Who Is The Protagonist In The Awakening
Recklessly In Love In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the readers are introduced to the creole society in which the main character, Edna Pontellier, lives. Readers soon discover that Edna herself does not quite fall into place within the society and she feels uncomfortable at several points within the text. While she is feeling uncomfortable within the society she lives, she is actually becoming more comfortable with herself. This “comfortableness” she is obtaining is actually her awakening. Edna is gaining a new outlook on life within this novel and the new view is affected by the people she encounters and skills she learns. Robert, a young man she met during the summer, has a huge impact upon Edna. The awakening that was instinctively occurring within Edna was soon terminated due to the love she found in Robert; her awakening soon turned more abrupt, reckless, and rebellious which ultimately lead to her suicide.
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During Edna’s lifetime she has always gone after men that she is technically not allowed to “have.” In the criticism of the novel titled “An American Madame Bovary” by Cyrille Arnavon, Edna’s personality is analyzed.
The fact that Edna sought after men that were unattainable was commented on; “Since Early adolescence, her gestures and descriptions of herself reveal, she possessed a very ardent temperament. She had felt attracted to men for some reason or other were inaccessible: the cavalry officer, the engaged man, the actor” (Arnavon 187). Robert has become that man that is inaccessible to Edna. Now that she was married all men, except her husband Léonce, are not allowed. This being the case, Edna starts with a small lust for Robert. The lust that is formed from Edna is soon her fixation. She consumes herself with the thoughts of Robert and a life with him soon becomes a false goal of her awakening. Instead of finding herself throughout her awakening, Edna is trying to live a life that Robert can be present and active
in. The feelings Edna has formed for Robert are mysterious to her because she does not just have a small lust that she has had in the past with the cavalry officer, engaged man, and actor; but instead she is falling in love with him. She has never felt real love, not even for her husband. Marie Fletcher wrote a criticism titled “The Southern Woman in Fiction” and stated “it is suggested that the marriage was purely an accident, a decree of Fate, for it is ‘his absolute devotion’ and ‘the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic’ that led Edna to accept Léonce” (193). Fletcher is saying that Edna may be married to Léonce, but she does not love him. She married him out of spite for her family. The feelings Edna has for Robert are bizarre to her and she will do anything to be with him. The fact that she is willing to do anything is sending Edna down a slippery slope of social execution. She is soon embarrassing Léonce with her extreme behavior. Edna who was a “young woman of twenty eight” (Chopin 14) was beginning to discover herself during a summer at Grand Isles. “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (Chopin 14). She was launching her “awakening” and becoming more aware of herself. Lee R. Edwards, author of the criticism “Sexuality, Maternity, and Selfhood,” states about Edna; “awareness of her body’s life alters the psychic and social structures that orient her in the world” (282). Becoming more aware of herself, Edna was able to become more aware of everyone else around her, and in particular Robert. As the summer progresses Edna becomes more and more mindful of Robert and the feelings she developed for him. Edna’s self-awareness is more abrupt as soon as the summer is over and Robert leaves for Mexico. Edna quickly longs for Robert and she no longer is lustful for Robert, but her feelings are positively love at this point. Robert fleeing for Mexico is not just a coincidence. Edwards brings up the conversation Edna and Robert have after she has awakened and asks Robert how long she has slept for and he replies one hundred years. “‘Edna’s existence as the princess requires Robert to be the prince.’ When, unwilling to take on the burdens of this role, Robert flees to Mexico…Edna feels stranded” (Edwards 283), Robert knows that a relationship, other than friendship, cannot happen between the two of them so he flees. Edna is distraught by this and is more abrupt in her awakening to make the situation at hand work for her and Robert to carry on a relationship. Due to the entirety of Edna’s awakening becoming abrupt, it is also reckless in its wholeness. Edna no longer looks at the situation rationally and with a level head, but instead with a “live in the moment with no regrets” attitude. While Robert is away in Mexico and Léonce is away, Edna decides to move from her extravagantly large home to a smaller house nearby called the pigeon-house. This move is reckless due to the fact that it ill reflects the financial state the Pontelliers are in. Léonce must then make sure that the community does not think that the family is in monetary ruin so he sends to the newspaper information about the large house being renovated and a trip the Pontelliers are going on during the renovation. The move from house to house not only was because of recklessness, but also dissatisfaction from Edna within her marriage. “The writer leaves no doubt that Edna’s marriage to Pontellier was never satisfying” (Arnavon 187), the recklessness Mrs. Pontellier exhibits also exposes her unhappiness in Léonce. Robert is where Edna was finding her happiness and without him there, she was at a loss and struggling to find contentment within her own marriage. Soon Mrs. Pontellier’s reckless actions are no longer just negatively affecting her marriage with Léonce, but now her actions, with Alcée Arobin that are thoughtless, are affecting her relationship with Robert. Edwards examines the different relationships Edna has with Robert and Arobin and comes to the conclustion; when at first Edna and Robert met, Edna had more of a sexual desire for him, as she does for Arobin now, and that desire soon morphed into love (284). Edna even states “to-day it is Arobin; tomorrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me” (Chopin 108). In Edna’s recklessness she sees that Robert is just a phase and Arobin is the next phase she is going through. Despite the fact that Edna reveals to herself and the reader that the two men are just phases and soon she will move onto the next one, she still has a love for Robert that she has yet to let go. Léonce and Edna started their married life long before the introduction of Edna and Robert, but that was still the first step to Edna’s rebellion. As stated earlier, Fletcher discussed the fact that Edna did not have the approval of her family for her marriage to Léonce. This rebellion insinuates that the awakening Edna experiences started long ago, but the introduction and presence of Robert and Grand Isle makes it more abrupt. Edna’s rebellious side is more exposed with Robert in her life. This is due to the fact that before him, Edna was not as frivolous with her rebellious actions. Edna’s rebellious actions also become more extreme as she forms a bond with Robert. The bond with Robert is rebellious in itself. Edna is a married woman and forming a bond with a man that is inappropriate for a woman of her status. Not only did she form a bond with Robert, but that bond soon turned into feelings of love from both sides of the relationship. While Robert is away, Edna rebels against her relationship with Robert and her husband and forms a relationship with Arobin. The relationship with Arobin does not go to the extent of Robert’s relationship, but instead it was merely physical. Despite the fact that the relationship was solely physical, the relationship was still a rebellious act. The relationships Edna formed with Robert and Arobin allowed her to be “sexually awakened” (Fletcher 195). According to Fletcher, Edna was dissatisfied with her relationship with Arobin because “there is no feeling of companionship, only sexual satisfaction about which she has a sense of guilt because of her feeling that she has betrayed Robert” (Fletcher 195). The relationship with Arobin was a rebellious act against Robert since he was away and she was disappointed with the outcome of it. This leads to Edna feeling as if she had failed her awakening because the end goal was to be with Robert and disappointing him did not allow her to be with him, it only chased him away. To end her rebelliousness, on a rebellious note, Edna commits suicide. According to Edwards Edna’s suicide is due to the fulfillment she was not able to experience during her awakening (285). If Edna had not met Robert, her life would have not gone through a whirlwind and lack so much un-fulfillment that her final rebellious act, suicide, would not have occurred. Robert is not to be blamed for Edna’s death, but he did help bring her to that point. He allowed Edna to find a love within him that she was not able to experience with anyone else. Due to society procedures the relationship the two had was against society norms. This was a disappointment to Edna for she had finally found love in her life. She tried to make the relationship work but was unsuccessful and un-fulfilled. Robert lead Edna through a tumultuous awakening with the love he also had for Edna. The feelings Edna had for Robert left her confused and lost and the only way she knew how to handle them was through reckless, rebellious, and abrupt behaviors.
