The Awakening Rhetorical Analysis Chapter 7
Chapter 7 Queer Analysis:
I don’t really want to write an essay this is more like an accumulation. However, if I were to have a thesis it would be something like: In chapter seven of The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses several subtextual techniques such as parallels, callbacks, and symbolism, to covertly convey an aspect of Edna’s sexuality that is, as the writer understands it, homosexual. By using these literary techniques in tandem with the strongly written friendship between Edna and Adele, Edna’s homosexuality can be unearthed from the subtext. (or something like that)
Anyway, to whomever is reading this, if I show this to anyone, there is a bit of exposition that might seem unrelated but bear with. Unless you don’t want to, in …show more content…
which case there is an overview/summary at the end.
The chapter opens up talking about Edna Pontellier and how she is not an open or trusting person, saying:
“Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences...” “even as a child she lived her own small life within herself.” “...she apprehended instinctively the dual life--that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.” (26)
It then goes on to talk about her Summer at the Grand Isle, where the story takes place. It illuminates the fact that she was loosened a bit from her closed off personality, and that the influence of Madame Ratignolle was the most significant in:
“...loosening a little the mantle of her reserve that had always enveloped her.” (26)
The narrator then talks about their friendship and what what attracted Edna to Adele:
“The excessive physical charm of the Creole had first attracted her, for Edna had a sensuous susceptibility to beauty Then the candor of the woman’s whole existence, which every one might read, and which formed so striking a contrast to her own habitual reserve--this might have furnished a link. Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.” (26)
After that set up, the story cuts to Adele and Edna walking arm in arm down the beach. They both had escaped Robert and Edna had asked Adele to leave the children behind. They have left behind their burdens--their realities, to spend time with each other.
The narrator goes into physical descriptions of the two women.
They then both sit down in the shade and mostly just adjust their dresses and talk about how fricken hot it is. Off in the distance, are the young lovers and the woman in black:
“Two young lovers were exchanging their hearts’ yearnings beneath the children’s tent, which they and found unoccupied.” (29)
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:
“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.”
And later in the story we find out that Edna can’t swim. The idea that the ocean is Edna’s sexuality/sexual freedom, and her inability to swim in it meaning an inability to express her sexuality freely could be supported by the description of her delight upon learning to swim:
“A feeling of exaltation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and soul She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim out where no woman had
swum.
The the ocean, a wide, limitless, free, expanse, represents Edna’s sexuality/gender-based freedom/ or freedom to express her sexuality.
Adele, who finds Edna’s immersed expression amusing, asks her who, or what, she is thinking about. Edna says that she doesn’t know and then laughs and begins to retrace her thoughts.
“First of all, the sight of the water stretching so far away, those motionless sails against the blue sky, made a delicious picture that I just wanted to sit and look at. The hot wind beating in my face made me think--without any connection that I can trace--of a summer day in Kentucky, of a meadow that seemed as big as the ocean to the very little girl walking through the grass, that was higher than her waist. She through her arms out as if swimming while she walked, beating the tall grass, as one strikes out in the water.” (29-30)
Edna, without seeing what could be the connection, makes a direct connection between the ocean that represents her sexuality and a meadow she ran through as a child in Kentucky.
She goes on to say that she now sees the connection, that she was walking through the grass, that she felt as if she should walk on forever, and that:
“I don’t remember whether I was frightened or pleased. I must have been entertained. Likely as not it was Sunday.” “...and I was running from prayers, from the Presbyterian service...” (30)
From the parallel she draws between the ocean and the meadow, we can assume the meadow also represents her sexuality, except through the eyes of a child who is just discovering it. She can’t remember if her sexuality pleased or frightened her, but that she was entertained. She then remembers that she was running away from prayers--from the presbyterian service. In her, possibly frightening, sexuality, she was running away from the church. A sexuality that would be both pleasing and frightening could be one that is shamed or that doesn’t conform-- Even moreso one that “runs away from prayer.”
