Marriage In Edna Pontellier's The Awakening

The term “wife” stems from the Germanic word “weib”, which simply means “woman”. The insinuation here is, of course, that the two words are equal in meaning. That if one is a woman, they are also a wife. In the culture that Mrs. Edna Pontellier has divulged into, it is not just casually expected, but rather harshly required for a woman to submerge herself completely in the role of a submissive wife. For Edna, however, this transition proves to be a rocky one; one which halts her subconscious desires of an independent life. These deep desires go against the societal norms of the Creole culture, and thus Edna 's taboo attraction towards the flirtatious young Robert begins not only her supposed awakening, but also her social and literal collapse. Through the continuous appearance …show more content…
Edna’s marital situation speaks of the way in which wives were expected to behave in that culture, and how traditional is not always synonymous with faultless. The Creole society that Edna is living in does not take well to those who do not fit a very specific mold, and unfortunately for Edna, her desires and interests make her flow wildly outside of that designated form. She wants more of her life than to just be a wife, which is highlighted through the young couple, but ultimately she is unable to do so. The ending of her own life was the only way in which Edna could see herself able to escape her gilded marital cage. Throughout the entirety of the novel, the lady in black has acted as a symbol of submission. Her heavy, dark attire was as symbolically binding as Edna’s rings. As Edna prepares to swim to her ultimate demise, she adorns her bathing suit before she decides to “Cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her” (Chopin 159). As Edna stands there, bare in the sun, she no longer has any bindings. For the first time in her life, she is