Works Cited
Arnavon, Cyrille. “An American Madame Bovary.” Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print. 184-188.
Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.
Edwards Lee R. “Sexuality, Maternity, and Selfhood.” Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print. 282-285.
Fletcher, Marie. “The Southern Woman in Fiction.” Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print. 193-195.4
During Edna’s lifetime she has always gone after men that she is technically not allowed to “have.” In the criticism of the novel titled “An American Madame Bovary” by Cyrille Arnavon, Edna’s personality is analyzed.
The fact that Edna sought after men that were unattainable was commented on; “Since Early adolescence, her gestures and descriptions of herself reveal, she possessed a very ardent temperament. She had felt attracted to men for some reason or other were inaccessible: the cavalry officer, the engaged man, the actor” (Arnavon 187). Robert has become that man that is inaccessible to Edna. Now that she was married all men, except her husband Léonce, are not allowed. This being the case, Edna starts with a small lust for Robert. The lust that is formed from Edna is soon her fixation. She consumes herself with the thoughts of Robert and a life with him soon becomes a false goal of her awakening. Instead of finding herself throughout her awakening, Edna is trying to live a life that Robert can be present and active
in. The feelings Edna has formed for Robert are mysterious to her because she does not just have a small lust that she has had in the past with the cavalry officer, engaged man, and actor; but instead she is falling in love with him. She has never felt real love, not even for her husband. Marie Fletcher wrote a criticism titled “The Southern Woman in Fiction” and stated “it is suggested that the marriage was purely an accident, a decree of Fate, for it is ‘his absolute devotion’ and ‘the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic’ that led Edna to accept Léonce” (193). Fletcher is saying that Edna may be married to Léonce, but she does not love him. She married him out of spite for her family. The feelings Edna has for Robert are bizarre to her and she will do anything to be with him. The fact that she is willing to do anything is sending Edna down a slippery slope of social execution. She is soon embarrassing Léonce with her extreme behavior. Edna who was a “young woman of twenty eight” (Chopin 14) was beginning to discover herself during a summer at Grand Isles. “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (Chopin 14). She was launching her “awakening” and becoming more aware of herself. Lee R. Edwards, author of the criticism “Sexuality, Maternity, and Selfhood,” states about Edna; “awareness of her body’s life alters the psychic and social structures that orient her in the world” (282). Becoming more aware of herself, Edna was able to become more aware of everyone else around her, and in particular Robert. As the summer progresses Edna becomes more and more mindful of Robert and the feelings she developed for him. Edna’s self-awareness is more abrupt as soon as the summer is over and Robert leaves for Mexico. Edna quickly longs for Robert and she no longer is lustful for Robert, but her feelings are positively love at this point. Robert fleeing for Mexico is not just a coincidence. Edwards brings up the conversation Edna and Robert have after she has awakened and asks Robert how long she has slept for and he replies one hundred years. “‘Edna’s existence as the princess requires Robert to be the prince.’ When, unwilling to take on the burdens of this role, Robert flees to Mexico…Edna feels stranded” (Edwards 283), Robert knows that a relationship, other than friendship, cannot happen between the two of them so he flees. Edna is distraught by this and is more abrupt in her awakening to make the situation at hand work for her and Robert to carry on a relationship. Due to the entirety of Edna’s awakening becoming abrupt, it is also reckless in its wholeness. Edna no longer looks at the situation rationally and with a level head, but instead with a “live in the moment with no regrets” attitude. While Robert is away in Mexico and Léonce is away, Edna decides to move from her extravagantly large home to a smaller house nearby called the pigeon-house. This move is reckless due to the fact that it ill reflects the financial state the Pontelliers are in. Léonce must then make sure that the community does not think that the family is in monetary ruin so he sends to the newspaper information about the large house being renovated and a trip the Pontelliers are going on during the renovation. The move from house to house not only was because of recklessness, but also dissatisfaction