Adele then asks: “And have you been running from prayers ever since ma cherie?” To which Edna emphatically replies no and that she was just a foolish child:
“Just following a misleading impulse without question...” “religion took a firm hold upon me after I was twelve..” “I never thought much about it but do you know?” (30)
A misleading impulse could very well mean sexuality or her freedom or freedom pertaining to sexuality, even more so with the knowledge that religion took a firm hold of her at the age of twelve which is just that age. So, keeping with the metaphor, at age twelve, religion begins to suppress her sexuality.
“She broke off, turning her eyes upon Madame Ratignolle and leaning forward a little so as to bring her face quite close to that of her companion. “Sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again, idly, aimlessly, unthinking, and unguided.”’ Madame Ratignolle laid her hand over that of Mrs. Pontellier which was near her. Seeing that the hand was not withdrawn she clasped it firmly and warmly. She even stroked it a little, fondly, with the other hand, murmuring in an undertone “Pauvre cherie” The action was at first a little confusing to Edna, but she soon lent herself readily to the Creole’s gentle caress.” (30-31)
After leaning in closely to Madame Ratignolle’s face, Edna says that she feels like this summer she is walking idly and aimlessly through her childhood meadow again, which represents the beginnings of her frightening and pleasing sexuality. She feels as if she is just now discovering her sexuality again again. To which Madame Ratignolle responds by stroking her hand a “gentle caress” which Edna readily lends herself to. Kate Chopin had to have chosen for Edna to say this to Madame Ratignolle, not Robert or a new lover, or her husband, but Adele. The fact that she made the connection between the ocean and meadow is not a coincidence, just as it was intentional for her saying she felt as if she was “walking through the meadow again” during this very intimate moment with Madame Ratignolle.
After this action, the narrator delves into some of Edna’s contemplation over some female relationships which were not as intimate as her and Adele’s. These included her two sisters. This could serve to specify that while Edna and Adele’s relationship is loving (more intimate than family), it is not loving in the same way that sisters are loving.
We are then told, not in depth, of three of Edna’s love interests. I place importance on the lack of depth because while these men are obviously relevant, they are not nearly relevant enough to merit the amount of descriptive praise Kate Chopin chooses to give to Adele. Anway, three love interests, two of which Edna was in love with, and one of whom she was not. The two she felt love or infatuation toward, she held emotions for in the same manner of emotions she feels toward Adele. The descriptions of Edna’s feelings towards these men callback the descriptions of Edna’s feelings towards Adele in the readers mind so that we might realize their similarities. This begins with another reference to Edna’s sexuality meadow:
“Edna often wondered at one propensity which sometimes had inwardly disturbed her without causing any outward show or manifestation on her part. At a very early age--perhaps it was when she traversed the ocean of waving grass--she remembered that she had been passionately enamored of a dignified and sad-eyed cavalry officer who visited her father in Kentucky. She could not leave his presence when he was there, nor remove her eyes from his face.” (31)
She wonders about some disturbing thing inside her but does not show it on the outside. She makes a direct reference to the meadow again after talking about a man she was passionately attracted to. All of this is more evidence to the fact that the meadow and the ocean represent her sexuality. She was attracted to a man when she was a child in the specific emotions of never wanting to leave his presence, and staring constantly at his face. These reactions towards him are very similar to her reactions toward Adele, (an opinion which can be textually supported by such totally-straight quotes as):
“Madame Ratignolle sewing away... and Mrs. Pontellier sitting idle, exchanging occasional words, glances, or smiles which indicated a certain advanced level of comradery.” (20)
“Mrs. Pontellier liked to sit and gaze at her fair companion as she might look upon a faultless Madonna.” (20)
“She had long wished to try herself on Madame Ratignolle [painting] Never had that lady seemed a more tempting subject than at that moment, seated there like some sensuous Madonna, with the gleam of the fading day enriching her splendid color.” (22)
I think it is safe to say that Edna is attracted to Adele’s face and wishes to stay in her presence always whenever she visits.
