“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin is a novella about a married woman, Edna, who realizes that she is unsatisfied with her life. Chopin wrote this in a period where feminist ideas were just starting to appear, but it was still a world where women were expected to be married, be mothers, and stay in the home. Margo Culley writes her essay on the novella in a period where feminism in is its third wave; where women are focused on individual identity, diversity, and breaking stereotypes . Culley, a professor of American, woman, and ethnic studies, has written and collected many feminist pieces into anthologies. In her piece “Edna Pontellier: A Solitary Soul,” Culley highlights the solitude that Edna faces throughout the novella and how that solitude
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Culley mentions that when Edna is in solitude, she experiences some of her most important moments. Edna has her first little awakening when she is crying alone outside after an argument with her husband. Instead of “inwardly unbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate…she was just having a good cry all to herself: (8). This point is a change in her thinking, making her question and feel things she does not normally feel. It is unlike what she normally does in similar situations, and it happens when she is alone. When talking about when she is left alone in her home, Culley says that “it is in these moments of exhilaration that Edna discovers her body, her freedom, her will, and herself” (249). When she finishes dinner alone her husband leaves to go to a club, she goes back up to her room in a new mood. All alone, she is able to physically express her anger and she stomps on her wedding ring and breaks a vase. These moments could not have happened if her husband, or anyone else, were with …show more content…
Edna is alone on the shore of the ocean in the last scene where she “understands something of what Mademoiselle Reisz’s presence and words have told her about the price of solitude” (251). Edna did not realize that independence meant solitude, she instead thought that independence was an escape from her gender roles. In reality, the independence she wanted would have her end up like Mademoiselle Reisz; alone, not liked, maybe even a little bitter. Edna did not actually want this. She still wanted to marry Robert, thinking that her feelings towards him were different than those she felt towards her husband. She expresses this in her interesting declaration of “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not, I give myself where I choose” (102). Culley points out that “Edna cannot sustain these moments of resolve” (251). Maybe Enda thought that with Robert, she could be independent yet still loved, but in reality she was setting herself up for being controlled by another person. The real Robert does not match her imaginary Robert, and both he and her imagination fail her. Edna wanted to be free of expectations, her mother roles, and of rules, but her downfall was that she still wanted to have someone by her side. She never wanted solitude. So, Edna allows herself to be taken by the sea. She is alone, naked, her mind made
Culley mentions that when Edna is in solitude, she experiences some of her most important moments. Edna has her first little awakening when she is crying alone outside after an argument with her husband. Instead of “inwardly unbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate…she was just having a good cry all to herself: (8). This point is a change in her thinking, making her question and feel things she does not normally feel. It is unlike what she normally does in similar situations, and it happens when she is alone. When talking about when she is left alone in her home, Culley says that “it is in these moments of exhilaration that Edna discovers her body, her freedom, her will, and herself” (249). When she finishes dinner alone her husband leaves to go to a club, she goes back up to her room in a new mood. All alone, she is able to physically express her anger and she stomps on her wedding ring and breaks a vase. These moments could not have happened if her husband, or anyone else, were with …show more content…
Edna is alone on the shore of the ocean in the last scene where she “understands something of what Mademoiselle Reisz’s presence and words have told her about the price of solitude” (251). Edna did not realize that independence meant solitude, she instead thought that independence was an escape from her gender roles. In reality, the independence she wanted would have her end up like Mademoiselle Reisz; alone, not liked, maybe even a little bitter. Edna did not actually want this. She still wanted to marry Robert, thinking that her feelings towards him were different than those she felt towards her husband. She expresses this in her interesting declaration of “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not, I give myself where I choose” (102). Culley points out that “Edna cannot sustain these moments of resolve” (251). Maybe Enda thought that with Robert, she could be independent yet still loved, but in reality she was setting herself up for being controlled by another person. The real Robert does not match her imaginary Robert, and both he and her imagination fail her. Edna wanted to be free of expectations, her mother roles, and of rules, but her downfall was that she still wanted to have someone by her side. She never wanted solitude. So, Edna allows herself to be taken by the sea. She is alone, naked, her mind made