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The Role Of Motherhood In The Awakening By Kate Chopin

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During the 1800’s most women were supposed to follow social standards, and one of them is getting married and having kids not just that but to also take care of them. Women during this time had to take care of their children and do the tasks they had to do throughout the day. Other women who wouldn’t follow these social standards would be looked different and viewed differently. In Kate Chopin’s book The Awakening, one of the topics that she discusses is motherhood. She compares Edna, Adele, and Mademoiselle Reisz with motherhood. Chopin in her book discusses about motherhood. She compares three women and how they are when it comes to motherhood. The main character of the story is Edna Pontellier who is married to Mr.Pontellier and has two children. Edna is described as a woman who is, “rather handsome than beautiful¨. When it comes to being a mother Edna is not the best mother. As stated, “In short, Mrs.Pontellier was not a mother women”(11). This is said because Edna isn’t one to be with her children all day even if she does love them dearly and she wasn’t one to always be taking care of her husband. She is like this because she didn’t want to follow the social standards and started to rebel. Another character that’s in the book is Adele. Adele is described as the …show more content…

She is a woman who doesn’t follow the normal etiquette. Madame Reisz is unmarried and has no children and she lives on her own. Madame Reisz is an artist that plays the piano, she also inspires and helps Edna to follow her dreams of becoming an artist. Madame Reisz is described as a, “disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost every one, owing to a temper which was self assertive and a disposition to trample upon other the rights of others,”(37). Madame Reisz is considered the odd one out because of the life style she chooses to live. She is an independent women that will hold down her position no matter

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2. Women 's Role in Society A."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?"(Paragraph 6,Section 3)At this time women didn 't have a large role in society, mainly: cleaning the house, looking after the kids, cooking, and entertaining/co-entertaining guests. This quote shows Edna not following this and being angry when Mr.

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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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This is evidence that Edna can work for what she wants and Mrs. Ratignolle will be content with where she is at in life. Edna is also seen as “rather handsome than beautiful,” while Mrs. Ratignolle’s beauty was all there” (page 7, 19). Adele Ratignolle is a prime example of a proper woman from this time period and it benefits in showing how special, different, and free-thinking Edna is. It seems that Edna is covetous of Adele Ratignolle and her husband’s relationship; however, the younger wife knows that she wants more to her life than just taking care of a family. These comparisons show how different Mrs. Pontellier is from the regular, household keeping, rule-abiding women of the time.

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In the reading, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Modernism, the main character Edna is being described without providing spoilers to the novel. One of the attributes explained is, “She is described as the antithesis of the “mother-woman”

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Women during Edna’s time were supposed to be dedicated to their husbands and children, however, Edna yearned for her own independence, and as a result of wanting her own independence Edna knew that she was seen as a terrible person. For instance Edna wanted to “…try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am. I must think about it" (27.4).

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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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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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Some of Edna’s most obvious decisions immediately question her weakness to handle pressure. Edna’s inability to show compassion and care for her children challenge this normalcy for a mother of the time period; Edna considered her children “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” (Chopin 115). The children almost seemed like a burden, or a detriment to her. Edna’s doctor visit nearly foreshadows this mindset, where the doctor notes that

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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?”

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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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“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” (Chopin 127). Edna will not allow her self to be chained to its natural and societal titles, and she commits suicide to free it from these definitions. In a final statement as to the universality of motherhood, Edna’s acceptance of death is also a rebirth. Nine months have passed since Edna’s enlightening summer in Grand Isle, and her fetus-self is ready to be delivered.

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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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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

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This socially constructed identity is the first of the many that Edna grapples with in the text. It is the identity of women within the time period of the text. In the words of Dix, Edna’s identity is meant to be that of a typical American wife who will control the home, children and entertain socially yet remain obedient to her working husband (146). ‘Looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property’ (Chopin 4). The

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Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women for many ways. Edna Pontellier is not a perfect mother because “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-women”(Chopin, 10). This quote means that Edna Pontellier is not a good mother/wife because she is not that of a women who would worship their children ,and their husband. Edna Pontellier is not a good mother because “I would give up the

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