Edna Pontellier of The Awakening: A Woman before Her Time
Summary:
Details how the three male characters in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" affect the awakening of Edna Pontellier, the main character.
Edna Pontellier is a woman of great needs. Although she has a husband who cares for her and two children, she is very unhappy. She plays her roles as a mother and wife often, but still keeps doing things unmarried, barren women should do: enjoy the company of other men, ignore her children's cries, dress unladylike for the times. The story is set in the late 1800's, when women were to be in the kitchen preparing a meal for their family, giving birth to more children to help with daily chores, or sitting quietly at home, teaching the children while the husband was at work. Edna Pontellier was a woman not of her time. At only 28, she would have rather been out gallivanting with different men, traveling with them, and painting whenever she got the urge. She could never have traveled with Robert, however bad she wanted to, because she was married. Divorce was unheard of. No one would want to marry a woman who had been married and divorced because she was spoiled or ruined. Not only would the men have shunned a divorced woman, many of the other women would have thought that the divorced woman was not filling her God-given role of a mother or wife. When Madame Ratignolle hears of Edna living alone and leaving her husband, she tells her that she "seems to [her] like a child" (Chopin, 127).
Two ways she does escape while still with her husband are her painting and her friendship with Madame Adele Ratignolle. Her friendship is refreshing and Edna learns a great deal from Madame Ratignolle. The madame is very expressive in her thoughts. It is suggested that this is because she is Creole. For Edna, being around Madame Ratignolle and her brash ways helps her to find out her true feelings. The strong friendship gives Edna the courage to express her desires and emotions that were buried before. Edna knows, as does her husband, that she will never be quite the wife or mother that most women become. She was pressured to marry Leonce by her father and older sister. Along with marriage came the pressure to have children. She is forced into these roles but never actually succumbs to them. Edna not only has Madame Ratignolle's friendship and her marriage to wake her up to her dreams and emotions, her affairs wake up to her desires. The way the different male characters treat her reminds her that she will never happily fit into the role of a wife and mother, therefore awakening her.
Leonce Pontellier was Edna's husband and the father of her children. Although she was married to him, it was not by her choice. Her oldest sister, who had stepped into the role as her mother when their mother died, and her father had the biggest say in whom Edna was to marry. "Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate" (23). In the 1800's, women were perceived as property. They were first the property of their fathers, then property of their husbands - whoever was chosen by the parents for the women to marry. Leonce was in love with Edna, and had been since they met. Although she never quite felt as strongly, she was "pleased" and flattered by "his absolute devotion" (24).
After they married, in spite of her unentertained heart, they had two boys. Many of the other women around her made their husbands and children their lives. Edna could not do this. Whether it was because of her free spirit or selfishness, she "wouldn't give [her]self" (62). Edna's husband was the provider of the family. He left early and came home in the late evening, working nine or ten hour days. Not only tradition, but him being the breadwinner of the family, made him the head of the household. Edna seemed to feel trapped by this and rarely ever accepted his authority. Leonce was not around as often as one might think a husband should be. He was at work or at Klein's hotel with the other New Orleans club men. When Leonce was actually around, Edna would have preferred to been somewhere else with someone else. The distance that was apparent in their marriage definitely had something to do with her unhappiness and, eventually, her suicide.
Robert Lebrun was one of the men Edna had an affair with. He turned out to be her only true love, even though she was married to another man. She tells him that she loves him and only him. Robert was spending the summer with his mother, Madame Lebrun. Edna was not the first woman that Robert entertains. He has a reputation of charming different women throughout his stays and, most of the time, they are married. Edna knows this but cannot help to appreciate his advances and eventually falls in love with him. When Madame Ratignolle asked Robert to "let Mrs. Pontellier alone," he laughed (26). He acts annoyed and is offended that Madame Ratignolle thinks of him as someone to not think of seriously. He is considered honorable when he leaves for Mexico, leaving behind Edna and what they had. Robert, however, is not honorable at all. He knew full well that Edna as well as the rest of the women he wooed were married. He still continued to make advances and spend time with the married women. Leaving Edna behind while he went to Mexico might have made Edna feel like she was to be unhappy forever. This contributes heavily to her awakening process.
Alcee Arobin is considered the town seducer. Edna is drawn to him because of her desires to be satisfied sexually. She manages to satisfy her needs and keep her independence from him. Arobin impresses her with not only his knowledge of the way around a woman, but with his horses at the lake. Unlike with Robert, Edna's affair with Arobin is emotionless. He had just moved into her own house and was feeling independent. Arobin walked her to her house after the dinner party. When he told her he was leaving, he did not move, "except to continue to caress her" (123). Edna does like his touch and continues the affair. His advances continued and eventually she became annoyed. His fondness and closeness help lead to her demise.
Throughout the story, Edna develops into a complicated character. In the beginning she seems to be just a woman who is displeased by her husband and feels trapped by her children. Through her many friendships and affairs, she develops into an uncaring woman. When she learns how to swim, it is like a birth for her. Even though her suicide is in the ocean, her life actually ended with her awakening. She began to push people away who loved her and get close to people who did not make any difference. Edna Pontellier was not of the 1800's, but of a more current time; a time when affairs, divorces, and suicides are more common. She may have ended up killing herself whether or not she was married, had children, or committed adultery, but the men in her life contributed greatly.
Work Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Bantam, 1899.
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