In earlier times, American literature barely depicted the true feelings of an oppressed woman. The implication of woman in the 1800s was a wife cleaning the house, taking care of the children, and satisfying her husband’s needs. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin wrote about the life of a grown woman, Edna Pontellier, who slowly discovered herself and independence. She used aspects of her personal life to portray Edna | Montpellier’s thoughts and feelings, in great detail, to express the personality of an independent woman.
As a result of Chopin’s descriptive imagery and diction in The Awakening, she was denounced by religious groups, critics, and society. The judgmental tone Chopin used towards society’s rules on how women should behave, emphasized on the theme of independence and her purpose of acknowledging that women, are their own beings and not an extension of men. From the beginning of the novel, Edna acted contrary to the stereotypical wife and mother. She did not have the maternal instinct that other mothers had nor the love and admiration women often felt for men like her husband (Smith np).
Subconsciously, she had always known there was more to life than husbands and children, but did not awaken until she met Robert Lebrun. The summer she met Robert was the beginning of her independence. Throughout The Awakening, Chopin focused on the theme of independence by writing about Edna’s progression in liberation, confidence, and self-reliance. One of her first bold acts of independence was when she refused to go inside when her husband demanded it from her. During the argument, Edna thought, “She could not at the moment have done other than denied and resisted.
She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before and if she had submitted to his command… But she could not realize why or how she should yielded, feeling as she then did” (Chopin 42). As she refused to do as her husband ordered, she empowered herself and began her journey to independence. For the first time, she challenged what her husband had demanded of her and did not understand why she had not done this before. Edna was beginning to fall in love with Robert and uncovering her ignorance towards her own needs and desires.
Edna’s newly discovered romance was where it became clear that she was undergoing independence. By admitting her feelings for Robert, she was claiming her prerogative of a love she had never for her husband (Smith np). Their affair was intimate in the emotional sense, but Robert left before the relation escalated into anything physical. Upon his return, Edna revealed to Robert her increase in confidence by kissing him first. For a woman to be bold enough to initiate the first kiss was very uncommon.
Thus, she was had completely disregarded the precedents society had created and had displayed her new found confidence. After gaining this new feeling of freedom and confidence, Edna became more self-reliant and bought a home with the money she earned selling her paintings; moving out of the house she shares with her family. Chopin wrote, “… Edna wrote a charming letter to her husband, telling him of her intention to move for a while into the little house around the block” (Chopin 110). She told her husband of her decision, but did not ask for his permission, for it was her money and her choice.
By not asking for approval from the man of the household she proved her independence. Much like Edna, Chopin developed an independent lifestyle. She grew up with the mindset that women were intelligent and confident beings who were allowed to express themselves as they please. Contrary to her opinion, a vast majority of society only saw women as decorations for men to flaunt and control (Smith 1). To convey her opinion, she wrote the novel The Awakening. The purpose of this novel was to acknowledge that women are their own beings and not an extension of their husbands.
In the 1800s it was a normality for women to be treated as employees and handled if they were to stray from their job description as a wife and mother (Smith 2). Like the majority of wives, Edna Pontellier was no exception to this precedent. In the earlier stage of her awakening, Edna refused to go to her sister’s wedding. Her husband, Leone Pontellier, was following the advice of a doctor and allowing Edna to do as she pleased. Edna’s father was not keen of Leone approach and said, “You are too lenient, too lenient by far, Leone,” asserted the Colonel. Authority, coercion are what is needed.
Put your foot down good and hard; the only way to manage a wife. Take my word for it” (Chopin 96). Chopin’s opinion of wives, and women in general, contradicted that of Edna’s father and society. She did not believe that women were to be managed, for they are their own human beings and cannot be controlled by others. “The backbone of the story’s conflict, is Edna’s willingness to defy social conventions” (Smith). She used Edna to voice her purpose by allowing her to embody the social ideals for which women like Chopin strived for (Sprinkle).
Early in the novel, Chopin revealed her belief of how women should be seen through Edna’s thoughts. “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 17). From this one quote it was evident that Edna’s story was Chopin’s contribution to the feminist movement. Chopin already knew that all humans, men and women, were their own beings, but used Edna’s epiphanies as a method of announcing her views and opinions.
In addition to announcing her belief, Chopin supported it by using a judgmental tone toward the characters that supported the prejudice rules of society. In The Awakening, Edna had a close friend named Madame Ratignolle. Although she was the epitome of a perfect mother and wife, Chopin often had a tone of judgement. Chopin was a good mother who cared for her children dearly, but also made a point to care for herself. Madame Ratignolle contradicted Chopin’s theme of independence, for she concerned herself more on the wellbeing of her family than her own (Smith 1).
Edna watched as Madame Rationale’s children ran to her, “Two of them clung about her white skirts, the third she took from its nurse and with a thousand endearments bore it along in her own fond, encircling arms. Though, as everybody well knew, the doctor had forbidden her to lift so much as a pin” (Chopin 27). Even though exerting such energy by lifting up her child is detrimental to her health, Madame Ratignolle upholds her motherly duties to her children by disregarding her own welfare. Evidently, Chopin used a judgmental tone to show that Madame Ratignolle held to maternal values rather than valuing oneself.
This unflattering tone expressed Chopin’s beliefs that women of society needed to become more aware of thy self. Earlier she used symbolism and wordplay to compare women like Madame Ratignolle to the caged bird she mentioned in her opening sentence. Chopin wrote, “The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin 10).
In the first sentence, there was caged parrot with fluttering wings that could only speak in repeated sentences (Smith 2). These women, in the eyes of society, were viewed as the perfect wife while Chopin saw them as prisoners confined by the outdated precedents of their time. They would repeat and support the opinions of their husbands, yet never deliberate on their own thoughts. Consequently because of her upbringing, Chopin could not agree with nor accept the idea of a woman being complacent with the notion of giving up her identity in order to uphold the standards that society classified as a good wife and mother.
Despite the fact that Edna was a fictional character from one of Chopin’s novels, the two had many similarities between them. For instance, both Edna and Chopin were judged and denounced for their thoughts and ideas by society. “This set her apart as a unique, but ultimately too potent writer in a literary period that had not yet awakened to the more modern notions of feminism” (Smith 1). Similar to Chopin’s rejection, Edna was not supported by all in her journey of rebirth.
People such as her husband, father, and Madame Ratignolle condemned Edna for thinking for herself instead of her family, just as critics had condemned Chopin when she wrote The Awakening (Sprinkle np). Unlike Chopin, Edna was not always surrounded by an open environment and taught to express herself and her thoughts (Smith 1). Her first encounter with the Creole women at Grand Isle took Edna by surprise, “Their freedom of expression was at first incomprehensible to her, though she had no difficulty in reconciling it with a lofty chastity which in the Creole woman seems to be inborn and unmistakable” (Chopin 12).
As a result of being surrounded by bold, confident woman, Chopin did not have to endure the same soul searching quest Edna did (Smith 1). She used Edna to portray the ideals of individualism (Smith 2). Although Edna highlighted many of Chopin’s values, some slight differences were evident. To summarize, in The Awakening, Chopin described the events of a woman’s life after she realized she desired independence. As a child, Chopin was taught to be self-reliant and strong by the women who raised her, and was a firm believer in women’s rights.
She used characterization, like actions and thoughts, of Edna to describe her progression in independence. To imply that there is nothing wrong with women striving for independence and their own identity, Chopin created an atmosphere of judgment toward the stereotypical housewife. To express her belief that women are allowed to have their own identity apart from their children and husbands, Chopin wrote the novel The Awakening. In turn, she created the bold, enlightened Edna Pontellier. “
