Suicide In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul" (504).  Although Edna did perform her duties as a wife for some time, she is not the typical housewife.  She does not worship her husband or idolize her children, which makes both Edna and Leonce begin to sense that Edna is different from the other mother-women (Lin 1).  Edna never realized the reasons she neglected her duties as a wife until she fell in love with Robert and acknowledged that her desires and needs exist outside of her marriage.  Thus, after her experiences with Robert, Edna is ready to neglect her husband even more, because she now realizes that her husband is holding her back from her needs.  When Leonce tries to make Edna act like the other women that obey their husbands, his attempts to control Edna further instigate Edna's desire for independence from him.  For example, the scene when Edna is lying in the hammock, Leonce says: "I can't permit you to stay out there all night.  You must come in the house instantly," Edna replies: "I mean to stay out here.  I don't wish to go in, and I don't intend to.  Don't speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you" (492).  Edna is carefree and spirited, and she refuses to conform to her husband because she does not want to lose herself.  Becoming the perfect, obedient wife would mean losing her individuality, and Edna realizes she can gain no fulfillment

Edna's developing mannerisms suggest that she eventually becomes aware that Robert will never overcome the social conventions surrounding them. It is obvious that he views her as Léonce's belonging, strictly referring to her as “Mrs. Pontellier” throughout the book. Though Robert loves Edna, he cannot accept her as she wants to be accepted; as an equal. Instead, he wants to own her, and Edna understands that if she left Léonce for Robert, she would have not been anymore free with him than she currently was. She knows that, eventually, she will forget about Robert, and will no longer be trapped by her feelings for him. Instead, her children were what pushed her off of the edge.

Chopin uses revealing details to display a triumphant tone about independence to prove that in order to be truly satisfied in life, one must discover what they are really capable of and gain independence and individuality on their own. In the beginning of the story, Edna Pontellier struggles to find freedom in her life. She seems to be held back by her unsteady marriage with her husband, Léonce, and does not feel truthfully pleased with herself. She is rather unsure about her life and the people that she is surrounded by daily. “Every step she took toward relieving herself of obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to "feed upon opinion" when her own soul had invited her” (Chopin 94). Edna starts to enjoy her new life without her husband around. This specific movement towards freedom and individuality appears to be slightly unavoidable in Edna’s case, particularly because her husband has been away in New York for a while. However, she quickly adjusts to doing things on her

In the book “The Awakening”, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier struggles with her desire to be independent and to meet society’s expectations for women. Edna has difficulty expressing her internal struggles and, as a result, everyone who shares a close relationship with Edna suffers. Leonce, Edna’s husband, lives through a one sided-relationship and is completely unaware of Edna’s desire to be independent. Leonce frequently gives Edna valuable gifts in order to compensate for his emotional absence. However, this does not satisfy Edna’s desire to be independent, so she has an affair. Edna’s treatment of her husband is completely unjustified and weakens

The final reason for Edna’s escape from her troublesome life is the failure of her relationship with Robert. Edna was able to find some form of escape through her desire and hope of being with Robert, but when those plans fell through Edna feels as if she has nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for in life. Robert realizes that he and Edna will never be able to have a true

In the movie, we are left wondering how this man came to be in Edna's world. The movie does not show the development of the relationship at all. It does not speak of the pain that both Edna and Robert have to endure. In the novel, Robert loves Edna deeply, but he tries to deny his love because she is a married woman. It is what drives him to Mexico and back again. He says, "I couldn't help loving you if you were ten times his wife; but so long as I . . . kept away I could help telling you so." (Chopin 142) The movie does not address the pain and indecision that paralyze Robert and Edna. It treats their relationship as a lack of self-control based on lust and the heat of the moment.

however, defied from the responsibilities women have. A woman who is devoted to her family would: “idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels (Chopin 51).” At this time the norm of an upper class women was someone who took care of the kids, devoted to their husband, and made sure that everything was running smoothly with the staff and servants. However, Edna was different since she really does not like the responsibilities women have. Edna was simply not a motherly woman since she confesses: “ There 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

