Edna Pontellier's Awakening Character Analysis

Becoming a mother so quickly and helping Esperanza and Estevan are obstacles that Taylor faces during trying to start her new life. Since she faces some obstacles she grows to become more loving and more selfless. Taylor has faced many obstacles as she starts her new life and leaves behind some parts of her old life. Becoming a mother so quickly and helping Estevan and

As the mother of a family Edna is expected to live out her role as a caretaker of others. However, interactions with a different culture, her confidant (Mademoiselle Reisz), and the freedom of the sea cause Edna to see her expectations differently. This new form of thought induced by her surroundings provokes Edna to take action to transform her reality. Courageously, Edna refuses her responsibilities, in search of her own self-interest. A life confined to others is not the life of an artist.

Cornelia new confidence comes after a long time of insecurity much was which was caused by a feeling of unimportance from her family . “I blom a little more from the spot deep inside myself. I am a chrysanthemum, a late bloomer, a fall bloomer, a bloomer nonetheless”(Fusco 155). Her confidence makes her accept herself and allows her to do many things she was too scared to do before. This empowers her making her a transformed person.

In the beginning, she was an ingenious, spirited, and exalted young lady. Now, she is beginning to lose some of those characteristics, like when Queen Genevieve spoke to her and said “‘Never forget who you are, Alyss”, and Alyss cried ‘Shut up!’... and threw a pillow a pillow at the looking glass” (Beddor 150). This shows how that she is beginning to give up on who she is. She no longer believes that anyone will believe her story, and begins to stop believing it herself. After this transition, Alyss is seen as a “a thought, well read woman with opinions on a variety of topics…” (Beddor 163).

Each of the rooms she enters hold meaning for her and she is able to unravel some elements which allow her to pursue her unconscious mind and to delve further into her desires. In the journal article: “The Denotation of Room and its Impact on the Construction of Female Identity in Kate Chopin 's The Awakening”, author Sara Tewelde-Negassi explores the theme of the room as a physical place. Edna primarily enters the cottages of Madame Lebrun at Grand Isle at the very beginning of the novel, where she vacations and this is highly significant especially for the progress of achieving self-awareness, since the cottages on the island are able to offer Edna partial liberation from her family because she is not only surrounded by her own family but also by the Creole women (Special Issue, 2016). In particular, she makes the acquaintance of Adèle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reiz, whose “passion” and “candor” leave a conflicting impression on her (Special Issue, 2016). Edna’s mantle of reserve “loosens” and the subtle influences that allowed her to do this included Adèle Ratignolle: “The excessive physical charm of the Creole had first attracted her, for Edna had a sensuous susceptibility to beauty.

When this change occurs, Chopin expresses Louise Mallard’s new found freedom by finally using her first name rather than her surname as she writes, “Louise, open the door!”(Chopin 237). This signifies the rebirth of a woman formally suppressed by the name of her husband; she is no longer defined by someone else, but she defines herself and her

On the other hand, Madame Ratignolle is the representative of the “mother-woman”, however, Edna Pontellier is unable to identify with and, like in the case of Mademoiselle Reisz, to accept that lifestyle: “Edna felt depressed rather than soothed after leaving them. The little glimpse of domestic harmony which had been offered her, gave her no regret, no

It is a woman not carrying about leaving anyone behind. The first inner appearance shown in the novel is when Edna talks about she would not care if she forgot about her children. “she would sometimes forget them” (Chopin 18). The quotes expresses how Edna has no regard of being a mother or recognition of caring. This is interpreting the inner rebell of Edna in how she is not afraid to leave her family behind.

“Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been” (Chopin 1) Again, this is another example of how Chopin used much sensory language to convey a certain mood for her readers. Sensory language helps Chopin with both better connecting her life with her short stories, and giving her readers a sense of how she felt

In addition, under the influence of her neighbor’s cousin Ames who is an educated youth, she is reluctant to be a traditional woman. At her last growth phrase, she pays attention to her spiritual world. To sum up, Carrie certainly grows in a way. From the pure little girl to a superstar in theater, she had given up her body in exchange for material life and higher social status. After experiencing two fake and wrong relationships, she eventually realizes what her really power is.