ipl-logo

Societal Norms In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

950 Words4 Pages

The Awakening by Kate chopin is a thought-provoking feminist novel that explores the complexities of female identity and the implications of limiting an entire group of people into a singular role. Edna, the novel’s protagonist, defines her place as a woman in a society where the very word itself is tied to constricting social expectations as she pushes the boundaries of societal norms.
The overarching theme of the book is Edna’s longing for freedom and search for self-identity. Throughout the novel, Edna longs to break free from the societal expectations that confine her to a predetermined role as a wife and a mother. Edna’s awakening is the realization that she is not - and has never been - truly free. This discovery leads her to question …show more content…

The author writes, “She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.” (Chopin 73), showing the correlation between liberation and the water, and as she becomes more comfortable in the water, she feels more and more a sense of freedom and liberation. This newfound confidence and self-assurance marks a shift in the novel as Edna’s tone shifts as she begins to question the stifling societal norms that have constrained her. She realizes that she has been living her life according to someone else’s expectations and desires, rather than her own. This realization is the catalyst for her to start exploring her own desires and needs, leading her on a path of self-discovery and ultimately, to her end. The night she learns to swim marks the beginning of Edna’s journey towards self-awareness and …show more content…

In her final act of self-determination, Edna chooses to end her life rather than return to the limited role of “wife” and “mother” that society views as contradictory with ‘human being.” Her death can be viewed as a victory over the societal forces that have opposed her throughout the novel. By choosing her death on her own terms, Edna achieves a level of freedom and autonomy that she was unable to attain in life. With the ending of the novel, Chopin comments on a society that gives women away to others, limiting their life to the choices of those around them. Chopin says through Edna that in such a society, the only life that a woman can choose is her

Show More
Related
687 Words | 3 Pages

As Edna is walking into the sea, Kate Chopin expands on the setting and states, “The water was chill, but she walked on. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long sweeping stroke” (176). The emphasis is placed on the water, explaining how it affected Edna. Kate Chopin utilizes anaphora to accentuate the choices Edna makes and how it defines the meaning of becoming aware and conscious of one’s self wellbeing over others. Furthermore, Kate Chopin continues with, “She went on and on.

Read More
906 Words | 4 Pages

I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me” (52). By calling her own life “unessential”, Edna recognizes that her roles in society as a wife and mother have never been characterized by any more than superficial behaviors and activities. After having an “epiphany” about her identity, Edna still understands her obligation to protect and care for her children, but now refuses to sacrifice her true, individual identity in the process. Edna’s awakening is evident in her desire to be her own person. She does not wish to be identified in relationship to other people, but rather to be valued for her own unique thoughts and

Read More
1266 Words | 6 Pages

Pontellier’s awakening. Throughout her journey we see her grow into the fully formed Edna taking her final leap but before she dives into her new ocean of opportunities we see her defy the limitations of a woman’s adroitness. This act may seem insignificant to our modern ideals but for a woman to attain knowledge equates to a woman demanding justification for her oppression. Edna’s determination and childlike characteristics can be noticed when she learned how to swim. Spending a full season determined to master a skill shows her persistence, a trait woman were not expected to have or want.

Read More
297 Words | 2 Pages

Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, is a story about a protagonist named Edna Pontellier. Throughout the novel, Edna is striving for some form of independence. However, she had no way to obtain it as she felt trapped by her marriage. Eventually, Edna was finally “awakened” and started to act on her discovery of her true-self. This true-self was one that did not live vicariously through her kids or her husband.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

As Edna swims into the ocean, “the voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude” (Chopin 12). The ocean is Edna’s only form of escape from the society that doesn’t allow her to experience freedom. Because she is living in such a male dominated world, swimming out to see is her final expression of autonomy, as her death is the one thing she feels she has complete control over. Therefore, the ending of The Awakening, is obscure in order to emphasize that Edna’s deathis not a result of her own desire to commit suicide, but as a response to the confromity of the world she is living

Read More
668 Words | 3 Pages

Edna went to go swimming, but she had suicide in mind rather that swimming. As she was walking towards the beach she thought to herself, “The Children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude them.” (Chopin 159). In order for Edna to defeat the societal norms and not be bound in chains from her husband and traditional womanhood; Edna had to leave her motherly role in the family and she stubbornly went against the expectations of her husband and society.

