring about her emotions.…
The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin about a woman’s transformation from an obedient, traditional wife and mother into a self-realized, sexually liberated and independent woman. Despite now being regarded as a classic, when The Awakening was first published, it received shocked reviews, which the novelist never recovered from. Reviewers were stunned by the protagonist’s sense of independence as well as her sexual liberation. This is due to the fact that at the time, even Louisiana law held that wives were the property of their husbands. This is incorporated and reacted strongly toward in the novel when Victorian society never gives Edna a real shot at achieving personal fulfillment, much less being treated as a real person outside of her…
The conflict in The Awakening, however, is that Mrs. Pontellier is not interested in the slightest about what gender roles have to say regarding her position in society. The collations which occur within the awakening of Edna unfold her thoughts and feelings on the matter of traditional roles in comparison to those of her friends. In the prime of the plot, Léonce Pontellier displays his attempts in buying the love that his wife and children do not openly express. He commonly delivers and sends “luscious and toothsome (delicacies)”…
The novel opens with Léonce Pontellier sitting on the porch of his seaside summer home in Grand Isle, near New Orleans. He and his wife Edna are renting a cottage from Madame Lebrun. Edna and Madame Lebrun's son Robert join Mr. Pontellier, having spent the afternoon swimming together. Edna and Robert try to relate an amusing experience to Mr. Pontellier, but he is not part of the joke and fails to share in their mirth.…
Edna's process of awakening occurs when she attempts to translate her re-birth into actual realities in life. Before her awakening, Edna she is torn between her desire for self-discovery and realities of life as a Victorian woman. In her first major awakening, Edna awakens to self-awareness. In this case, it is the combination of baptismal swim and music that act as catalysts to her awakening. In Grand isle, both society and nature appear to endorse the process of self-transformation in life, the sea acts as a catalyst for sensuality and liberating freedom.…
Hallie Amat Mrs. Schroder AP Literature 3 January 2017 Edna’s Isolation in The Awakening Authors frequently use the theme of isolation to demonstrate how a particular society treats people who differ from the norm. Characters’ gender, race, or class often lead to their alienation and can create other problems stemming from that. In The Awakening, protagonist Edna Pontellier’s status as a woman means that society places certain expectations on her behavior, and when she refuses to conform, she eventually becomes a sort of outcast who is immensely unhappy. Throughout history, women have been systematically oppressed and expected to act one particular way, especially in the late 1800’s, when The Awakening takes place.…
Edna is happily married to a successful businessman and together they have two happy, young boys. Several young men are fond of her, and her friends Mrs. Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz view her as a very respectable woman. She lives among happy people and they assume she is content as well. Contrary to all this, Edna Pontellier is not happy at all. She is in agony over her definition of her own life- who she is as an individual.…
In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s realization of the desires and discontentment…
Throughout the book Edna is seen moving away from society's standards, her feelings toward her family and friends change over time, and the amount of time she gave to her family fluctuates. People should not feel morally obligated to conform to society's standards, especially when these standards destroy free will and the ability to make decisions throughout life. People deserve the right to follow their own passions as long as they fulfill society's expectations. In the late 1800s women were expected to raise their children. When we are introduced to Edna, the author explains that “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman.…
Mr. Pontellier is naturally controlling and this attitude is seen here, during the exchange between husband and wife. The behavior is seen frequently throughout this novel, emphasizing how inferior Edna is in Mr. Pontellier’s eyes. In this specific time period, women lacked many of the basic rights men were entitled to, making the disparity among men and women even larger. Although this story portrays the thoughts of a century ago, some of the traditional viewpoints can still be seen cross-culturally…
Without background information some readers may think that all of these different elements of the story shape it into a piece of literature that emphasizes the problems during the nineteenth century for women, but when they learn that there were other elements that affect the story as well the theme of this piece is…
In the 19th century the main role of women was of a wife and mother. Women have been oppressed to a point where they were treated as possessions, objects, or as a completely different species. They were in a place that seemed to be in a dark tunnel with no hope, dreams, or sense of fulfillment. Free spirited Edna Pontellier shows her family and friends that women have their own birthrights, and they too are able to do everything males can do. At first she feels like a caged bird, then she learns to swim, and she finally feels born again swimming naked in the open sea.…
In addition to conforming to rigid gender roles, women were also expected to be pure and loyal to their husbands. Edna is a woman ahead of her time and explores and discovers her sexuality throughout the novel. The reader can tell from the beginning of the novel that Edna is unhappy in her marriage with Léonce. She did not love Léonce and felt as though the marriage was a mistake. At first she is confused and not sure how to feel.…
Edna felt unhappy in the society she was living in and believed ending her life was the best solution to that problem through spiritual reassessment. Edna is described as having “realized her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her,” (Chopin VI) when her “awakening” begins and she realizes her place in society. She realized that a society where she would not be free to make decisions without society’s hateful eyes was a society she did not want to continue to live in. Edna Pontellier demonstrates the heroic victory of a female protagonist over patriarchy through suicide (Ramos 232). She finally lived a life with love during her affair with Robert and would not be able to experience a life with no regret again so, suicide was the best option.…