How To Characterize Edna Pontellier's The Awakening

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier experiences a revelation about the lack of freedom she experiences as a woman in the 1890’s. The book covers her progression of thought and her transformation from repressed but yearning for freedom to her attempts at full freedom from society’s dictations, building up to her suicide. Chopin fills the book with underlying motifs that symbolize Edna’s gradual change, one of these being clothing. Edna’s awakening mirrors an alteration in attire as she shifts from traditional fashion to a less feminine style. The characters in The Awakening are dressed to mirror their level of independence, two being: Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. The woman are opposites of each other, Ratignolle is the epitome of a perfect woman while Reisz is an independent artist. Their clothing reflects this as Madame Ratignolle wore “a gauze veil about …show more content…
She is stuck between being a perfect woman or having the freedom Mademoiselle Reisz has. Edna commits suicide to avoid choosing a side. Before her death, “for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air” (115). Edna’s rejection of clothing mirrors her refusal to pick between the two choices she has - ideal housewife or free artist. Instead of choosing, she gets rid of the problem completely by stripping naked and killing herself. In Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s attire mirror her revelation. Her progressing thought shows through her changing style as she shifts from traditional fashion to bold freedom. Her two choices for life - being a pure wife or an independent woman - are also show through Madame Ratignolle’s and Mademoiselle Reisz’s clothing - plain white and unstylish black. Edna’s inability to decide between the two lifestyles ultimately leads to her rejecting clothing altogether and committing