Preview

Edna's Childhood In The Awakening

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
394 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Edna's Childhood In The Awakening
Edna’s childhood plays an important role in how the past shapes her present and future. Edna has frequent flashbacks of her childhood in the novel, that make her current situation feel familiar to her. In chapter 7 the author mentions, “even as a child she had lived her own small life within herself.” These flashbacks that possess Edna are a key part to her character development.
The sea is a very important symbol in The Awakening. This vast body of water symbolizes freedom and escape. While at the beach, Madame Ratignolle asked Edna what she was thinking of, as a result of her silence. Edna sends herself into a flashback while reminiscing on a day when she was younger and she walked through a large field near her childhood home in Kentucky,
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Edna's Quotes From 'The Awakening'
    • 220 Words
    • 1 Page

    Edna's Quotes From 'The Awakening'

    This quote from Edna makes me think she felt astray from herself for a long time. In the first sentence, Edna states she’s easily able to give everything else to her children. The unessential, and money, yet the one thing she declines to give is herself. Usually a mother would want to give everything plus the whole world to their child, however the last sentence displays Edna’s desperateness to finally get a grasp at what she has been missing for a long time. Edna’s character from the beginning of the story seemed as if she was unhappy, so it’s of no surprise.…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Edna Pontellier's Personal Awakening Cycle
    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Edna Pontellier's Personal Awakening Cycle

    On the surface Edna seems to have it all, the perfect life as it would be perceived by society. She has two children and a doctor for a husband. However, Edna doesn’t feel as if this completes her; instead, she enters a phase of self-discovery and a sense of finding passion again. Edna is trying to break traditional ties that claim that she should be a good mother-woman. This ultimately leads to her awakening or freedom from the life that she believes restricts her. Edna’s sense of awakening happens in stages with different aspects leading up to the final awakening. Her awakening is a cycle that is completed with many different events synching together to form a better understanding of Edna Pontellier.…

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Edna's First Awakening Analysis
    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page

    Edna's First Awakening Analysis

    Edna’s first awaking happens in response to her being around people of Cajun descent who openly communicate and touch. While spending time on the beach with a Cajun women Edna is touched, this touch is not in a sexual way, but is outside the norm and starts Edna’s journey towards what she will accept versus what is socially acceptable. Edna says that mother-women “created the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm” {Baym 567). Edna does not consider herself to be a motherly-women. Edna’s second awakening occurs when she pushes the bounds of her immortality by swimming out farther than she thought that she could, but still makes it back to shore. This leads her to try new thing even to the point of speaking back to her husband. To speak…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Awakening Rhetorical Analysis Chapter 7
    • 3065 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The Awakening Rhetorical Analysis Chapter 7

    After this description, Edna begins staring into the sea. The sea has already been associated with Edna’s sexuality and the introspection that accompanies it--her sexual freedom, in the lines:…

    • 3065 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Change In Edna Pontellier's The Awakening
    • 143 Words
    • 1 Page

    Change In Edna Pontellier's The Awakening

    In the novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna represents the character that undergoes change, and has the awakening as referred to in the title. In the first section of the novel, Edna is unsure of her thoughts and actions regarding marriage, her role in the world, and her life in general. In chapter 6, she has an awakening, shown when the narrator announces, “A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her, - the light which, showing the way, forbids it” (17). This quote illustrates a major theme in Edna’s life and in the novel, which is change. After chapter 6, the reader and Edna both realize Edna is dissatisfied with her marriage and the limited, conservative lifestyle it allows. This idea is amplified thoroughly later in…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Are The Techniques In The Awakening Quote Tone
    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages

    What Are The Techniques In The Awakening Quote Tone

    and it ultimately helps Edna to decide what she wants to do with her life.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dialectical Journal For Pride And Prejudice Chapter 1 Essay
    • 1757 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Dialectical Journal For Pride And Prejudice Chapter 1 Essay

    Edna is realizing her position as a human being and recognizes her relations with others in the world. She is having an individual self-discovery or sexual desire and her intellectual pursuits.…

