Throughout Kate Chopin's The Awakening the main character, Edna, is shown to have a mental state that can be described as erratic and unpredictable. She never knows what she quite wants on a surface level but that she eternally wants liberating freedom. Edna can only achieves her freedom, her ‘awakening’ through death, but she does so consciously. She knows what she really wanted in the end and how she was going to get it.
Edna's ‘awakening’ started in the Grand Isles, when she started interacting with Robert Lebrun. Edna even knowingly contributes her awakening on Robert saying, “It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream.”(168) Her conscious awakening started gradually, with small things of defining her husband, but grew more and more to where she thought for herself and went against the moral and ethical values of the time. Edna began to put herself before her children, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my …show more content…
Edna wanted to live without the worries of having to take care of other people's needs and was heavily burdened by them. She only seems to care for her family as much as she needs to at a given time to be deemed acceptable. But not until after the Pontellier’s return to their home in New Orleans, does Edna’s true ‘awakening’ happen. Edna becomes far more defiant, deciding to no longer stay at home on tuesdays and instead do what she wants, takes up painting, etc. Edna was fully aware of her doings here, she knew she was changing and continued along the path of change. Edna then makes the conscious decision to move out and live on her own, she throws a party leaving Leonce with the bill(quote maybe.)Edna's relationship with Arobin is patchy and unconventional, it is not meant to last and does not. Arobin gives her the freedom to explore herself sexually and become independent, making her more conscious and
Edna's ‘awakening’ started in the Grand Isles, when she started interacting with Robert Lebrun. Edna even knowingly contributes her awakening on Robert saying, “It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream.”(168) Her conscious awakening started gradually, with small things of defining her husband, but grew more and more to where she thought for herself and went against the moral and ethical values of the time. Edna began to put herself before her children, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my …show more content…
Edna wanted to live without the worries of having to take care of other people's needs and was heavily burdened by them. She only seems to care for her family as much as she needs to at a given time to be deemed acceptable. But not until after the Pontellier’s return to their home in New Orleans, does Edna’s true ‘awakening’ happen. Edna becomes far more defiant, deciding to no longer stay at home on tuesdays and instead do what she wants, takes up painting, etc. Edna was fully aware of her doings here, she knew she was changing and continued along the path of change. Edna then makes the conscious decision to move out and live on her own, she throws a party leaving Leonce with the bill(quote maybe.)Edna's relationship with Arobin is patchy and unconventional, it is not meant to last and does not. Arobin gives her the freedom to explore herself sexually and become independent, making her more conscious and