Searching for Yourself

English 112 Section G

Professor Hendricks

12/2/13

Searching for Yourself

Kate Chopin takes you on a tumultuous and ultimately tragic ride that questions patriarchal assumptions in the 19th century, as she brings you along on the journey of Edna Pontellier in her book The Awakening. Throughout the story Edna’s refusal to settle for less and her desperate search for fulfillment leaves her headed for failure from the beginning to the tragic ending. Edna’s awakening is the general plot of the story but is developed with her interaction with other characters in the book. You will also see how symbols and themes in the book further portray a women desperate for a way out of her environment and social expectations.

There are three important female characters in this book, Adele Ratignolle, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Edna Pontellier, “but not one achieves her full potential as a human being” (Skaggs 88). Adele is seen throughout the book as mother woman, she is pregnant when she first meets Edna. Edna’s awakening leading up to her suicide track along Adele’s pregnancy leaving one to believe that the author felt there was “a link between female identity and motherhood” (Skaggs 90). Edna feels like Adele is “a faultless Madonna” (Chopin 890). Adele is everything that Edna knows that she should be so she is torn on her feelings toward her due to the fact that she knows she can’t be that person anymore. Mademoiselle Reisz was the opposite of Adele, she lacked in beauty and personality. Reisz had the independence that Edna craved as well as the fact that she was the artist woman. Edna really responds to what advice Reisz gives her “To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts-absolute gifts-which have not been acquired by one’s own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul.” “The soul that dares and defies” (Chopin 946) Edna took in her advice and listened to her music and was able to get lost in it as she read the love letters from Robert. Edna is “truly a tragic heroine” (Skaggs 96) in the fact that she was always searching for more and would not settle. Edna was a good blend of both Adele and Reisz in the fact that she was self-aware like Reisz, but also knew that she wanted a meaningful relationship like Adele seemed to have. Edna is the women who always wants more, she cannot be satisfied with the daily expectations society has for her as a women. She is awakened physically when she meets Robert which “prompts Edna to think about her life. For the first time, she begins to open up to others.” (Themes) Edna realizes that there is more to life for her other that what has been dictated to her for the last six years as Leonce’s wife, and as the mother of her children. She began to see she was more than that and continued to seek out things that made her feel alive.

“Edna’s awakening begins merely with a growing awareness of the inadequacy of her existence.” (Skaggs 96) Edna begins to realize that she is not satisfied with her place in life, then she is open to the sounds of music and the joy it brings her, next she gains pleasure from swimming, and this leads then to her sexual awakening towards other men. This all leads to Edna being able to find out who she really is and to express herself. One way she does that is through painting.

As was the custom of the time men felt that women had a certain role in life, and in the home. All the men in Edna’s life could not understand her desire to be independent, and repressed her in some way. The Colonel, Edna’s father, was the first male in her life that set boundaries for his daughter. I think that since her mother had passed away he treated his daughters like soldiers since he was a military man. They also had a strong Presbyterian background that dictated women behave in a certain way. When Colonel came to visit and got into a disagreement with his daughter for not wanting to go to her sister’s wedding, Colonel gave this advice to Leonce “to use authority and coercion on Edna, they’re the only way to manage a wife” (Cary 52). Edna feels he had “coerced his own wife into the grave” (Chopin 954). Leonce, Edna’s husband had similar views of women and this is shown when Edna gets a sunburn and he looks at her “as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.” (Chopin 882). Leonce felt that it was a woman’s job to take care of the children, and scolds her one evening for “her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mothers place to look after children, whose on earth was it?”(Chopin 885) Leonce knew no other way to treat his wife other than what he had seen and society dictated. He was willing to allow her to do things like her art, but it was never to interfere with her responsibilities at home. He was very confused and shocked by her brazen behavior during her awakening. Edna begins relations with two other men, Robert and Alcee in hopes of finding out what it is she is missing in her relationship with her husband. Edna begins to develop a relationship with Robert who leaves because he knows that it is not appropriate to feel this way about a married woman. At one point Robert even does a typical rude thing of men by telling Edna the ending of a book she is reading so she won’t have to waste her time reading it. When Robert returns and realizes that Edna does not want to play the role of the traditional wife to Leonce or to him, he leaved her because he too wanted the submissive wife. The other man that Edna has a relationship with was Alcee. Alcee “satisfies himself on the sighs and bodies of married women until they become uninteresting and a new prospect appears before him.” (Carey 56) Although this was how he felt about women, Edna only viewed him as a fill in while Robert was away. This relationship was not one that either put more into than the physical aspect, but even still Edna felt that Alcee believed that he owned her. Not one of the men in her life was able to embrace Edna’s desire to be free and in control of her life.

There are several reoccurring themes that Chopin uses throughout the story, sexism and free will. Women of this time period, called the Victorian Era, basically had their lives laid out for them from an early age. Women were expected “to marry at a young age and portray herself as a delicate individual, weak and helpless” (Victorian Women). This was the same expectation that was on Edna and while “many women were internally conflicted about the sexist treatment, most went along and behaved innocently and dutifully” (Victorian women). Edna was one who could not continue to blindly follow her husband.