Edna's Inequality

If I Could Escape and Recreate a Place That is My Own World” The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of great struggle within American society. Politically, there should have been equality, for all people were given the same rights by law. However this certainly was not the case in reality, for society was not accepting of any change; there was in fact prevailing inequality. Kate Chopin challenged this reality with her bold, unconventional ideas, but was scorned by the traditional view of society when she first published her novel, The Awakening in 1899. This novel reflects the author’s own personal life experiences and through the protagonist Edna Pontellier and also portrays her views on the cultural, political and social norms of this century through Edna’s actions, as well as her emotions towards herself, society and the other characters in the novel. The struggle for gender in this time period was often depicted as a physical
escape as portrayed by Kate Chopin in her novel The Awakening. Kate Chopin, born Kate O’Flaherty in 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri was one of five children and the only one out of the five to live past the age of twenty-five. There was much tragedy in her life; she lost her father when she was only five years old in a devastating train wreck. From that point on, she was raised by three women: her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, all of whom were widows (Wyatt). Being brought up by only women for the majority of her lifetime accounts for the various views that Chopin has on the lives of women in society and how they should be treated. In The Awakening, the Lady in Black represents what Chopin knew about women who had lost their husbands and how they are to act in society, which portrays the three women that raised her. The lady in black embodies the patient, resigned solitude that society expects of women in that time period who have lost their husband. Chopin was around all three of these women for much of her life and she confided in them, as they did her. By having a character that depicts them in her novel, it shows what she was taught about conforming to societal expectations. Kate Chopin was not only surrounded by the women that raised her for the majority of her life, but also by her only best friend Kitty Garaschѐ (Estere). Garaschѐ was Chopin’s life-long friend and was the person that knew most about her both inside and out. They went through just about all parts of their lives together and were always there for one another. Similar to Chopin, Edna Pontellier has a close friend Adѐle Ratignolle who represents the Victorian feminine ideal. Although the two women are very different, Adelѐ’s actions act as a catalyst for Edna’s abandonment of her former reserved self. Adele idolizes her children and worships her husband, centering her life on caring for them and also performing the domestic duties that are expected of her as a woman in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Edna does not necessarily look down upon how Adelѐ acts towards her husband and family, but it makes her realize that the lifestyle that Adelѐ leads is not the type of lifestyle that she wants to lead. When Kate Chopin was married, she became a mother relatively quick, having all of her six children from 1871 to 1879, allowing her very little time to even think of what motherhood would be like and if she truly wanted to be a mother to so many, if any at all (Estere). Although in Chopin’s life motherhood was expected of her and she did all that she could to raise her children properly, the portrayal of motherhood in The Awakening is essential in order to understand more in depth Edna’s thoughts and actions about her life and yearning for freedom from society’s expectations of women. Motherhood is a central issue for Edna who continuously struggles against social conventions that regard it as a primary role that enables a woman to define herself (Pontuale). Throughout the novel, Edna struggles with two completely different attitudes toward motherhood. Sometimes she is convinced that being a mother is something “for which fate had not fitted her” (Chopin 20), while other times she does not completely reject the role of mother but instead rejects how Adelѐ and other women on Grand Isle perceive the role. Edna herself says, “I would give up money, I would give up my life for my children, but I wouldn’t give up myself” (Chopin 48). This shows that while Edna does not hate the fact that she is a mother, she does love her children dearly, she is not willing to give up everything that she is and that she is meant to be, just for her children. She will make sure to keep them out of harm’s way and to raise them properly, but she refuses to worship them as if it is the only thing that she is meant for in the world (Simons). When Edna witnesses the birth of Adele’s child, Dr. Mandelet understands the shock that Edna has just experienced and explains that:
[T]he trouble is… that youth is given up to illusions. It seems to be a provision of nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race. And nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost. (Chopin 110)
He understands Edna’s feelings about motherhood and her life, and he is an important part of her life because he knows her well enough to understand her. Kate Chopin’s obstetrician played an important role in her own life (Simons). He was the one who guided her to write and sell fiction and also to explore the world of science as well. Not only was raising children an important part of Kate Chopin’s life, but her husband was a huge part of her life as well. Oscar Chopin was a French Catholic like Kate Chopin, and he admired her independence and intelligence. He was different from most men of that time period in that he allowed her to have freedom that was very looked down upon by other men in society (Wyatt). Like Chopin’s husband, Lѐonce Pontellier does love his wife and treat her with kindness, but unlike the Chopin’s, their relationship lacks passion and he knows very little about how Edna truly feels about the things in her life, although he does suspect that something is wrong with her. On the contrary, Edna Pontellier, who is not given that same freedom from her husband, is continuously in search of it. Because Chopin was allowed freedom in her life, it only makes sense that the main character in her novel, who does not have freedom to discover herself because she is a woman, is constantly searching for a way to gain that freedom.
