The Awakening: Edna Pontel
Kate Chopin�s The Awakening is a work of fiction that tells the story of Edna Pontellier, Southern wife and mother. This book presents the reader with many tough questions and few answers. It is not hard to imagine why this book was banished for decades not long after its initial publication in 1899. At that time in history, women did just what they were expected to do. They were expected to be good daughters, good wives, and good mothers. A woman was expected to move from the protection of her father�s roof to the protection of her husband. Edna didn�t fit this mold, and that eventually leads her husband to send for a doctor. It is here that Edna Pontellier says words that define The ...
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roles other than wife and mother.
Throughout the book Edna takes many steps to increase her independence. She sends her children away, she refuses to stay at home on Tuesdays (as was the social convention of the time), she frequents races and parties. Unfortunately, her independence proves to be her downfall.
Edna stays married because divorce was unheard of in those days. She wants to marry Robert, but he will not because it will disgrace her to leave her husband. No matter how much Edna exceeds social boundaries, she is held down by the will of others, despite what she wants. In today�s world divorce, sadly, is almost commonplace, but in her time she would have been an outcast of her society. By the end of The Awakening, Edna feels like a possession - of her husband, of her children, and of her society. The only solution she sees is to end her life, which she does by swimming out into the sea until her strength gives out. This is a very symbolic death.
I feel the theme of The ...
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"The Awakening: Edna Pontel." Essayworld.com. July 18, 2005. Accessed May 22, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Edna-Pontel/30258.
"The Awakening: Edna Pontel." Essayworld.com. July 18, 2005. Accessed May 22, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Edna-Pontel/30258.
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