Edna’s Choice in Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay

Edna’s Choice in Kate Chopins The Awakening The text of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening often makes Edna Pontellier appear selfish and unfeeling, especially towards her children. Chopin does, however, allow for the possibility that Edna’s final act may be one of unselfish love for her children. It is Edna’s inability to assume the role society has chosen for her that leads her to act as she does. Edna really had no other choice in the end. It is very easy to perceive Edna as a selfish, cold, unfeeling woman. Chopin gives many examples in the text that lead the reader to feel no sympathy towards Edna. She is often indifferent to her husband’s affections, a cause of concern for Mr. Pontellier: He thought it very discouraging†¦show more content†¦Edna honestly was fond of her husband, being forced to admit that she knew of none better when the other ladies exclaimed what a wonderful husband he was (15). Here, it is evident that she truly does appreciate his good qualities. Of even greater concern to Mr. Pontellier is his wife’s failure as a mother: It was something he felt rather than perceived, and he never voiced the feeling without subsequent regret and ample atonement (16). As stated in this passage, Leonce felt guilty when pointing out his wife’s shortcomings as a mother. This did not, however, prevent him from doing so. When Leonce, upon returning home from an evening out, looks in on the children, he admonishes Edna for not noticing that Raoul has a fever. He scolds her for neglecting her children, as if she were hired help. Edna then goes herself to check on her son, but never reveals whether he truly had a fever or not. It’s quite possible that he did not. The narrator only gives Leonce’s viewpoint of the event, which may have been his reaction to her inattention to him at that moment. Though he professes his love for his children, Leonce spends even less time with the children than Edna. This is, however, accep table to him and society. Edna does genuinely love her children. She doesn’t realize this because she has never known love in her life, never formed an emotional attachment with another person. For this reasonShow MoreRelatedEdna Pontellier as a Feminist in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening765 Words   |  3 Pagesto fight back against the norm. This never-ending war is responsible for major advancements in the social order, but not every story is so successful. In Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Awakening†, Edna Pontellier finds herself fighting this very battle that, although begins with a positive outlook, ultimately ends in her demise. Throughout â€Å"The Awakening†, Edna is immersed in a constant clash with society over the significance of the difference between her life and her self. To Edna, the question of whetherRead MorePersonal Demoralization In The Awakening1561 Words   |  7 PagesPersonal Demoralization in The Awakening To demoralize someone is to dishearten or discourage them and cause them to lose hope. 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Specifically, she argues that Edna is seeking what Chopin’s contemporaries denoted self-ownership, a notion that pivoted on sexual choice and â€Å"voluntary motherhood†Read MoreDemoralization In The Awakening1584 Words   |  7 PagesTo demoralize someone is to dishearten or discourage them and cause them to lose hope. Kate Chopin uses words like â€Å"depressed† (56), â€Å"hopeless† (56) and â€Å"despondency† (p115) to describe Edna, the heroine, in The Awakening. Coupling this description with Edna taking her life at the end of the novel and Chopin’s own inferred demoralization, due to the almost universal aversion to The Awakening, the natural c onclusion is that it is a work of â€Å"great personal demoralization†, (Companion 5) as MichaelRead More The Awakening: America Was Not Ready For Edna Pontellier Essay1868 Words   |  8 Pageswas much on the public mind (Culley 117). 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Kate Chopin creates a character named Edna who is coming to herself about who she truly is. In the story Edna, the woman, moves everything out of her path, in a very rebellious fashion, in order to grow as an individual. Chapter 19 of â€Å"The Awakening† is the midway point of the story. This chapter is Edna’s breaking point, where she comes to the realization that she does not need to follow the ways of society. Read MoreEssay about The Awakening1491 Words   |  6 Pages The Awakening nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, was written in the late nineteenth century in St. Louis after her husband Oscar died of a severe illness. Her book appeared in 1899, after she was idolized by many novels written by Darwin and Sarah Orne Jewett. Her first attempts at writing were just brief sketches for a local newspaper that was only short descriptions of her life in Louisiana. However, Chopin’s interests had always run along more risky linesRead More Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening808 Words   |  4 Pages Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Margit Stange makes a series of meaningful connections between Kate Chopin’s dramatization of Edna Pontellier’s â€Å"awakening† and the historical context of feminist thought which Stange believes influenced the novel. Part of understanding Edna’s motives and Chopin’s thinking are Stange’s well-chosen references to the contemporary ideology that shapes Edna’s thinking and her choices. Stange argues that Edna is seeking the late-nineteenth-century