Kate Chopin is known as an intelligent woman who also had her own independence, which is why she was able to write so many publications. When her husband died in 1882 of swamp fever, she took over the running of his general store and his plantation (Wyatt). Similar to Edna, Kate Chopin was a very determined and strong woman. In the 1880s, it was not common for a woman to be in charge of such a major duty, but Chopin needed to support her family as well as herself, and just because her husband was gone it didn’t mean that her life had to end as well and she allow herself to go into an awful downward spiral with no chances of returning. Throughout The Awakening, Edna is on a constant pursuit of independence. This pursuit is the main motive for everything that Edna does in the novel. This motive drives Edna to move out of her family’s home and into an extremely small house to be on her own. Edna is alone in her big house as her husband is absent and her children are visiting their grandmother. However living on her own is not enough for Edna, she needs to have ownership of her own house and to provide for herself. The transition to a small house is symbolic, as she is leaving no room for anyone else to live with her; she is essentially leaving no room for her family in her life, which displays her desire for independence. Edna reflects on her moving from the family house, “‘It never seemed like mine, anyway—like home’” (Chopin 85). Indirectly, she is saying that her family never really felt like hers, she never felt at “home,” it was as if she didn’t belong there. Edna also reflects on her moving into the new house, “‘I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence’” (Chopin 86). It is clear that Edna is moving to find herself and become independent, moving away from her family because she never could give all of herself for them anyways.
A major symbol of freedom throughout The Awakening is the birds. The first bird that is mentioned in the novel is the caged parrot on page 3 and the last bird that is mentioned has a broken wing on page 114. In each of these situations these birds are incapable of escaping. The only truly free bird that exists in the novel is the one that exists only in Edna’s imagination and fantasies (Pontuale). The narrator describes Edna’s fantasy:
When she heard [the music] there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him. (Chopin 26-27)
The bird represents Edna’s desire to break away from the traditional views of society and discover herself without being influenced by what everyone else wants and expects her to be. The imagery of birds is used quite frequently in the novel, which suggests how important the symbolism of the birds truly is. Chopin uses one specific metaphor to continue to get this point across, stating: “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth” (Chopin 89). This metaphor suggests that Edna is a bird, struggling in society trying to fly on her own, but that she is not strong enough to do so. As the bird must have strong wings, Edna must have true independence. The bird will fall back to earth because it is not strong enough, as Edna will self-destruct because she cannot have independence on her own—she needed Robert to fly with her. The bird is attempting to “soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice,” as Edna is attempting to soar above the traditions of society. Edna lives in scandal, giving affairs with different men throughout the novel. It is the tradition of society that Edna be loyal to her husband and children, but she attempts to soar above this expectation and live for herself. As the bird is a spectacle to see weakened, exhausted, and fluttering back to earth, the same goes for Edna’s downward fall. She becomes weakened because she gives up so much to try and satisfy herself, but inevitably she will never be satisfied. Another similarity between Kate Chopin and the protagonist Edna Pontellier is the passion that they both shared for art, specifically music. Both women were on a quest for artistic acceptance (Wyatt). Kate Chopin settled in New Orleans, Louisiana with her husband Oscar where he had established a business as a cotton factor. During the time, Louisiana was in the midst of Reconstruction and the city was facing economic and racial troubles. Although these troubles were going on, New Orleans also offered wonderful music at the French Opera House. Kate Chopin also got to meet a famous French painter Edgar Degas while there, which influenced her interest in art (Estere). Chopin’s passionate attitude towards art is represented through various characters in the novel, but specifically Edna. The manner through which each character uses and understands music in the novel shows Edna’s relations to those other characters. Edna learns about the power of music through Mademoiselle Reisz, who uses music as a form of artistic expression, not just a way of entertaining others. There are differences in the way that each character plays the piano. Adele’s piano playing evokes pictures in Edna’s mind, the Farival twins play only for the sake of making the company delighted is just to show that women should use art, and Mademoiselle Reisz uses art for expression. The fact that Edna can distinguish between the different forms of piano playing and why each person is playing the piano, it shows her emotional growth throughout the novel. She has reached a point in her awakening that she is now able to her what a piece of music actually says to her, even if it makes her cry, rather than just forming random pictures in her mind to accompany the sounds that she hears. Edna’s changing reactions to music truly show at what point she is at in her awakening. Although Kate Chopin did not necessarily go through an awakening quite like that of Edna, almost all people go through an awakening when they are trying to discover themselves. Kate Chopin had to deal with tragedy and trauma in her life and the way that she was raised is what allowed her to discover herself. Kate Chopin became aware of things through her lifestyle, her family, her children and her education (Smith). Chopin had no choice but to write and support the family that she chose to have, so instead of suffering, she decided to make a living doing something that she lived to do. Similarly, Edna had her awakening because she realized that she was not happy with the way that things were going in her life, so it was important that she do some sort of self-discovery.