When Edna returns home later that day, she finds out that Robert is leaving for Mexico. She is rather upset with this news and afterwards leaves to go home. "She went directly to her room. The little cottage was close and stuffy after leaving the outer air. But she did not mind; there appeared to be a hundred different things demanding her attention indoors." (42) She tries to ignore that his leaving and not telling her affects her so much. Yet she declines an invitation from Madame Lebrun to go and sit with them until Robert leaves. When Edna sees him leave it tears her up inside that her companion, the one person that she felt understood her, is leaving: "Edna bit her handkerchief convulsively, striving to hold back and to hide, even from herself as she would have hidden from another, the emotion which was troubling - tearing- her. Her eyes were brimming with tears." (44) Edna's life is not complete when Robert leaves:

Back to the Awakening, we see that Mr.Pontellier also looks at his wife like an tool that he frequently uses. He looked at her as stated“As one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage”. Edna has been trying to free herself from the mental abuse of Leonce but somehow can’t physically. The feminism shown in the context is proof that the author is showing us how mentally abusive relationships, can ruin a woman’s ego. Edna is upset with the intolerant disrespect from her husband she once used to love.

One of the conflicts that Edna struggled is with love. “Good bye because I love you “ ,stated Robert in his letter that he left to Edna (XXXIX.116). What Robert had left Edna was the reason she decided to give up. This shows weakness within herself because, Edna gave up her family,hope,and her skills for a man that really didn't deserve her. It also shows an act of weakness because, she couldn't let go of the true that Robert was gone. Although Edna never gave up on love but she gave up on the most important thing family.

In the 21st century women all over the United States have been able to become free spirits who express their own emotions and sexual desires; in The Awakening that was far from the case. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of our story, begins with being a women who has followed all the rules of a housewife, in a Creole society, but slowly begins to change and ‘awakens’ her inner self. Edna’s sexual desires and hope for freedom begin to manifest her as a whole and turn her into a new person. As Ellen Cantarow stated in her article, “She's imprisoned as a possession, a display of her husband's wealth. But if The Awakening is about imprisonment, it's also about the possibilities of freedom” (Sex, Race, and Criticism: Thoughts of a White Feminist

Some of the motives of the book the awakening were music, children, and houses. Music gives us a sense of Edna ideological alignment in relations with the others characters. Edna first learns about the emotive powers of music from Mademoiselle Reisz, whereas Adele Ratignole piano playing is sentimental for Edna. When Adele is playing the piano it stirs new feelings and emotions in her. The children relate to Edna because she sees a form of rebirth as she discovers the world from a child perspective, the side of her childishness is admirable, she becomes self-absorbed and she never thinks realistically about the future or the consequences of her actions. Edna and Robert used to have a romantic encounter in that place, it connects with Edna because

She leaves the care of her children to her grandmother, abandoning them and her husband when she leaves to live in the pigeon-house. To her, leaving her old home with Léonce is very important to her freedom. Almost everything in their house belonged to him, so even if he were to leave, she would still feel surrounded by his possessions. She never fully becomes free of him until she physically leaves the house. That way, Edna has no ties whatsoever to that man. Furthermore, Edna indulges in more humanistic things such as art and music. She listens to Mademoiselle Reisz’s playing of the piano and feels the music resonate throughout her body and soul, and uses it as a form of escapism from the world. Based on these instances, Edna acts almost like a very young child, completely disregarding consequences and thinking only about what they want to do experience most at that moment. However, to the reader this does not necessarily appear “bad”, but rather it is seen from the perspective of a person who has been controlled by others their entire life and wishes to break free from their grasp. In a way, she is enacting a childlike and subconscious form of revenge by disobeying all known social constructs of how a woman should talk, walk, act, and interact with others.

Edna wants freedom so badly that she is forgetting about her duties with anything in her life. Her husband, Leonce, can start to see the change in his wife. This is starting to concern him because she normally does not act like this. Leonce and the rest of society has certain duties that they expect Edna to follow through with. After her awakening, she no longer wants to complete these tasks.

“The Awakening” gives readers different view of feminism. The novel not only displays how Edna begin to gain independence from the role of an obedient wife but the novel also embodies of how Edna gains control of her body. The idea of Feminism rebukes people from being treated as property. This notion of feminism not only applies to independence but also freedom of making decisions, in Edna’s case, Decisions about her body and sexuality. Edna cared for her husband and appreciated how well he took care of their family. However, she didn’t love him, “she had married without love as an excuse” (Chopin, 2005). This being evident in the novel, it’s no surprise the Edna started to stray from her marriage to Leonce. The estrangement between the couple started earlier in the novel