In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is forced to strive to fit in with everyone and everything around her. Born and raised in Kentucky, Edna is used to the Southern society, but when she marries Leonce Pontellier, a Catholic and a Creole, and moves to Louisiana with him, her surroundings change a great deal. This makes her feel extremely uncomfortable and confused; she feels as though she has lost her identity along with a great deal of her happiness. In order to regain this identity and to try to find out who she truly is, Edna tries her hardest to conform to the Creole society. Though Edna tries extremely hard to accept this Creole society as her own and to become part of it in order to claim her identity, she fails to find both her true happiness and her identity, which, in turn, causes her to commit suicide.
A great deal of Edna’s unhappiness is due to the fact that her husband is very firm with her, he treats her with a great deal of “authority and coercion,” as is requested by Edna’s father, and he strongly believes that she should conform to the Creole society. In accordance with society, Leonce believes that Edna should be the stereotypical housewife who does everything she possibly can for her husband and her children. However, when Edna does something that contradicts this well-established Creole social code, Leonce reveals his disappointment. For example, when Edna is sunbathing at the beach on Grand Isle, her husband approaches her and says, “ ‘What folly! to bathe at such an hour in such heat! You are burnt beyond recognition.’ ” Kate Chopin adds that Mr. Pontellier looks at his wife “as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage.” Over time, the negative attitude that Leonce has toward Edna causes her to look for security, happiness, and love in other people and places. It is then that she meets, and eventually falls in love with, Robert Lebrun.
The Term Paper on Mademoiselle Reisz Edna House Society
Symbolism in Kate Chopin's The Awakening Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a literary work full of symbolism. Birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are powerful symbols which add meaning to the novel and to the characters. I will analyze the most relevant symbols presented in Chopin's literary work. BIRDS The images related to birds are the major symbolic images in the narrative from ...
Throughout the novel, Edna encounters many “awakenings” of her own. One very significant awakening occurs when she recognizes her unrequited love for Robert Lebrun. Edna realizes that Leonce no longer matters to her and that she would be much happier if she were with Robert. Thus, Robert becomes the one person and the virtually unattainable goal Edna lives for; consequently, when he finally leaves her, she is devastated. She feels that the only way to free herself from the pain Robert has bestowed upon her, from her limited existence, and from her shallow, self-centered husband is to commit suicide. In committing suicide, Edna releases herself from the tyranny in her life, but she leaves her family with much pain and suffering.
In order to commit suicide, Edna swims out as far into the ocean as she possibly can. She hears the murmurs of the sea, and they seem to be “inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude.” Her swimming into the ocean symbolizes her cleansing herself of the pain and sadness she has accumulated throughout her life. The fact that she floats in the water symbolizes how she has rid herself of the weights that have been burdening her for so long. However, this weightlessness is short-lived, for soon Edna drowns. Her drowning represents her family’s drowning themselves in their own grief, pain, and guilt due to her tragic death.
Indeed, Kate Chopin does a sufficient job of portraying Edna’s pain and frustration throughout the novel. She also accurately depicts the evolution of Edna’s character and her final downfall. This novel also shows the damage that the immense strains and pressures of society can have on a person, in this case Edna. The combination of these elements and Kate Chopin’s unique writing style is what makes this novel so distinguished in American Literature.
The Essay on Edna Husband Robert Leaving
Edna PontellierThroughout The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide. At the beginning of the novel when Edna's husband, Leone Pontellier, returns from Klein's hotel, he checks in on the children and believing that one of them has a fever he ...
