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Essay On Edna Pontellier's Suicide In The Awakening

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In the “Awakening”, the author, Kate Chopin broke the nineteenth century standards of the ideal woman through the main character Edna Pontellier which sparked a lot of controversy. Mrs. Pontellier throughout the book has a journey of self discovery, as an independent woman who rebels against the social norms by leaving her husband. Chopin reaches out to her audience of women, to stand up against the oppression that they served due to the roles that were pressed upon them as caretakers of the house and as accessories to their husbands. Kate Chopin ended “The Awakening” with the suicide of Mrs. Pontellier because that is how Chopin gave Mrs. Pontellier her freedom, a freedom and rebirth from the harsh society that many women had to live during those times. The ending of the book sparked a lot of controversy over the way that Chopin decided to Edna Pontellier to make Edna commit suicide. The book ends with the suicide of Mrs. Pontellier, but we can connect the death of the main character to Chopin herself who became a widow after her husband died leaving her with five children. It was after the death of her husband that Chopin began to write about the life of a married woman. Mrs. Pontellier’s death was a way of freedom from the shackles of being a mom and having to hide her love with Robert because she was married to her husband. In the story Chopin prepares the death of Edna through the use of symbolism by making her go naked into the water to portray Edna’s revival stating, “How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like a newborn creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.” As babies come naked into the word Chopin made …show more content…

It was through books like Chopin’s that we were able to take a leap into more equality between men and

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The Death of Edna Pontellier The struggles of Edna Pontellier throughout her everyday life in a society that she feels she doesn’t belong in, is developed through the writing of Kate Chopin. As her character develops, Edna’s final decision of suicide illustrates her defeat in the face of society. In, The Awakening, Kate Chopin employs poetic diction and anaphora to emphasize and illuminate Edna’s awakening and how her death positively affected her character development.

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Keaton Anderson Mrs. McClain AP Lang 24 October 2016 The Awakening Diction The author’s use of words generally have a strong contribution towards the story’s purpose. Several diction strategies are used throughout “The Awakening.” Kate Chopin’s purpose in “The Awakening” is to inform the reader about a 19th century woman who defies her role in society.

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Albert D. Saba Mr. Amoroso AP Literature Period: 3AP Topic: 1 LAP The Awakening A novel by Kate Chopin Will the chains and the unspoken pain unshackle through one’s heroic individualism? In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier becomes a heroic figure to herself as well as for women through the search of her self-identity.

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It is common for people in everyday society to conform to society’s expectations while also questioning their true desires. In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess, "That outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions." In other words, Edna outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Kate Chopin, uses this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning to build the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period. Edna outwardly conforms to society’s expectations by marriage.

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Lèonce Pontellier shows a lack of interest and enthusiasm for Edna and her hobbies. When Lèonce say’s ‘“What folly! To bathe at such an hour in such heat. ”’(Chopin 2) you are able to see Lèonce has a degree of frustration built up for his wife, Edna.

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In Kate Chopin’ s novel, The Awakening, there are three identities inside of the female leading role, Edna Pontellier, being a wife, mother and own self. Edna was born in 19th century at the Vitoria period, a patriarchy society, women have low freedom to achieve personal goal. She married with Léonce Pontellier, a wealthy man with Creole descent. After having a child, her life is still unchangeable and as bored as before. Until she encountered Robert Leburn, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Alcée Arobin, her value of self-cognition has changed.

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In the 1800’s, the societal niche of married women was clearly defined: they were meant to devote every aspect of their lives to their husbands and children. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, struggles to adhere to these standards, and eventually rebels against them. The harsh standards placed on Edna and other women in the novel are like the cages around the metaphorical birds Chopin uses to represent them. Edna's unhappiness in her societal role is realized in the ocean, which symbolizes this awakening and her attempt to escape the gender roles of the nineteenth century.

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Through Enda’s transformation, Chopin poses a question to the reader: Can one express complete individuality in a married relationship? Leonce Pontellier’s authority

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Edna Pontellier was only seen as a “valuable piece of property which [had] suffered some damaged” to her husband Mr. Pontellier (BOOK). One can also see that “The Awakening” also focused on the sexual desires of women, identity, and self-discovery Edna, a character in “The Awakening” experienced her awakening by discovering her identity in her own self. “The Awakening” attempts to tell the story a woman who wants to find herself while lusting. Later, at the end of the story, one discovers that since Edna Pontellier could not fully find her peace, and freedom she ultimately decides to commit suicide. Through this “The Awakening” shows that although women were oppressed, they also had empowerment.

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In Kate Chopin 's novel The Awakening and the short story “The Story of An Hour” feminist beliefs overshadow the value in moral and societal expectations during the turn of the century. Due to Louise Mallard and Edna Pontellier Victorian life style they both see separating from their husband as the beginning of their freedom. Being free from that culture allows them to invest in their personal interest instead of being limited to what 's expected of them. Chopin 's sacrifices her own dignity for the ideal of society’s expectations. Chopin 's sad, mysterious tone seems to support how in their era, there was a significant lack of women 's rights and freedom of expression.

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Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was written at the end of the nineteenth century, where many roles for women began to change; therefore, the it appears to have been a turning point for females (“The Role of the Wife and Mother”). These changes in female roles were mostly due to the actions of women themselves, motivated by their desires to break away from the limits imposed on their gender The nineteenth century was a critical point in time for women, in regards to their roles in society (“The Role of the Wife and Mother”). In The Awakening, Edna goes through noteworthy changes in the course of the novel, which reconstructs her into a woman who goes against societal ideals regarding motherhood and marriage . In the 1890s, motherhood was viewed

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Chopin empowers female sexuality by showing an woman who expresses sexual desire and lacks guilt and a legitimate excuse for the society, like men have been

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In The Awakening, Edna represents desire, impulse, and rebellion. While Adele represents the socially accepted woman, she is submissive, obedient, and a homemaker. This drastic contrast facilitates Chopin's emphasis on Edna’s rebellion, and how drastic it was for the time period. “Edna's experience of self-discovery, "tangled" and chaotic and therefore "vague" or hard for her to comprehend, touches upon a core issue, of individual variation and the uncertainty involved in its creation, expression, and consequences.” (Glendening).

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This novel, The Awakening, is about a woman named Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an independent human being. Also, Edna Pontellier refuses to obey against the social norms by leaving her husband Leónce Pontellier and having an affair with Robert Lebrun. Kate Chopin describes societal expectations and the battle of fitting the mold of motherhood in the Awakening by how Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle contribute to their family in different ways. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women. Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women.

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Kate Chopin wrote a story about Mrs. Mallard, a married woman who suffers from heart problems and also has to cope with her husband recent passing. Mrs.Mallard, she showed sincere grief about her husband passing. However, looking back at how controlling her husband Mr.Mallard were in their marriage, Mrs.Mallard felt a sudden joy when processing her husband death After her sudden emotional change, Mrs Mallard felt liberated when she started thinking about what her life would be like without Mr.Mallard, but regardless of the happiness she feels, she knows that once she sees her husband in corpse that sadness will return. Through her writing, author Chopin readers/ audience would be women who feel trapped and controlled in their marriage. Anger, loneliness and heartbroken are feelings that women who're coping with the death of their loved one feel.

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