1. How does Edna spend most of her time in this section of the book?…
During The Second Great Awakening’s religious revival of evangelicalism, Robert Matthews- the self-appointed prophet Matthias- was one of many to create and spread his own ultimately doomed religion, a patriarchal Kingdom of Truth in which Matthias sat at the head as the Father and redeemer. Matthias and his Kingdom were one of many religions developed and spread during the early 1800s, and many of Matthias’ teachings were similar to those of other prophets and seers more successful in popularizing their messages. Yet Matthias and his group remained on the margins of society. Johnson and Wilentz want to explain not only the religion itself, but the reasons for its failure while other similar ones succeeded.…
4. What do you learn about Robert and Edna from their conversation at the end of…
Before the Great Awakening even occurred in New England, Jonathan Edwards brought about a great revival in his own town of Northampton that helped spark the awakening. In the town the young people were disrespecting authority, and because of the difficult economic situation many were living in their parent’s homes well into their twenties. When Edwards first began preaching he could sense that the town was regaining its vitality, however the revival was slow and it was not until three years later that his patient cultivation began to bloom. This revival was helped greatly, but unintentionally, by the sudden death of a young…
From her crying alone at night to her sudden rebellious comment to her husband you can infer that she’s been holding something to herself. This quote peers into how Edna truly feels on…
Edna believes that she accidentally got married because she accepted the traditional path. She married Leonce due to the fact that he was financially sound and in love with her. After a summer in Grand Isles she starts to realize the fault in the marriage. Edna does not care for her children as the other Creole mothers do; she would not give herself and her sanity…
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.…
Edna was not going to sacrifice herself or her happiness anymore for others. Not for her husband, her children, her fellow friends: Madame Lebrun and Madame Ratignolle, or even the love of her life, Robert. She loved herself too much and felt herself too important to stay confined to a role that didn’t fit who she was as a person. Edna came to this realization through a series of different experiences: her relationship with Robert, her friendship with Mademoiselle Reisz, and her developing artistic ability for painting. Edna realized that she couldn’t be herself and be happy, and still “remember the children.” She no longer wanted to be possessed mind, body, and soul. In the end, she would only be sad, alone, frustrated, and unhappy. So she came to the realization that she had to kill herself and accepted that fact.…
Edna’s independence causes familial tension. Edna’s resistance to her husband’s orders angers Leonce. For example, when Mr. Pontellier learns that Edna did not stay at home for her regular Tuesday reception, he screams and says she had to continue the…
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.…
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,…
Characters: Edna Pontellier is a twenty eight year old wife of Léonce Pontellier, a businessman from New Orleans, In the middle of the book Edna finds herself dissatisfied with her marriage and her limited lifestyle, she soon falls in love with her husbands best friend Robert Lebrun which starts trouble with her relationship with her husband and her husband's relationship with Robert. I chose dissatisfied as an adjective to describe Edna because she is not that happy with her wife role and feels disappointed with herself about falling in love with Robert.…
The expectations of tradition coupled with the limitations of law gave women of the late 1800s very few opportunities for individual expression, not to mention independence. Expected to perform their domestic duties and care for the health and happiness of their families, Victorian women were prevented from seeking the satisfaction of their own wants and needs (SparkNotes Editors). This book is started as Edna, her husband, and their two small boys been in a vacation on Grand Isle, in a resort that was managed by Madame Lebrun, and her sons Robert and Victor. But basically it’s really only Edna and her two sons since her husband Leonce, which is a very successful businessman, works in the city during the week and joins them only on weekends. So Edna mostly spends much of her time with her friend, Adele, but eventually begins seeing Robert Lebrun more and more frequently. But later she founds out that his leaving for mexico the next day and he has yet not told her and she got devastated after finding out this news by herself . When Edna and her family returns to New Orleans after the summer , she begins moving more and more away from her traditional role, as she attempts to live life on her own terms.…
As a reader, this quote helped shed light on the relationship – or rather, lack of – between Edna and her husband. It makes it understandable for her to have an affair, but then again I found this shocking because she has children. Even if she wasn’t in love with her husband, and divorce was definitely not an option during the 1800’s – she should have stayed for her children. In the end, love for Robert or for her children, wasn’t even enough to keep her from diving into the…
The first man that Edna comes in contact with in the novel is her Husband, Mr. Pontellier. The author uses this father and husband figure to create the sense of commitment that comes from love, but nothing else, revealing to Edna the need for more than just commitment. The author creates this sense of commitment on page 7 of “The Awakening” by having Edna be called the “sole object of his existence.”…