The second man the narrator describes, Edna loves from afar because “The young man was engaged to be married to a young lady...” Her feelings toward him are stated, “...the realization that she herself was nothing, nothing, nothing, to the young man was a bitter affliction to her.”
Edna was nothing to the young man in the same way she must be nothing to Adele Ratignolle, both of whom are bound to another and both of whom can never be with Edna.
The last love interest is her husband. The description of him is a stark contrast to the other loves and to her friendship with Adele Ratignolle. Unlike the other love interests, the description of him begins coldly with their marriage being an accident, brought upon by him falling in love with her-- Edna does not begin loving him like the other men or like Adele. There is less choice in this relationship. In this relationship she feels:
“No trace of passion or excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection, thereby threatening its dissolution.” (33)
These feelings quite purposefully contrast with the description of her feelings towards the other men who parallel Madame Ratignolle, all of whom she cannot be with because of reality:
“But it was not long before the tragedian had gone to join the cavalry officer and the engaged young man and a few others; and Edna found herself face to face with the realities.”
After all this contemplation and narration, the story cuts back to the present with Edna and Adele sitting side by side staring at the ocean. By now, Edna is resting her head on Adele’s shoulder and is flushed and:
“...felt intoxicated with the sound of her own voice and unaccustomed to the taste of candor. It muddled her like awe or like the first breath of freedom.” (33)
At the beginning of the chapter, Edna and Adele had escaped the burdens and realities that are represented by (or, simply, are) the children and Robert. After all this contemplation, they finally see Robert and their children and the disdainful nursemaids. They begin to get up and loosen their muscles to return back to their lives. The distant, young couple, whom in the beginning of the chapter had just begun their vows, are now finishing them and getting up from a spot they had sat down, slightly annoyed at being disturbed by Robert and the children’s arrival.
An overview:
Adele and Edna have gone to the beach.
The young couple is likely a parallel of the two of them in this chapter. “The young couple” is cleverly gender ambiguous in every way so that we can project any couple onto them as a parallel. In fact nothing about the young couple is described except that they are exchanging vows in the shade.
The ocean represents Edna’s freedom of sexuality. Edna connects the ocean to a meadow in her childhood. Therefore, the meadow also represents her sexuality, which she describes discovering as both pleasing and frightening. Her sexuality was stifled at the age of twelve after she stopped “running from the church” and started embracing its teachings. Wandering in ones sexuallity whilst running away from church is a metaphor for Edna’s non-conforming sexuality. This could be any powerful female sexuality, but because of the ChristianityvsHomosexuality metaphor, I think it could be argued that it means Edna’s homo-sexuality.
In any case, the meadow being established as a metaphor for her sexuality/sexual freedom is an important thought to keep in mind when Edna leans in close to Adele and tells her that she feels like she is wandering through that same meadow again this summer. A comment responded to by Adele’s gentle caress. The intimacy of the moment between the two women juxtaposed with the meadow-metaphor for sexual freedom is compelling evidence of gay.
When Edna becomes lost in thought after this, she thinks of two men she wanted and one she didn’t. Of the two men she wanted, one she was attracted to physically and wished to be with always, and the other she loved but could never be with due to his attachment. Both of these love interests parallel Edna’s feelings for Adele Ratignolle. The descriptions of the two men she wanted and her feelings toward Adele, greatly contrast the description of her marriage to Leonce. An unhappy heterosexual marriage contrasted with a deliriously happy female/female friendship, suggests, homosexuality.
Furthermore, the narrator establishes that the two men Edna wanted [both of whom parallel Adele], were taken from Edna by reality. This reality is a sad one for her. Edna’s current sad reality is her life as a wife and mother. The reality she asked Adele to leave behind at the beginning of the chapter, her children and Robert, return to them at the end of the chapter. Reality comes to interrupt Edna with Adele, a couple, is a parallel of her relationships towards the other men, [which were thwarted by reality.] As Robert and the children [reality] enters, the young, gender ambiguous, couple who began their vows in the beginning of the chapter, become annoyed and leave at the end of the chapter. Another couples happiness screwed by Robert and the children.