from Edna within her marriage. “The writer leaves no doubt that Edna’s marriage to Pontellier was never satisfying” (Arnavon 187), the recklessness Mrs. Pontellier exhibits also exposes her unhappiness in Léonce. Robert is where Edna was finding her happiness and without him there, she was at a loss and struggling to find contentment within her own marriage. Soon Mrs. Pontellier’s reckless actions are no longer just negatively affecting her marriage with Léonce, but now her actions, with Alcée Arobin that are thoughtless, are affecting her relationship with Robert. Edwards examines the different relationships Edna has with Robert and Arobin and comes to the conclustion; when at first Edna and Robert met, Edna had more of a sexual desire for him, as she does for Arobin now, and that desire soon morphed into love (284). Edna even states “to-day it is Arobin; tomorrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me” (Chopin 108). In Edna’s recklessness she sees that Robert is just a phase and Arobin is the next phase she is going through. Despite the fact that Edna reveals to herself and the reader that the two men are just phases and soon she will move onto the next one, she still has a love for Robert that she has yet to let go. Léonce and Edna started their married life long before the introduction of Edna and Robert, but that was still the first step to Edna’s rebellion. As stated earlier, Fletcher discussed the fact that Edna did not have the approval of her family for her marriage to Léonce. This rebellion insinuates that the awakening Edna experiences started long ago, but the introduction and presence of Robert and Grand Isle makes it more abrupt. Edna’s rebellious side is more exposed with Robert in her life. This is due to the fact that before him, Edna was not as frivolous with her rebellious actions. Edna’s rebellious actions also become more extreme as she forms a bond with Robert. The bond with Robert is rebellious in itself. Edna is a married woman and forming a bond with a man that is inappropriate for a woman of her status. Not only did she form a bond with Robert, but that bond soon turned into feelings of love from both sides of the relationship. While Robert is away, Edna rebels against her relationship with Robert and her husband and forms a relationship with Arobin. The relationship with Arobin does not go to the extent of Robert’s relationship, but instead it was merely physical. Despite the fact that the relationship was solely physical, the relationship was still a rebellious act. The relationships Edna formed with Robert and Arobin allowed her to be “sexually awakened” (Fletcher 195). According to Fletcher, Edna was dissatisfied with her relationship with Arobin because “there is no feeling of companionship, only sexual satisfaction about which she has a sense of guilt because of her feeling that she has betrayed Robert” (Fletcher 195). The relationship with Arobin was a rebellious act against Robert since he was away and she was disappointed with the outcome of it. This leads to Edna feeling as if she had failed her awakening because the end goal was to be with Robert and disappointing him did not allow her to be with him, it only chased him away. To end her rebelliousness, on a rebellious note, Edna commits suicide. According to Edwards Edna’s suicide is due to the fulfillment she was not able to experience during her awakening (285). If Edna had not met Robert, her life would have not gone through a whirlwind and lack so much un-fulfillment that her final rebellious act, suicide, would not have occurred. Robert is not to be blamed for Edna’s death, but he did help bring her to that point. He allowed Edna to find a love within him that she was not able to experience with anyone else. Due to society procedures the relationship the two had was against society norms. This was a disappointment to Edna for she had finally found love in her life. She tried to make the relationship work but was unsuccessful and un-fulfilled. Robert lead Edna through a tumultuous awakening with the love he also had for Edna. The feelings Edna had for Robert left her confused and lost and the only way she knew how to handle them was through reckless, rebellious, and abrupt behaviors.
Works Cited
Arnavon, Cyrille. “An American Madame Bovary.” Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print. 184-188.
Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.
Edwards Lee R. “Sexuality, Maternity, and Selfhood.” Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print. 282-285.
Fletcher, Marie. “The Southern Woman in Fiction.” Chopin, Kate, and Margo Culley. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Biographical and Historical Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print. 193-195.4