Death In Edna Pontellier's The Awakening

After Edna goes to be with Adele Ratignolle during the birth of her child, Edna goes back home to the “pigeon-house” and finds that Robert is gone but he left a note for her. The note says, “Good-bye, because I love you…”. Robert leaves Edna this note saying that he has to leave her because he loves her too much. He realizes what he has done and how he feels about Edna but that Edna is married and has a family, therefore, he can not be with her.

In the late 1800s, nearly all women were viewed as subservient, inferior, second class females that lived their lives in a patriarchal and chauvinist society. Women often had no voice, identity, or independence during that time period. Moreover, women dealt with the horrors of social norms and the gender opposition of societal norms. The primary focus and obligation for a woman to obtain during the 1800s was to serve her husband and to obey to anything he said. Since women were not getting the equality, freedom, or independence that they desired, Kate Chopin, an independent-minded female American novelist of the late 1800s expressed the horrors, oppressions, sadness, and oppositions that women of that time period went through. Her works focused

Often times when a person is forced to outwardly conform while questioning themselves it leads to a struggle between their inner selves and what is expected of them. Outward conformity often oppresses a character’s true feelings of loneliness and being misunderstood. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, leads a dissatisfactory life. She is stuck in a loveless marriage, and has children, all in an attempt to conform to the social norm of the Victorian woman. However, she inwardly questions whether or not she should try to break free from this life to find her own independence and happiness. Edna continually questions whether or not she is destined to live a life of subordination or if she can find her own freedom. Edna Pontellier’s defiant nature is brought out

The struggles of Edna Pontellier throughout her everyday life in a society that she feels she doesn’t belong in, is developed through the writing of Kate Chopin. As her character develops, Edna’s final decision of suicide illustrates her defeat in the face of society. In, The Awakening, Kate Chopin employs poetic diction and anaphora to emphasize and illuminate Edna’s awakening and how her death positively affected her character development.

As both the United States and the world rapidly developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, society evolved at a pace previously unimaginable. Electricity illuminated modern urban areas, cars began to dominate the streets, and families began to travel to movie theaters for a unique motion-picture experience. Yet, while the world was changing by the minute, some components of society were not reflective of societal revolution. Specifically, it was during the late 19th century that the conversation for women’s suffrage was even addressed for the first time, following the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. It would be an extensive and arduous 72 years until women were ultimately given the right to vote, officially delineating women

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel filled with many conflicting perspectives in the mind of Edna Pontellier. Mrs. Pontellier is a complex character filled with different desires and ambitions for what she wants out of her life. Throughout the novel, we get to know the many sides to this character and we see who she becomes and how that leads to her eventual peaceful downfall. Starting from the beginning, she seems to have the same ideals as the typical woman in her time, but she is unhappy and her unhappiness leads to rebellion and the breaking of social norms.

A reoccurring character found within novels published is a female that is limited by the constraints of her era. During this period, many authors stressed the importance of revolutionizing into modernistic philosophies. In The Great Gatsby¬, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan is the codependent, chaotic female character. While in The Awakening, the main character, Edna Pontellier, assumes the equivalent role. Pontellier and Buchanan are identically symbolic in their infidelity and lack of maternal instinct.

One would think this goes hand in hand but we see it means so much more. Edna gave her life to protect the ones she loved from the pain her actions would have inflicted if she stayed. Edna was so involved in what she wanted for herself, yet knew other would suffer. Sadly, even though Edna was aware her actions would bring negative consequences she was not willing to give up her desire for freedom in return for her family. Although, Edna’s leaving did leave her children without a mother, she did it in “secret”. She set up her suicide to look like an accident which allowed there to be peace for her kids, and again protect them from the horrible judgemental remarks from society if they found out she really did commit

In Kate Chopin’ s novel, The Awakening, there are three identities inside of the female leading role, Edna Pontellier, being a wife, mother and own self. Edna was born in 19th century at the Vitoria period, a patriarchy society, women have low freedom to achieve personal goal. She married with Léonce Pontellier, a wealthy man with Creole descent. After having a child, her life is still unchangeable and as bored as before. Until she encountered Robert Leburn, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Alcée Arobin, her value of self-cognition has changed. For these three identities, Edna often struggling in the dilemma, but then, her aspirations on physical or mental are lacking. It can be regard as she is not satisfied with current situation, and, to seek the

The Awakening showcases Edna Pontellier, a housewife residing in New Orleans, Louisiana during the early 1900s. Edna Pontellier is married to Leonce Pontellier and they have two sons together. Edna is consumed in internal conflicts throughout the entire novel. She is trying to find herself in a society where she has many duties and responsibilities.

A struggle between Edna and her independence is showing in The Awakening. The Creole culture in which she lives in has an expectation for women. The expectation is the women have to adore their kids and take care of their husbands.edna does not want to abide by these guidelines. When edna figures out that she does not want to follow these standards she starts thinking more independent and about her needs and what she wants out of life. Edna’s family which consist of leonce and her two children are vacationing in La Grande Isle for the summer. Edna and Leonce marriage is one sided, Leonce loves Edna but Edna does not like him back. Leonce is focused on his job because he wants to be an ideal husband for his wife who does not return the favor. When she decides to do life on her own that troubles leonce into a frustration.

Music, as well as art, had influenced her emotional/ personal awakening to the fact that, drawing allows Edna to find love, peace within herself, and is the only thing she actually has control over.Her imaginative dream of being alone open the doors for her departure from Leonce's house which is a form of individuality in which seeks to build her own autonomy, she finds a new house that she named Pigeon illustrating the ideals of not being able escape society even after she moves, representing the fact that she is like a bird in which, the bird can’t escape the cage he’s in, as for Edna she can’t escape the role of woman in society.(Pg31)“ Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul.” after haven slept alone in the hammock,she's

It is no question that the ending of Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening is quite vague. What does Edna’s suicide represent? Is it a sign of triumph or an act of resignation? Regardless, there is a message that lives on even if Edna did not. While this book is about feminism and a woman’s right to establish her own authentic identity, it is actually about something more—something that concerns both women and men.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was written at the end of the nineteenth century, where many roles for women began to change; therefore, the it appears to have been a turning point for females (“The Role of the Wife and Mother”). These changes in female roles were mostly due to the actions of women themselves, motivated by their desires to break away from the limits imposed on their gender The nineteenth century was a critical point in time for women, in regards to their roles in society (“The Role of the Wife and Mother”). In The Awakening, Edna goes through noteworthy changes in the course of the novel, which reconstructs her into a woman who goes against societal ideals regarding motherhood and marriage .

Identity: Edna faces an identity crisis throughout the book, especially in he role as a wife and mother. She struggles with her identity because