Recap: Edna is subtextually homosexual in this chapter because:
The young couple is a parallel of Edna and Adele
The meadow is Edna’s sexuality because so is the ocean.
What kind of nonconforming sexuality is both frightening and pleasing to discover and is running away from the church? hint: gay
Edna and Adele share an intimate moment after Edna says she feels like she’s walking through the same gay meadow this summer.
All of the men Edna wanted are mirrors of Adele and of Adele and Edna’s relationship because they all: a. Elicit the same emotional/physical reactions from Edna b. Are thwarted by reality c. Contrast to her bad relationship with Leonce.
6. Plausible deniability
I’ve been taking the chapters as separate pieces of Edna’s life--each one is a new level of awakening. This chapter serves to show us Edna’s sexuality and portrays her as both heterosexual and homosexual--- heterosexual textually, and homosexual subtextually. This chapter appears to me to be written in a way that shows that Adele is equal to the other lovers whom Edna’s reality cannot allow her to be with. I doubt this was done by accident. I don’t mean to say that I think Edna is literally homosexual, because she is not. There is no way Kate Chopin would have been able to write her that way. She could, however, write her as homosexual, subtextually.
This is part of the reason I love subtext especially gay subtext and don’t consider it to be any less of a story than the literal one that’s being told. I love it because stories about non-heterosexual people could be told in a time when it was not safe to openly tell them. If anyone ever called a writer out on the subtext, the writer could just be like “You’re reading too into this. It’s just an ocean. What the hell is wrong with you?” If a writer was good enough, they could hide behind plausible deniability, which is my final reasoning for Edna’s subtextual homosexuality.
While there is a lot of symbolism and metaphor, the Awakening seems to be pretty overtly about female empowerment and female sexuality. So if running through the meadow away from church is a metaphor for a non-conforming sexuality (female sexuality/homosexuality), why would Kate Chopin choose to write the same thing (female sexuality) subtextually that she’s writing textually? As you already can tell, I don’t think she was. I think she was telling a different story (homosexual), one that could hella not been told in Victorian times.
So ye.
I don’t really want to write an essay this is more like an accumulation. However, if I were to have a thesis it would be something like: In chapter seven of The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses several subtextual techniques such as parallels, callbacks, and symbolism, to covertly convey an aspect of Edna’s sexuality that is, as the writer understands it, homosexual. By using these literary techniques in tandem with the strongly written friendship between Edna and Adele, Edna’s homosexuality can be unearthed from the subtext. (or something like that)
Anyway, to whomever is reading this, if I show this to anyone, there is a bit of exposition that might seem unrelated but bear with. Unless you don’t want to, in …show more content…
which case there is an overview/summary at the end.
The chapter opens up talking about Edna Pontellier and how she is not an open or trusting person, saying:
“Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences...” “even as a child she lived her own small life within herself.” “...she apprehended instinctively the dual life--that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.” (26)
It then goes on to talk about her Summer at the Grand Isle, where the story takes place. It illuminates the fact that she was loosened a bit from her closed off personality, and that the influence of Madame Ratignolle was the most significant in:
“...loosening a little the mantle of her reserve that had always enveloped her.” (26)
The narrator then talks about their friendship and what what attracted Edna to Adele:
“The excessive physical charm of the Creole had first attracted her, for Edna had a sensuous susceptibility to beauty Then the candor of the woman’s whole existence, which every one might read, and which formed so striking a contrast to her own habitual reserve--this might have furnished a link. Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.” (26)
After that set up, the story cuts to Adele and Edna walking arm in arm down the beach. They both had escaped Robert and Edna had asked Adele to leave the children behind. They have left behind their burdens--their realities, to spend time with each other.
The narrator goes into physical descriptions of the two women.
They then both sit down in the shade and mostly just adjust their dresses and talk about how fricken hot it is. Off in the distance, are the young lovers and the woman in black:
“Two young lovers were exchanging their hearts’ yearnings beneath the children’s tent, which they and found unoccupied.” (29)
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:
“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.”
