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Edna Pontellier's Character In 'The Awakening'

1283 Words6 Pages

McKenna Martin
Mrs. Schroder
AP Literature
3 January 2018
The Awakening Outside Essay - 1999 Prompt The Awakening showcases Edna Pontellier, a housewife residing in New Orleans, Louisiana during the early 1900s. Edna Pontellier is married to Leonce Pontellier and they have two sons together. Edna is consumed in internal conflicts throughout the entire novel. She is trying to find herself in a society where she has many duties and responsibilities. From the beginning of the novel, there is a sense of tension between Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier. Mrs. Pontellier is first seen with a man named Robert coming from the beach and when she gets back, Mr. Pontellier hands her rings back to her. An aura of suspicion settles in as we see Mrs. Pontellier …show more content…

Adele has her sewing and Madame Reisz has her piano playing. One day, Edna agrees to go swimming with Robert. This experience awakens something inside her. She realizes swimming in the sea is some kind of escape for her. She can forget about all her responsibilities as a wife and a mother for a little while and just focus on herself. After swimming successfully, she develops feelings for Robert. After this awakening, Edna starts to step back and rethink her entire life; her marriage, her role, and even herself. She realizes she feels sort of imprisoned in this life she has had for so long. Edna finally starts doing things for her, she is letting herself feel an attraction for another man even though she is married and she also gets into art and has everyone in the house model for her. Rather than doing things to get the house ready for her husband or spending time playing with her children, she is distracted by all her newly found …show more content…

Edna broke free from the mold of her society. She was trying to find her purpose and her worth in a world where she did not have many rights or individual stability. Edna Pontellier worked to disregard the influence and power of men and society as a whole to discover more about herself and what she really wanted out of life (Bommarito). She gave up the “unessential” such as her home, possessions, and reputation to do things for

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I grew up hearing the saying that a little girl could have an old soul, or that someone is well beyond their years. These sayings are popular to societies, because they try to explain why certain individuals differentiate from the acceptable norms in ways that may be more complicated than just personality traits. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is no exception. Her society’s expectations differ from who she is and how she is willing to act so that she would fit in. Chapter one of The Awakening begins the story with several examples of how Edna does not fit in with her society.

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The Awakening took place in the year 1899 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The protagonist of this novel was Mrs. Edna Pontellier, a married woman of twenty-six who was trapped in an unhappy marriage. Due to the expectations of this time, it would have been impossible for Edna to divorce her husband and be fully independent, so instead she was forced to be the model housewife who didn't even know that she should desire freedom; however, as the novel progressed, Edna realized her love for her closest companion, Robert Lebrun, while he was away in Mexico. Edna's love grew in his absence, and as this love helped her dismiss the confines of her marriage, her feeling of independence was kindled, which resulted in her moving into a separate house from

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This married woman with two children had inadvertently fallen in love with another man. Although he leaves, Robert is the most important part of Edna's awakening. He is the one who gives her the love that her own husband will not. She starts to truly blossom when she falls for Robert. After he leaves, she often goes to Madame Lebrun's home to look at Robert's baby pictures.

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Edna Pontellier possessed something rich and unworthy. Edna’s disregard for the individuals and society’s opinion did not force her to remain oppressed in the parrot’s cage nor become reluctant to the ocean. Edna’s heroic individualism liberated the chains that plagued her from flying and swimming into freedom and the discovery of Edna’s identity. All individuals experience various sorts of transitions in their life, whether it’s emotionally, physically, or mentally. It was Edna Pontellier’s journey of a thousand miles, new experiences and beginnings that led to the benefit of self- rule and sovereignty.

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Since he sees Edna as a valuable object, he expects her to be the perfect wife model in return- take care of the house, be very caring for their children, and keep up with the creole social standards that he sees necessary. “It would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define to his own satisfaction or anyone else's wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children.” (9). Being the perfect husband in the Creole culture it makes it very easy to focus on his wife's character and her process of self

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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

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This daring, adventurous desire stemmed from her husband, Mr. Pontellier, and his overbearing, possessive nature. This rebirth occurs, and over time Edna feels like herself, able to make her own decisions. Feeling alone, the “space and solitude” of the ocean emphasizes how Edna is different from the others in her society and seems rebellious to her husband (55). The freedom that

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Edna continually questions whether or not she is destined to live a life of subordination or if she can find her own freedom. Edna Pontellier’s defiant nature is brought out

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Awake and Aware Birds are symbols of freedom flying high above society's grasp, unlike Edna Pontellier in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Edna and her husband Leonce Pontellier vacation at Grand Isle, a high society island in New Orleans. Robert Lebrun innocently dedicates himself to a different woman every summer and Edna peaks his interest as she attempts to break away from the social confines she is enveloped in. As Edna and Robert become infatuated, she also begins to search for self liberation and is surrounded by the ocean and birds in her journey to self discovery. The recurring symbolism of birds and the ocean demonstrate the progression of Edna Pontellier’s freedom.

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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

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Edna, like many other women at this time, finds herself forced into a box by society; she must be a loving wife and caring mother, while aiming for nothing more. Edna however, finds herself unable to conform to this and constantly challenges her responsibilities. During her search to break away from society, Edna began to feel as though there was no one who could understand her. However, from her prior experiences with Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna is aware that are can serve as a method of expression and begins to use it as such. Before this, Edna merely dabbled in art for her own enjoyment.

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