Edna’s awakening is not a gradual or even a natural process since it takes place so quickly (Smith). It is appropriate that the title is The Awakening, because is strongly reflects the character growth of Edna Pontellier. When Edna meets Robert Lebrun, she sees a way out of her lifestyle that she shares with her husband and children. Edna falls in love with Robert because by envisioning a life with him, she can “wake up” from the life she currently no longer wishes to lead. Edna tells Robert, “‘It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream”’ (Chopin 117). Edna is aware of this change in herself and thinks that she has become an independent woman, but reality is that she cannot be this new person without Robert. When Robert leaves, she has again lost herself, unlike Kate Chopin when her husband passes away. Like Kate Chopin, Edna is an intelligent, sensitive woman, but Edna relies on a man, Robert, to allow her to awake from the life that she has been living. Edna thrives for independence, but this dependency on Robert is holding her back, whether she realizes it or not.
The title, The Awakening gains a whole new meaning as Edna ends her life, committing suicide.
Just before committing suicide it seems as though Edna finally understands society when she thinks to herself: “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, Robert, take her hand and be happy; she is yours,’ I should laugh at you both” (Chopin 106-107). It is as though Edna realizes that she should not need a man or anyone else in her life to be happy. She also should not need their help in discovering who she is or need them in order to exist. But this realization is too much for Edna to handle and ending her life is the better option. The way in which Edna commits suicide, by allowing herself to drown in the sea, seems more to be one of “going to sleep” not “awakening.” However, it is through her death that Edna can finally awaken to happiness, because she could never seem to attain it in her life—it’s as if all of her life she had been
asleep.
Edna is continuously struggling with the inequality of gender that many other women in that time period also craved as well. By being a wife and a mother, society expects her to desire to give herself to her family, but Edna desires differently and that is where all of her issues with discovering herself come into play. Edna’s true desire is to be independent and to have freedom. She is not fulfilled in her role of being a mother, and she is only fulfilled by what she does for herself. She wishes to pain and live on her own; to not be tied down to a husband, free to go about the many affairs of which she pursues throughout the novel. It has been said that in the years leading up to her husband’s death Kate Chopin had an affair with a local planter (Estere), which explains why she incorporates Edna’s affair with Robert as so important to her self-discovery. Although these are all of the things that Edna desires, society is not accepting of Edna, similar to society not being accepting of the views that Chopin portrays in The Awakening. Edna realizes that her life is set by society and that she will never be able to achieve gender equality within the society that she lives. Edna therefore commits suicide to defy social expectation and find equality and independence for her soul. This action of committing suicide is a physical escape from the traditionalistic views of society. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of The Awakening, represents many life experiences and qualities that the author Kate Chopin directly shares with her, as well as many of the views that Kate Chopin had about the society that she lived in and what she would have done if she was in Edna Pontellier’s situation.

Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Selected Stories of Kate Chopin. New York: Signet, 1976.
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Pontuale, Francesco. “‘The Awakening’: Struggles Toward l’ecriture Feminine.”
The Mississippi Quarterly 50.1 (1996): 37+. General OneFile. 26 May 2010.
Simons, Karen. “Kate Chopin on the Nature of Things(1).
(The Awakening as a novel of a human being a high animal)(Critical Essay).” The Mississippi Quarterly 5 (1998):243+. General OneFile. 26 May 2010.
Smith, Nicole. "The Process of Edna 's Awakening in "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin"
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Wyatt, Neal. "Biography of Kate Chopin." (1995): 1-4. 25 May 2010. .