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Mothers In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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There are different types of mothers in this world. Kate Chopin states that Edna Pontellier is “not a mother-woman”. What does this mean? A mother-woman is one who makes sacrifices and devotes her life to their children and husband. A mother-woman never puts herself before her children. Edna loves her children but she isn’t type of mother who worries excessively or “babies” her children.
Edna’s husband Leonce questioned her devotion to the children. One evening Leonce was concerned that one of the children had a fever. Edna didn’t rush to the child because she was sure he didn’t have a fever. Leonce had to re-approach Edna due to her inattention and neglect of the children (Gilbert & Gubar, p. 1257). Edna doesn’t over react when the children get bumps or …show more content…

Edna isn’t as happy being a wife and mother as the other women. Unlike the other women, she doesn’t let her marriage or children enslave her. She starts to pull away from her responsibilities and has instances of rebellion against the stereotypical housewife and mother. At one-point Madame Ratignolle is sewing winter clothing for her children, while Edna is painting. She isn’t worried about winter; she wants to enjoy her summer.
Throughout the story she has several experiences that stir the emotions inside her. One of those instances was after listening to mademoiselle Reisz play the piano Chopin states “But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body” (Gilbert & Gubar, p. 1273).
After she and her family return to New Orleans she gets more serious about her painting. She also starts to go to the track. She eventually moves out of the house with money she earned by selling her paintings and her earnings at the track. She thoroughly enjoys her independence. She was urged by her friend Madame Ratignolle to think of the children, but she

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She even committed suicide due to the fact of how badly she needed to free herself from the Creole lifestyle. Edna, a remarkable lady in a sense, rebelled against the norms of society to openly be herself. People like Edna, or people brave enough to take a chance to change societal norms, come rare to find, especially during the late 1800’s. Edna never agreed to anything she did not want, after the marriage to Leonce, and was quite straight-forward with her desires. Edna, ideally, is a great role model to look up to in today’s world for filling that brave, young woman role to not let society shape her, despite the few occurrences she had intimate moments with multiple men or her carelessness towards her children.

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Edna is not a motherly woman because she never puts her children as her first priority. Edna sends her children to their grandmother’s house to get some

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We had the authors of The New Housekeeper’s Manual explain how a mother should act. They explained that, “She has a husband, to whose peculiar tastes and habits she must accommodate herself; she has children whose health she must guard, whose physical constitutions she must study and develop, whose temper and habits she must regulate, whose principles she must form, whose pursuits she must guide” (Beecher 221). Edna clearly does not follow this principle. Mr. Pontellier stated that, “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?"

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His life revolves around his work. To him, Edna is more of a possession than a human being. He expects Edna to take care of the children and everything around the house while he is off doing business. Although Leonce does not agree with Edna's parenting skills, he does not take it upon himself to do better for the children either. He

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With no children shrieking, or large women singing, she feels at peace in the silent solitude. Chopin uses the characters Mademoiselle Reisz and Madame Ratignolle to foil Edna and highlight her two lifestyle paths as a woman. In the pursuit of redefining her identity, Edna Pontellier struggles to deny her previous self as a mother, while also transforming into an independent individual, ultimately proving that a woman in the late 19th century cannot truly escape societal conventions. The initial description of all three women immediately sets them up in contrast.

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When Edna is going to the beach with Madame Ratignolle, she starts getting lost in her thoughts about the time she “was running away from prayers” and how she was a “little unthinking child in those days” (20). The fact that Edna was thinking about her past, gives the story a sense of suspense because she is thinking about the time when she was free to do anything and she had no

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Morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable are just a few descriptors used by critics to describe Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Chopin is amongst the first feminist writers of the twentieth century writing two novels and about a hundred short stories, most of which the protagonist is a woman. Although Chopin wrote other short stories that were considered controversial none of them received as much criticism as The Awakening. Set in the late nineteenth century the story follows Edna Portellier who has been awakened to her own desires and even though she has a husband and children she decides to pursue those yearnings.

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Moreover, when her children tumbled, she will not pick them up just let them get up on their own. In contrast to Adele, Edna is not contributing herself to her family as well as Adele. Edna tries to fit in as the role to be a good mother, but, she cannot definitely, to be a mother-woman cannot fulfill her eagerness to be a special, independent and egocentric person. In Chapter XVI, Edna said to Adele, she would give her money and her life to children, but never herself. And that is what she is trying to understand and recognize.

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Her frequent vacations to the island, like her frequent dips into the ocean, begin to spark a personal change within the woman. A Creole man, Robert, shows Edna a new dimension of feelings she never knew she lived without, and she begins to look through life through a new lens. Having been awakened for the first time, she sees injustice and mistreatment where she saw none before. Chopin uses Edna’s new observations and reactions to the culture around her to illustrate the myriad ways women were marginalized. In an ironic twist, the white woman from Kentucky proves to be more liberated than her more traditional husband, who grew up

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Unlike Edna, Adele would do anything for her children. This shown when, as Adele is giving birth, she leans over to Edna and whispers into her ear, “Think of the children Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!” (111).

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At the beginning of the novel, Edna had appeared to be recognizing the fact that her life revolves around her husband and her children, and that it is her main duty to care for them. It is mainly Mr. Pontellier, her husband, who tries to establish an image of her being a both a perfect partner and wife. He views her as an object that must be suitable for the eyes of society. According to him, his wife is a “valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin 2). He is controlling over her appearance and actions.

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Edna and Adele are both upper- class women, they are married Creole men and they have children, they both live in the Creole neighborhood. Edna and Adele both enjoy creative activity “ she had possession of the rocker and she was busily engaged in sewing, she had brought the pattern of the drawers for Mrs. Pontellier to cut out” (17). Edna was drawing while Adele was sewing, However, Adele is a more typical wife of the nineteenth century, she accepts the motherly role as she makes clothes for her children and seems to enjoy her life as a mother. Edna, on the other hand, does not share the same affections, she said to Adele “ I would give my money, I would not give up my life for my children”(79).

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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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And with Leonce and the children’s absence, Edna branches off even further buying her own house and sustaining herself with a small income from her paintings. This allows Edna to gain even more independence from her household, children, and spouse, to the point that she has gone against the female submission rule in societies conventions. On the other hand, Adele is obedient and submissive to her household, husband, and children, rarely leaving the premise of her house. Because of Adele being the “mother-woman”(p.8) and following societies conventions, she is granted very little freedom as she can’t leave her house because of the duties she is expected to complete on a day to day basis. Adele’s obedience and Edna’s defiance contraste each other, effectively highlighting the themes of female submission and female freedom within the

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