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

Edna fully understands that society would brand her as a terrible woman, but she does not view herself as a bad person. There is an external and internal difference that Edna hopes to one day reconcile. Chopin, instead of creating tension within Edna, created tension within the society and Edna with her newfound independence does not mind how society classifies her. Decisively, it can be concluded that the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning builds the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period.

Read More
467 Words | 2 Pages

Her ability to swim starts in chapter 10, and ironically Edna’s happiness then eventually leads to her bismal ending in chapter 39. Another interesting example is Edna’s relationships with Arobin and Robert, where Edna chooses to act rebellious and choose her own terms for two affair-like relationships. Either case, Edna felt “as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to took upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up of beauty and brutality” (Chopin 84). Her relationships tore her emotions apart, but in the process angered and falsely strengthened her; this is an example of the “masking” of her characteristics. In reality, Robert and Arobin

Read More
1386 Words | 6 Pages

The other reason makes Edna realize her own self is swimming, as if a release to her. Refer to what she said in the novel, to beyond other women, it can express that her aspiration on being alternative and get rid of the constraint from the society. Also that is the first body contact with Robert, she find herself in the ocean, and there is the place she longing, also aware of the freedom. Robert, is a boy she falls in love with, yet she aware of that, if she marries to Robert, her future just same as now, she will lose her freedom.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

The images of birds and the ocean are used to show the harsh standards placed on Edna and other women in the nineteenth century. As illustrated in The Awakening, the ocean is a symbol of rebirth and revival. While at Grand Isle, Edna is one of the only vacationers who can not swim. The water is as unfamiliar to Edna as her neighbors’ culture and way of openly expressing themselves.

Read More
1074 Words | 5 Pages

Edna comes to realize that even with all this freedom that she currently possesses while she is in the water, in the long run she will always be within the man dominant society that will bring her down whenever they can which causes her senses of freedom and liberation to weaken which ultimately evokes fear and ends up breaking the metaphorical barrier that she had initially created to blockade herself from the same society makes her want to be an independent woman. All in all, Edna feels overwhelmed with all the freedom that she achieved by taking risks, which is the reason why she is unable to follow her dreams of being an individualistic

Read More
1315 Words | 6 Pages

In the story, the only place where Edna could experience freedom and find her awakening was the sea. Thus, when she commits suicide one can see how the sea was the root for Edna finding her self-discovery. Through suicide individuals can see how it was the only escape for a woman who was living under oppression. Suicide not only shows that oppression was impossible to escape for a woman, but at the the same time it shows that suicide was the only way

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

It is assumed by some critics that the mother Edna becomes is based on the teachings of her harsh father (Streater 412). Realizing that the mother she has become is tin fact the sole reason of her existence, Edna, swims out far into the sea and does not return (Gray

Read More
977 Words | 4 Pages

Edna’s sense of self is further diminished by the way society treats her. She is expected to act as a passive and submissive wife and mother. She becomes very curious about her self-identity and searches for it throughout the novel. As the novel progresses, Edna begins to realize that she is not satisfied with the life she is living. She starts to question the purpose of her existence, and her dissatisfaction with her life becomes more apparent.

Read More
1176 Words | 5 Pages

Edna’s realization is that she is not a typical woman. She has specific wants and needs for herself that will be impossible to be met if she continues with the lifestyle she is currently living. She knows she can not support Leonce or their children in the ways society feels she should, so she decides mutually with Leonce to move out of the family house and live on her own… away from the kids, and away from Leonce. It is a time that she will really get to try to figure herself out. While she is away she starts experimenting sexually, not only with other men, but even with other women.

Read More

More about Societal Norms In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Related Topics

Open Document