Kate Chopin's The Awakening Analysis

Register to read the introduction… Gray believes that “Edna’s awakening allows her to resist the various “interpellations” of the dominant patriarchal ideology and experiment with both alternative and oppositional roles” (Gray 53-73). Throughout the story, Edna discovers her newfound freedom by experimenting with the roles of two characters: Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. In addition, Edna also experiments with an oppositional role in which she is both “freely sexual and autonomous” (Gray 53-73). During the summer vacation on Grand Isle, Edna spends a great deal of time with her Creole friend Adele. Adele is known as the “mother-woman” and everything about her satisfies the ideal woman in the patriarchal society of the time. The way Chopin described Adele leads the reader to believe that she has been created to attract a husband and to bear his children. She is open about her acceptance of her role in society and obviously puts her husband’s preferences above her own. Another critic, Kathleen M. Streater, believes that Chopin is mocking the role of Adele by describing her more as a saint than a woman (Streater 407). According to Streater, Adele is inferior because she lacks the courage to form her own individual identity (Streater 407). Chopin is certainly telling the reader that Adele is satisfied in her role but at the same time she hints that her satisfaction stems from ignorance (Gray 53-73). This limited existence of Adele …show more content…
If comparing the role of “free woman” and the men in this story, one should come to the conclusion that they could be one and the same. At this point in the story, Edna moves out of the house she shared with her family, becomes independent and able to sustain herself financially as well as free to pursue sexual autonomy all of which seem more fitting to males in this era than females. It seemed that Edna was absorbing the language of man and capitalism in order to achieve subject status by “simply claiming the power to be selective and active in the choice of her sexual partners as a man” (Killeen 420-21). As Edna awakens and goes through a series of changes in The Awakening, she never really finds a role that completely satisfies her. Eventually Edna realizes that she will always be seen as an object. Robert may love her but he will never break from tradition and give her what she needs. She also realizes that she can never break away from her role as a “mother-woman” because of the children that she has. It was with these realizations that Edna returns to Grand Isle and succumbs to the sea where she first began her awakening (Gray 72). Another critic, Jarlath Killen, explains that Edna dies in order to get what she really wants. He believes that she discarded motherhood in order to endorse free love, which are obvious acts of