Edna Pontellier In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

It is only within death that many of us may find peace. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier never felt as if she was missing out on anything in her life. She always knew that she felt differently from those around her, yet unsure as to why she felt that way. Spending a summer at the Grand Isle proved to be her downfall after she recognizes that there is no greater joy in life than finding what makes you truly happy. She did not wish to blindly be a doting mother and wife as encouraged. “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 13). Once she is awakened to the possibilities of living

Pontellier was forced to deal with the ideology that she was a bad person if she did not act as a mother should. Her husband, Léonce played the major role with his disapproval of how she took care of their two children. Early on in the novel, Edna’s husband believes that the children are sick, even after Edna stresses that they were fine all night. “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it is not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?” (Chopin 5). Léonce is set in the traditional ways that women are to be the caretakers of the household. By her not directly getting up to check on the children, he disapproves that she does not immediately recognize her duties. “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman” (Chopin 8). According to her husband’s beliefs, it was bad that his wife did not naturally assume this role. “They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals to grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin 8). Mr. Pontellier did not want her to recognize herself as a person, he wanted her to live only for him and his children as a devoted mother-woman should. Returning back home to New Orleans was met with constant fighting because of Edna’s new determination to become her own person. “Mr. Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain tact submissiveness in his life. But her

“She began to do as she liked and to feel as she liked. She completely abandoned her Tuesdays at home, and did not return the visits of those who had called upon her” (Chopin 56). Her newfound freedom and her lack of regard for taking care of her responsibilities was disconcerting to her husband. After stressing her desire to paint when she wished and not worry about pleasing anyone, Léonce’s reaction was “Then in God’s name paint! But don’t let the family go to the devil” (Chopin 57). Mr. Pontellier’s disapproval did little to dissuade her actions because “she had resolved never to take another step backwards” (Chopin 57). Edna is determined to take control of her life and spend her time how she wishes, instead of bending to the will of Léonce. Her husband became convinced that Edna was becoming mentally unstable because his wife was quickly turning into someone he did not recognize or want as a partner. After talking to Doctor Mandelet, he explains his distress by saying that “She’s got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women” (Chopin 65). He did not care that she was previously unhappy when it interfered with the duties of a mother and wife. Instead of telling her husband of her sadness, she sought out unconstrained growth. Edna often visited with her friends from the Grand