Edna's Suicide In The Awakening
Yaeger makes a claim that Robert is more enticing than Leonce, which I would agree with (286-287). As earlier stated, Robert is somewhat like a prince to Edna. Even though their relationship is intended to be brief, it was still full of lots of pleasures, almost like a fairy tale. Edna fails with her inability to recognize that a relationship like this is not meant to last long term unless, as Robert suggests, she marries him (102). Once again, this gets back to my argument that there is little beyond society. No matter what Edna does, she will either eventually have to form new relationships with men, moving from one to another, she will have to get married, or she will have to be alone like Mademoiselle Reisz. Yaeger says that what “Robert
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She experiences a little freedom away from her husband and children. She has a few sexual encounters outside of her marriage. She gets to die in a way that may have felt good to her. Her death appears to be on impulse, and it is possible that her thoughts and feelings overcome her. She is described as feeling “like a new-born creature” (109). There is a line a few sentences away from the latter that may truly give insight into Edna’s suicide. This line leads me to believe that Edna may have had enough pleasures in life, she may have done it on impulse, and she may have felt as if society didn’t offer her enough. However, it is very possible that she regretted having been driven by her emotions to swim so far out, as the narrator explain that Doctor Mandelet may have understood her feelings “but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone” …show more content…
Perhaps Edna did not really want to die, but her realization that there was not enough to satisfy her in this world, she was driven to death. Society was at fault since it allowed so few options for women. The novel seems to be on Edna’s side nonetheless. For feminists, Edna could almost be considered a martyr. Again, resistance is all admirable and brave, but the novel may be challenging women to think about how much they are willing to sacrifice in order to be free. For everybody, in fact, the pursuit of freedom can lead to
She experiences a little freedom away from her husband and children. She has a few sexual encounters outside of her marriage. She gets to die in a way that may have felt good to her. Her death appears to be on impulse, and it is possible that her thoughts and feelings overcome her. She is described as feeling “like a new-born creature” (109). There is a line a few sentences away from the latter that may truly give insight into Edna’s suicide. This line leads me to believe that Edna may have had enough pleasures in life, she may have done it on impulse, and she may have felt as if society didn’t offer her enough. However, it is very possible that she regretted having been driven by her emotions to swim so far out, as the narrator explain that Doctor Mandelet may have understood her feelings “but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone” …show more content…
Perhaps Edna did not really want to die, but her realization that there was not enough to satisfy her in this world, she was driven to death. Society was at fault since it allowed so few options for women. The novel seems to be on Edna’s side nonetheless. For feminists, Edna could almost be considered a martyr. Again, resistance is all admirable and brave, but the novel may be challenging women to think about how much they are willing to sacrifice in order to be free. For everybody, in fact, the pursuit of freedom can lead to