In The Awakening by
Kate Chopin, readers are constantly reminded of womanhood disadvantage
throughout history. Edna Pontellier's constant use of both inward struggle and
outward conformity portrays the sad reality of Edna's life and every woman ever
to be born before or after her.
Every person lives in struggle from within.
contrasting thoughts, makes one think twice before acting, contrasting points
of views make one love a person for many reasons but hate them just as much for
other reasons. But the level of struggle that Edna suffered from within was
more than just feelings; it turned into her entire Awakening. And it is even
more fascinating to look at how this mental struggle, this internal crisscross Edna
goes through was quickly turned into rebellious actions like stomping on her
wedding ring but then putting it back on.
These actions are soon
turned into a dead end highway for the simple fact that Edna did not handle the
whole situation very well. Chopin’s intent to make Edna’s awakening a
rebellious one, soon turned to dust for the simple fact that the awakening
mirrored a teenage rebellious act, pinpointed against a part of society that
did not care how she changed mentally or emotionally, only how well she
performed as a mother, a wife, and a beautiful porcelain silent statue. Which
is why, only until about half of the novel, Edna did nothing but think about
all that she could be and all that she was missing out of because she was tied
to her children and husband- she did not even imagine to act upon her feelings
and thoughts until Robert left and she felt truly desperate to do something
other than sit around all day at home.
And in some way, the
sequence of radical rebellious acts she does when Robert leaves do not give her
an independent image; it just adds to the painting of her outward conformity.
because it tells readers that the conformity inside her had been building up so
much that she couldn’t think of another way to express her emotions to the
cube- minded society she lived with.
A wife through history
has always been seen as a trophy. A living certainty that two families will
join kingdoms or the oldest daughter of the richest merchant in the land, or
simply living proof that whoever marries her will have the most beautiful children
in the city. And in this case, the 1800’s, the idea of a wife was not at all
different from this one. That is why these two things happen to Edna at once:
she has always been trained to be silent and to follow her husband’s orders,
which makes her conform outwardly. But at the same time, her mental struggles
have been strengthened so long by the lack of outward communication that become
too large to keep within and that is why she acts upon them. Yet it is visible
how that controversy is fatal to the character, as Edna swims to her death out
in the ocean.
