The Awakening By Kate Chopin Analysis Essay Example

about “collision between Edna's [the protagonist of the novel] romantic desires & actual circumstances” (First Chopin Lecture).

In the novel we find different shades of romance which includes genuine romantic love, love of a wife to her husband and awakened erotic feelings. Following 19th century tradition, first take a look at Mrs. Pontellier as a wife of her husband, a typical for that time image of a respectable woman. She had a husband: … a man of forty, of medium height and rather slender build […] his hair was brown and straight, parted on one side. His beard was neatly and closely trimmed (Chopin, Chapter I). Their marriage, though granted them with two children was: purely an accident […] He fell in love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and an ardor which left nothing to be desired. He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which fancy she was mistaken (Chopin, Chapter VIII). Was it a protest or just a way to survive but Edna married this man booking this way a: … place with a certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams (Chopin, Chapter VIII).

She was a typical woman of that time whose main goal was a successful marriage and a position in society as a wife of her husband. It was just a rational marriage from her side, she wasn’t much into cordially passionate feelings, she was more concerned about trivial things, that was

the way a lot of woman was supposed to behave at that time, for “she liked money as well as most women, and, accepted it with no little satisfaction”(Chopin, Chapter III). Edna was not the prettiest one but: her eyebrows were a shade darker than her hair. They were thick and almost horizontal, emphasizing the depth of her eyes.

She was rather handsome than beautiful. Her face was captivating by reason of a certain frankness of expression and a contradictory subtle play of features. Her manner was engaging (Chopin, Chapter II). She was busy both with the domestic trifle routine work “giving orders in a high key to a yard-boy whenever she got inside the house, and directions in an equally high voice to a dining-room servant whenever she got outside” (Chopin, Chapter I) and her devoted love to painting. She was noticed by male representatives of the surrounding her circle, for her charm: … stole insensibly upon you.

The lines of her body were long, clean and symmetrical; it was a body which occasionally fell into splendid poses; there was no suggestion of the trim, stereotyped fashion-plate about it […] the noble beauty of its modeling, and the graceful severity of poise and movement, which made Edna Pontellier different from the crowd (Chopin, Chapter VII). Always by her side helping and accompanying her “Robert brought the emotional aspects of her inner troubled world to the surface, stimulating her desire for love, intimacy and the ecstasy of romance” (Domestic Goddesses).

A romantic feeling awoke inside of her heart, feeling that overwhelmed her and left all the outside vanity far away, it was

as a fairy-tale mystery. Both of them forgot the triviality of routine Victorian life and spend time: …chatted incessantly: about the things around them; their amusing adventure out in the water-it had again assumed its entertaining aspect; about the wind, the trees, the people who had gone to the Cheniere; about the children playing croquet under the oaks, and the Farival twins, who were now performing the overture to "The Poet and the Peasant. (Chopin, Chapter II). With the new emotions appeared the feeling of self-accession. Edna realized that she had a right for a romantic love, true one that made her redesign her image of world surrounding her. She saw the beauty of the world differently, she started to cherish it and enjoy. She noticed that: The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation (Chopin, Chapter VI).

In the state of that double-edged emotional awakening she changed greatly as if her regular obligation became minor, together with feelings of anguish, troubled dreams, intense heart beats, the delight of feeling male arms folding around her body she started to see herself belonging to herself being nobody’s property but her own which was a step against the moral conception of Victorian age. The change was obvious and shocking within her mind when her husband “reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children” (Chopin, Chapter II): Mrs.

Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as

an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight—perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman (Chopin, Chapter VI). What about Mrs. Pontellier’s motherhood? Indeed she cared for her children and was ready to sacrifice her life for them but she wouldn’t give herself, for the change in her bore that something which she was just beginning to comprehend:

She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. […] Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her. (Chopin, Chapter VII). What chances were for Robert to win his love when in the eyes of God, people and the law Edna was a married Victorian woman. He considered her thoughts of him as of a pleasant funny friend, he reflected upon it as: "Why shouldn't she take me seriously? " […] "Am I a comedian, a clown, a jack-in-the-box? Why shouldn't she? …] Am I always to be regarded as a feature of an amusing programme? […] If I thought there was any doubt—" (Chopin, Chapter X). Their feelings towards each other were the most romantic and marvelous issue of the novel, the fight for self-accession was softened with such a wonder of life as true mutual love. He became something that refreshed her life, something dear and so highly estimated. Beloved people can hardly live without

each other for a long time, so Edna missed him “just as one misses the sun on a cloudy day without having thought much about the sun when it was shining” (Chopin, Chapter X).

She saw him in every person surrounding her, every moment spend together was precious and “no multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire” (Chopin, Chapter X). But soon he was gone in business causing her torments and sorrow because “she regretted that he had gone […] it was so much more natural to have him stay when he was not absolutely required to leave her” (Chopin, Chapter XIV).

She was totally lost and bewildered of the feelings and her thoughts: The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded. (Chopin, Chapter XV). Edna's sexual instincts were awakened by Arobin. It was a continuation of the wonder that life slowly revealed before her mind.

She felt guilty spending time with Arobin, for being filthy he shamelessly tried to seduce her provoking highly erotic feelings in her body, “he aroused her sexual drives, fulfilled her need for a male figure to substitute for the absent Robert”. (Domestic Goddesses). That’s why she felt: … somewhat like a woman who in a moment of passion is betrayed into an act of infidelity, and realizes

the significance of the act without being wholly awakened from its glamour. The thought was passing vaguely through her mind, "What would he think? " (Chopin, Chapter XXV).

Strangely she remained herself about Robert at such a moment, though, she was supposed to think of her husband that way “her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse” (Chopin, Chapter XXV). The greatest joy filled her heart when Robert returned and what more he even was jealous of her once when they were together and: He picked up a photograph, and exclaimed: "Alcee Arobin! What on earth is his picture doing here? " (Chopin, Chapter XXX). Indeed all the awakened feelings changed her drastically even making others think that she was either ill or going crazy.

But all she wanted was freedom and nothing even love, respect and devotion could stop her from being no one’s property, for Robert on his proposal to be his wife, to belong to him completely received the answer that: "You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, 'Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,' I should laugh at you both. (Chopin, Chapter XXXVIII). She was starting her new life managing things the way she wants “without even waiting for an answer from her husband regarding his opinion or wishes in the matter” (Chopin, Chapter

XXIX), she was going to quit heir home on Esplanade Street and move into the little house around the block. Killing cruelty of the Victorian times was that Edna had a husband and Robert had no right to claim his will upon her. What about children and Mr. Pontellier's further life and reputation. The only was out he saw in leaving her.

It was cruel but he considered it to be the only way out of the situation. "Good-by—because I love you. " (Chopin, Chapter XXXIX) was his way to resolve their future. She was married, she had children and he wished her nothing but happiness. But that killed her. A new personality had been born inside her: … 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. […] They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul. (Chopin, Chapter XXXIX)

A tragic final is so typical for love that is too magnificent in its existence but so impossible in realization. The pressure of Victorian time made young females get married as quickly as possible leading with the fear of being old maids deprived of a respectable position in the Victorian society. Soon they realized that for a happy marriage mutual love is required. This caused strong desire to be free, to rescue oneself from being somebody’s property, that wouldn’t happen if marriages were based on mutual true love and appreciation of each other, respect and understanding.