And later in the story we find out that Edna can’t swim. The idea that the ocean is Edna’s sexuality/sexual freedom, and her inability to swim in it meaning an inability to express her sexuality freely could be supported by the description of her delight upon learning to swim:
“A feeling of exaltation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and soul She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim out where no woman had
swum.
The the ocean, a wide, limitless, free, expanse, represents Edna’s sexuality/gender-based freedom/ or freedom to express her sexuality.
Adele, who finds Edna’s immersed expression amusing, asks her who, or what, she is thinking about. Edna says that she doesn’t know and then laughs and begins to retrace her thoughts.
“First of all, the sight of the water stretching so far away, those motionless sails against the blue sky, made a delicious picture that I just wanted to sit and look at. The hot wind beating in my face made me think--without any connection that I can trace--of a summer day in Kentucky, of a meadow that seemed as big as the ocean to the very little girl walking through the grass, that was higher than her waist. She through her arms out as if swimming while she walked, beating the tall grass, as one strikes out in the water.” (29-30)
Edna, without seeing what could be the connection, makes a direct connection between the ocean that represents her sexuality and a meadow she ran through as a child in Kentucky.
She goes on to say that she now sees the connection, that she was walking through the grass, that she felt as if she should walk on forever, and that:
“I don’t remember whether I was frightened or pleased. I must have been entertained. Likely as not it was Sunday.” “...and I was running from prayers, from the Presbyterian service...” (30)
From the parallel she draws between the ocean and the meadow, we can assume the meadow also represents her sexuality, except through the eyes of a child who is just discovering it. She can’t remember if her sexuality pleased or frightened her, but that she was entertained. She then remembers that she was running away from prayers--from the presbyterian service. In her, possibly frightening, sexuality, she was running away from the church. A sexuality that would be both pleasing and frightening could be one that is shamed or that doesn’t conform-- Even moreso one that “runs away from prayer.”
Adele then asks: “And have you been running from prayers ever since ma cherie?” To which Edna emphatically replies no and that she was just a foolish child:
“Just following a misleading impulse without question...” “religion took a firm hold upon me after I was twelve..” “I never thought much about it but do you know?” (30)
A misleading impulse could very well mean sexuality or her freedom or freedom pertaining to sexuality, even more so with the knowledge that religion took a firm hold of her at the age of twelve which is just that age. So, keeping with the metaphor, at age twelve, religion begins to suppress her sexuality.
“She broke off, turning her eyes upon Madame Ratignolle and leaning forward a little so as to bring her face quite close to that of her companion. “Sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again, idly, aimlessly, unthinking, and unguided.”’ Madame Ratignolle laid her hand over that of Mrs. Pontellier which was near her. Seeing that the hand was not withdrawn she clasped it firmly and warmly. She even stroked it a little, fondly, with the other hand, murmuring in an undertone “Pauvre cherie” The action was at first a little confusing to Edna, but she soon lent herself readily to the Creole’s gentle caress.” (30-31)
After leaning in closely to Madame Ratignolle’s face, Edna says that she feels like this summer she is walking idly and aimlessly through her childhood meadow again, which represents the beginnings of her frightening and pleasing sexuality. She feels as if she is just now discovering her sexuality again again. To which Madame Ratignolle responds by stroking her hand a “gentle caress” which Edna readily lends herself to. Kate Chopin had to have chosen for Edna to say this to Madame Ratignolle, not Robert or a new lover, or her husband, but Adele. The fact that she made the connection between the ocean and meadow is not a coincidence, just as it was intentional for her saying she felt as if she was “walking through the meadow again” during this very intimate moment with Madame Ratignolle.
After this action, the narrator delves into some of Edna’s contemplation over some female relationships which were not as intimate as her and Adele’s. These included her two sisters. This could serve to specify that while Edna and Adele’s relationship is loving (more intimate than family), it is not loving in the same way that sisters are loving.
We are then told, not in depth, of three of Edna’s love interests. I place importance on the lack of depth because while these men are obviously relevant, they are not nearly relevant enough to merit the amount of descriptive praise Kate Chopin chooses to give to Adele. Anway, three love interests, two of which Edna was in love with, and one of whom she was not. The two she felt love or infatuation toward, she held emotions for in the same manner of emotions she feels toward Adele. The descriptions of Edna’s feelings towards these men callback the descriptions of Edna’s feelings towards Adele in the readers mind so that we might realize their similarities. This begins with another reference to Edna’s sexuality meadow:
“Edna often wondered at one propensity which sometimes had inwardly disturbed her without causing any outward show or manifestation on her part. At a very early age--perhaps it was when she traversed the ocean of waving grass--she remembered that she had been passionately enamored of a dignified and sad-eyed cavalry officer who visited her father in Kentucky. She could not leave his presence when he was there, nor remove her eyes from his face.” (31)
She wonders about some disturbing thing inside her but does not show it on the outside. She makes a direct reference to the meadow again after talking about a man she was passionately attracted to. All of this is more evidence to the fact that the meadow and the ocean represent her sexuality. She was attracted to a man when she was a child in the specific emotions of never wanting to leave his presence, and staring constantly at his face. These reactions towards him are very similar to her reactions toward Adele, (an opinion which can be textually supported by such totally-straight quotes as):
“Madame Ratignolle sewing away... and Mrs. Pontellier sitting idle, exchanging occasional words, glances, or smiles which indicated a certain advanced level of comradery.” (20)
“Mrs. Pontellier liked to sit and gaze at her fair companion as she might look upon a faultless Madonna.” (20)
“She had long wished to try herself on Madame Ratignolle [painting] Never had that lady seemed a more tempting subject than at that moment, seated there like some sensuous Madonna, with the gleam of the fading day enriching her splendid color.” (22)
I think it is safe to say that Edna is attracted to Adele’s face and wishes to stay in her presence always whenever she visits.
The second man the narrator describes, Edna loves from afar because “The young man was engaged to be married to a young lady...” Her feelings toward him are stated, “...the realization that she herself was nothing, nothing, nothing, to the young man was a bitter affliction to her.”
Edna was nothing to the young man in the same way she must be nothing to Adele Ratignolle, both of whom are bound to another and both of whom can never be with Edna.
The last love interest is her husband. The description of him is a stark contrast to the other loves and to her friendship with Adele Ratignolle. Unlike the other love interests, the description of him begins coldly with their marriage being an accident, brought upon by him falling in love with her-- Edna does not begin loving him like the other men or like Adele. There is less choice in this relationship. In this relationship she feels:
“No trace of passion or excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection, thereby threatening its dissolution.” (33)
These feelings quite purposefully contrast with the description of her feelings towards the other men who parallel Madame Ratignolle, all of whom she cannot be with because of reality:
“But it was not long before the tragedian had gone to join the cavalry officer and the engaged young man and a few others; and Edna found herself face to face with the realities.”
After all this contemplation and narration, the story cuts back to the present with Edna and Adele sitting side by side staring at the ocean. By now, Edna is resting her head on Adele’s shoulder and is flushed and:
“...felt intoxicated with the sound of her own voice and unaccustomed to the taste of candor. It muddled her like awe or like the first breath of freedom.” (33)
At the beginning of the chapter, Edna and Adele had escaped the burdens and realities that are represented by (or, simply, are) the children and Robert. After all this contemplation, they finally see Robert and their children and the disdainful nursemaids. They begin to get up and loosen their muscles to return back to their lives. The distant, young couple, whom in the beginning of the chapter had just begun their vows, are now finishing them and getting up from a spot they had sat down, slightly annoyed at being disturbed by Robert and the children’s arrival.
An overview:
Adele and Edna have gone to the beach.
The young couple is likely a parallel of the two of them in this chapter. “The young couple” is cleverly gender ambiguous in every way so that we can project any couple onto them as a parallel. In fact nothing about the young couple is described except that they are exchanging vows in the shade.
The ocean represents Edna’s freedom of sexuality. Edna connects the ocean to a meadow in her childhood. Therefore, the meadow also represents her sexuality, which she describes discovering as both pleasing and frightening. Her sexuality was stifled at the age of twelve after she stopped “running from the church” and started embracing its teachings. Wandering in ones sexuallity whilst running away from church is a metaphor for Edna’s non-conforming sexuality. This could be any powerful female sexuality, but because of the ChristianityvsHomosexuality metaphor, I think it could be argued that it means Edna’s homo-sexuality.
In any case, the meadow being established as a metaphor for her sexuality/sexual freedom is an important thought to keep in mind when Edna leans in close to Adele and tells her that she feels like she is wandering through that same meadow again this summer. A comment responded to by Adele’s gentle caress. The intimacy of the moment between the two women juxtaposed with the meadow-metaphor for sexual freedom is compelling evidence of gay.
When Edna becomes lost in thought after this, she thinks of two men she wanted and one she didn’t. Of the two men she wanted, one she was attracted to physically and wished to be with always, and the other she loved but could never be with due to his attachment. Both of these love interests parallel Edna’s feelings for Adele Ratignolle. The descriptions of the two men she wanted and her feelings toward Adele, greatly contrast the description of her marriage to Leonce. An unhappy heterosexual marriage contrasted with a deliriously happy female/female friendship, suggests, homosexuality.
Furthermore, the narrator establishes that the two men Edna wanted [both of whom parallel Adele], were taken from Edna by reality. This reality is a sad one for her. Edna’s current sad reality is her life as a wife and mother. The reality she asked Adele to leave behind at the beginning of the chapter, her children and Robert, return to them at the end of the chapter. Reality comes to interrupt Edna with Adele, a couple, is a parallel of her relationships towards the other men, [which were thwarted by reality.] As Robert and the children [reality] enters, the young, gender ambiguous, couple who began their vows in the beginning of the chapter, become annoyed and leave at the end of the chapter. Another couples happiness screwed by Robert and the children.
Recap: Edna is subtextually homosexual in this chapter because:
The young couple is a parallel of Edna and Adele
The meadow is Edna’s sexuality because so is the ocean.
What kind of nonconforming sexuality is both frightening and pleasing to discover and is running away from the church? hint: gay
Edna and Adele share an intimate moment after Edna says she feels like she’s walking through the same gay meadow this summer.
All of the men Edna wanted are mirrors of Adele and of Adele and Edna’s relationship because they all: a. Elicit the same emotional/physical reactions from Edna b. Are thwarted by reality c. Contrast to her bad relationship with Leonce.
6. Plausible deniability
I’ve been taking the chapters as separate pieces of Edna’s life--each one is a new level of awakening. This chapter serves to show us Edna’s sexuality and portrays her as both heterosexual and homosexual--- heterosexual textually, and homosexual subtextually. This chapter appears to me to be written in a way that shows that Adele is equal to the other lovers whom Edna’s reality cannot allow her to be with. I doubt this was done by accident. I don’t mean to say that I think Edna is literally homosexual, because she is not. There is no way Kate Chopin would have been able to write her that way. She could, however, write her as homosexual, subtextually.
This is part of the reason I love subtext especially gay subtext and don’t consider it to be any less of a story than the literal one that’s being told. I love it because stories about non-heterosexual people could be told in a time when it was not safe to openly tell them. If anyone ever called a writer out on the subtext, the writer could just be like “You’re reading too into this. It’s just an ocean. What the hell is wrong with you?” If a writer was good enough, they could hide behind plausible deniability, which is my final reasoning for Edna’s subtextual homosexuality.
While there is a lot of symbolism and metaphor, the Awakening seems to be pretty overtly about female empowerment and female sexuality. So if running through the meadow away from church is a metaphor for a non-conforming sexuality (female sexuality/homosexuality), why would Kate Chopin choose to write the same thing (female sexuality) subtextually that she’s writing textually? As you already can tell, I don’t think she was. I think she was telling a different story (homosexual), one that could hella not been told in Victorian times.
So ye.