Character Analysis: The Awakening

The Awakening: 1995 Essay Prompt

In this world where humans are creatures of habit, it is much easier to conform to a crowd and follow everyone else’s lead. One is much more likely to be judged and chastised for expressing individuality than for remaining a follower who does not think for him or herself. In The Awakening, as Edna Pontellier makes her way through the process of discovering herself through a spiritual awakening, she goes against the social norms and expectations that she is accustomed to, which ultimately leads to her alienating herself from all of the people around her.

During the time in which The Awakening was published, women were still for the most part expected to be seen and not heard. A woman’s job in life was to be

This man however, is not her husband. She arrives with Robert Lebrun by her side, a young man who is known to pursue and spend time with a different woman each summer. When Edna and Robert return, Edna’s husband, Leonce is waiting. He appears to take no notice to the fact that Edna is with another man, but instead scolds her for spending so much time in the sun. He then returns Edna’s wedding ring back to her that he had been holding while she was at the beach. Right away, it seems interesting that in this time period Edna is openly spending time with another man. Because of this, the audience is already given an idea that she is going to be different from the average woman. In addition, the fact that Edna took off her wedding ring when she went to the beach with Robert symbolizes how she does not want to think about Leonce or feel any guilt when she is with Robert, hinting to an affair. When the novel begins, it is already obvious that Edna is beginning to slip away from the social norms of that time. As the story progresses, she begins to rebel more and more, until she is completely alienated from those around her. Once Edna begins to spend more time with Robert, she starts to develop serious feelings for him, uncovering a bit of a wild streak. After her time with Robert, Edna decides she no longer wants to take calls on Tuesdays. Instead, she wants to spend her time

Throughout this entire experience, Edna becomes a parallel to the bird mentioned throughout the novel. In the beginning lines of the text, a bird is screaming in French as Leonce tries to read the paper. He tries to pay no attention to the bird and treats it as a loud annoyance. This bird may symbolize how Edna is objectified by Leonc throughout the novel. Even if she screams out to get his attention, Leonce sees Edna as an annoyance and tries to ignore her. More importantly, just as the bird who appears as a motif, Edna breaks out of her cage and begins to fly free. Eventually though, she breaks her wing and falls into the sea. After trying so hard to be different from everyone around her, Edna’s attempt to prove herself did not end as planned. In the process of her awakening, she lost all of the people that she once dedicated her life to. Trapped within social expectations, Edna managed to break free and develop into her own individual person, only to end up in solitude, isolated from those she left behind. Much different from the screaming bird in the beginning of the novel, Edna ends her life alone and in