Unbearable Realism Freedom, Ethics and Identity in the Awakening
Unbearable Realism: Freedom, Ethics and Identity in The Awakening
Peter Ramos
L
ike the last lines of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the ending of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening seems always to be read in the context of gender inequality at the turn of the last century. Both texts repeatedly establish the extent to which the patriarchal pressures of that period posed severe obstacles for even the most privileged women. In regard to each text’s ending, however, the same set of questions tends to arise: is Edna’s suicide, like Gilman’s speaker’s descent into madness, a triumph—the best possible achievement of independence and agency under the circumstances? Or are her final actions a defeat—the fatal, inescapable result for any woman who tries to assert autonomy in the face of such debilitating, insurmountable patriarchy? Though critical responses have varied since The Awakening was first published in 1899— when the majority argued that Edna’s ulti-
Peter Ramos is assistant professor of English at Buffalo State College. He has criticism in The CEA Critic, The Faulkner Journal, and Mandorla. His first book-length collection of poems, Please Do Not Feed the Ghost,was published in 2008.
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College Literature 37.4 [Fall 2010]
mate fate is only cosmic justice for her moral deviation throughout the novella—most readings have fallen into either of these two categories.1 There are, of course, a few slightly different readings; Robert Treu, for example, along with a few other critics, suggests that Edna’s final swim does not necessarily lead to her intentional (or even unintentional) suicide (2000, 23). But for the most part, these two interpretations of the novella’s ending remain the most enduring and prominent. A third, though far less popular, reading of Edna’s final actions insists they are inconsistent with her character and, as such, flaw the novella as a whole. George M. Spangler claims that The Awakening’s conclusion “undercuts
Peter Ramos
L
ike the last lines of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the ending of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening seems always to be read in the context of gender inequality at the turn of the last century. Both texts repeatedly establish the extent to which the patriarchal pressures of that period posed severe obstacles for even the most privileged women. In regard to each text’s ending, however, the same set of questions tends to arise: is Edna’s suicide, like Gilman’s speaker’s descent into madness, a triumph—the best possible achievement of independence and agency under the circumstances? Or are her final actions a defeat—the fatal, inescapable result for any woman who tries to assert autonomy in the face of such debilitating, insurmountable patriarchy? Though critical responses have varied since The Awakening was first published in 1899— when the majority argued that Edna’s ulti-
Peter Ramos is assistant professor of English at Buffalo State College. He has criticism in The CEA Critic, The Faulkner Journal, and Mandorla. His first book-length collection of poems, Please Do Not Feed the Ghost,was published in 2008.
146
College Literature 37.4 [Fall 2010]
mate fate is only cosmic justice for her moral deviation throughout the novella—most readings have fallen into either of these two categories.1 There are, of course, a few slightly different readings; Robert Treu, for example, along with a few other critics, suggests that Edna’s final swim does not necessarily lead to her intentional (or even unintentional) suicide (2000, 23). But for the most part, these two interpretations of the novella’s ending remain the most enduring and prominent. A third, though far less popular, reading of Edna’s final actions insists they are inconsistent with her character and, as such, flaw the novella as a whole. George M. Spangler claims that The Awakening’s conclusion “undercuts
Cited: Bartley, William. 2000. “Imagining the Future in The Awakening.” College English 62.6: 719–46. Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 1998. The Madwoman Can’t Speak: Or Why Insanity is Not Subversive. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chopin, Kate. 1988. The Awakening. Intro. Marilynne Robinson. 1899. Reprint. New York: Bantam Books. Dyer, Joyce. 1993. The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings. New York: Twayne Publishers. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1981. Selected Writings of Emerson. Ed. Donald McQuade. New York:The Modern Library. Fleissner, Jennifer L. 2004. Women, Compulsion, Modernity: The Moment of American Naturalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gilbert, Sandra M. 1983.“The Second Coming of Aphrodite: Kate Chopin’s Fantasy of Desire.” The Kenyon Review 5.3: 44–66. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. 1972. The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. New York: Arno Press. ———. 1997. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Other Stories. 1892. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications. ———. 1913. “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Forerunner, October, 271. Kearns, Katherine. 1991. “The Nullification of Edna Pontellier.” American Literature 63.1: 62–88. Spangler, George M. 1970. “Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’: A Partial Dissent.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 3.3: 249–55. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. 2003. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1852. Reprint. Intro. and notes by Amanda Claybaugh. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics. Streater, Kathleen M. 2007. “Adèle Ratignolle: Kate Chopin’s Feminist at Home in The Awakening.” Midwest Quarterly 48.3: 406–16. Toth, Emily. 1991. “Kate Chopin on Divine Love and Suicide: Two Rediscovered Articles.” American Literature 63.1: 115–21. ———. 1999. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Treu, Robert. 2000. “Surviving Edna: A Reading of the Ending of The Awakening.” College Literature 27.2: 21–36. 165 Copyright of College Literature is the property of College Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder 's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.