    • 1757 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Similarities Between The Awakening And The Great Gatsby
    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Similarities Between The Awakening And The Great Gatsby

    One of the main struggles of a woman’s role she faces is over motherhood. Edna loves her children, however, she wants to find her identity and she feels her children hold her back. Even her children do not view her as nurturing,…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edna Pontellier's Role In The Awakening
    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Edna Pontellier's Role In The Awakening

    In the awakening, the protagonist, - Edna – sacrifices so much of her desires for her life, children, and societies expectations of a female to the point that shes given up so much that it consumes her life.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edna's Dereliction Of Duty In The Awakening
    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page

    Edna's Dereliction Of Duty In The Awakening

    During their talk in chapter 7, Edna also tells Adele something about her feelings for her children. Edna loves her children but feels weighed down with a responsibility that is suited to her nature. She feels relief when they are away. Edna is not a “mother-woman” like the women that surround her on the island, and their children, when they fall over and hurt themselves, do not rush to her as other women's children do, but they merely pick themselves up and carry on playing. Although Mr. Pontellier is therefore not able to point the finger towards any definite dereliction of duty as a mother, the way that Edna is obviously so different from the other mothers with them that summer highlights that she has a very different kind of relationship…

    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Awakening: Adele Ratignolle
    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Awakening: Adele Ratignolle

    Although Edna really did not wish to, she stays with Adele throughout the whole delivery, giving Edna a feeling of “vague dread” (148). Edna feels as if the scene is more torturous for her than for Adele giving birth, as it reminds her that women cannot escape this pain brought upon by nature. At this point, Edna comprehends that it is not only her lovers, but her children that make her feel shackled and presumably overpowered from complete freedom. It is as though her rebirth is juxtaposed against Adele giving birth to a new life, making Edna feel a wave of both guilt and resentment. After giving birth, Adele earnestly whispers, “Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!"(179). Adele has a major impact on Edna with these words, as Edna is trying so hard to forget her children, since they are the last obstacle to gaining her full freedom. Instead, Adele is explicitly reminding her to never neglect them, shattering Edna’s illusions of temporary joy and conflicting her with roles of a mother versus a newfound personality. Despite the fact that Edna does not initially realize it, she has been agonizing over it all along. Witnessing Adele’s childbirth ensures that Edna’s final impulses at the end are not motivated by only heartbreaks but more from the fact that she will forever be a dependent and feel like a slave to…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Struggle For Freedom In Kate Chopin's The Awakening
    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Struggle For Freedom In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    As Edna neglects her social reputation and duties by having affairs, she seems to become an independent woman whose power is guided by love, but she soon crashes through this dream as reality kicks in that she still has a family that she must take care of and expectations to reach. Robert realizes this, which is why he leaves, but seeing her lover float away, Edna loses her fight for control and thus decides to take her own life, sadly much like how many other people in society decide to deal with their problems. If one is going to fight for control and rebel against expectations, he or she must be prepared for the…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Suicide In Kate Chopin's The Awakening
    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Suicide In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    “The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.”…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Theme Of Feminism In The Awakening
    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Feminism In The Awakening

    Feminism has consistently been a major theme of literature throughout history. It has been used as a commentary on the status of women in a given time period, or to show how people’s attitudes have changed over time. Feminism in literature can also be used, as in the case of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, as a way to show how individual people, especially women can have a positive effect on the world around them. The actions of Edna and Adele Ratignolle in The Awakening are examples of how women can advance feminist ideals, even if it is not done in the conventional way. Edna does this by becoming her own individual person throughout the story. Adele does it by simply her life the way she wants, even if that means stay home and…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Awakening Character Analysis
    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Awakening Character Analysis

    Edna, in the beginning of the novel, tailors her life to the path set before her. A mother of two, Edna's life does not concern herself, but her husband and children. All of Edna's interests are thrown to the side to make way for her family, as a mother-woman would do in the nineteenth century. Edna understands…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics