Over many years, women were less privileged than men and therefore had to fight for their rights. Emancipation is not something that was achieved within days, weeks or months: women had a long way to go to set themselves free, but what led them actually to that point? Was it the desire to equality or the wish to fulfil their dreams? Was it even out of suppression?
Kate Chopin’s famous novel The Awakening deals exactly with that topic and tells the story of Mrs. Pontellier who managed to emancipate herself from the society she was living in. The following text is going to focus on the influences and circumstances that reinforced her decision to become an independent and confident woman and tries to find answers on what leads to emancipation in general.
I would like to show that emancipation is a process and no knee-jerk reaction. In fact, it is a complex decision, influenced by various factors. At first, I am going to describe the initial situation of Mrs. Pontellier and try to find out the main reasons for her wish to leave her old life behind. Afterwards, I am going to illustrate her new life and finally, I am going to compare it in contrast to her old one, as I would like to present how much she has changed throughout the novel and if she succeeded in her plans.
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. The old life of Edna Pontellier
1.1 Family life
1.2 Private & Social life
1.3 Breakthrough
1.4 Influences
2. The new life of Edna Pontellier
2.1 Family life
2.2 Private & Social life
2.3 The past returns
3. The old life vs. The new life of Edna Pontellier
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Over many years, women were less privileged than men and therefore had to fight for their rights. Emancipation is not something that was achieved within days, weeks or months: women had a long way to go to set themselves free, but what led them actually to that point? Was it the desire to equality or the wish to fulfil their dreams? Was it even out of suppression?
Kate Chopin’s famous novel The Awakening deals exactly with that topic and tells the story of Mrs. Pontellier who managed to emancipate herself from the society she was living in. The following text is going to focus on the influences and circumstances that reinforced her decision to become an independent and confident woman and tries to find answers on what leads to emancipation in general.
I would like to show that emancipation is a process and no knee-jerk reaction. In fact, it is a complex decision, influenced by various factors. At first, I am going to describe the initial situation of Mrs. Pontellier and try to find out the main reasons for her wish to leave her old life behind. Afterwards, I am going to illustrate her new life and finally, I am going to compare it in contrast to her old one, as I would like to present how much she has changed throughout the novel and if she succeeded in her plans.
1. The old life of Edna Pontellier
1.1 Family life
Edna Pontellier is a woman living the “dream life”: She is married to a rich creole man; she has two children and a housekeeper on account of whom she does not need to work. Everything seems perfect; however, when we look underneath her exterior, we get to know that she is fragile, unhappy and desperate.
Her husband is very self-centred and egotistic; what Edna feels like is unimportant to him. When the narrator says: “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business.” (Chopin 7), the reader can see clearly that Mr. Pontellier is a man who thinks that women and men in general have to fulfil a certain image: Women should take care of the children and men are the breadwinners of a family and do not have any other duties. The way Edna gets treated by her husband makes her feel oppressed, as she cannot live up to his high expectations.
1.2 Private & Social life
Born as a non-upper class woman, Edna struggles tremendously to accustom to the lifestyle of Mr. Pontellier and his friends. She barely has any close confidants and feels like an outsider. The only one who she can really count on is Robert Lebrun, who is secretly in love with her. With Robert by her side, Edna discovers life in a way she has never seen before, and what is much more important– Robert makes Edna feel valued! Although she does not want to admit it for a long time, Edna falls madly in love with him too, but she decides to keep it a secret.
1.3 Breakthrough
Just as Edna starts to feel more and more comfortable with Robert and begins to open up her heart, Robert tells her that he leaves for Mexico. Edna is devastated by his surprising decision. Without Robert, she knows exactly that she would become an outsider again, which she obviously does not want to. This marks a turning point in her life: With Robert, Edna has discovered how exciting life can be and now she wants more. The time spent with him has opened her eyes and she finally understands that it is up to her what to make of her life. For that reason, she decides to leave her husband, find a new home, and to fulfil her secret dreams of becoming an artist.
1.4 Influences
For such a long time, Edna was feeling depressed and alone. She knew that she would have been able to leave everything behind, but she never dared to do it. Perhaps she had feared that she would not have succeeded, or she felt the pressure from her surrounding that she— as a woman— should not do something like that.
The way she got treated by her husband must have been an enormous factor that influenced her decision to leave him. According to the narrator, “her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate” (Chopin 24).
Mr. Pontellier took Edna for granted and even after she left him, he was still absolutely convinced that she needed him in her life. Actually, what Edna really needed was someone to open her eyes: It was Robert who showed her how she could have been treated all the time; it was Robert who made her feel loved; and it was Robert who really understood her feelings.
Apart from her love to Robert, the way she felt in the creole society was definitely another decisive factor that lead her to that decision. She was obliged to spend time within a group of people who were not alike her. She had to play-act in order to fit in, but even that did not work. Whenever she was spending time with these people, Edna was feeling feel like a misfit. She did not manage to let go of them, as she also had to represent her husband–fortunately, this time is now over.
2. The new life of Edna Pontellier
2.1 Family life
Edna sets herself free by leaving her house, her husband and her kids in order to live all by herself. “(…) Whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself” (Chopin 108).
At the same time, Mr. Pontellier is not able to accept the situation and he even seems to worry about her. In fact, he thinks that Edna is mentally ill and needs proper treatment to become “old Edna” again. What he does not recognize, however, is that Edna is actually becoming herself and revealing her true identity! The “new Edna” is “no longer one of Mr. Pontelliere's possessions to dispose of (…)” (Chopin 146).
2.2 Private & Social life
Edna finally gets enough air to breathe after all that has happened. Now that she is able to do whatever she wants, she can fulfil her dream of painting. Art gives her an opportunity to focus on how she feels inside and to block out her sorrows. In addition to that, she gets to know new people who she feels comfortable with and with whom she can be herself. The reader gets the impression that she has actually realized that her old life is now part of her past, as is her history with Robert.
2.3 The past returns
When it seems that everything works out as planned, reality catches up with Edna. She not only gets to know that Robert plans to return from Mexico, but she also finds out that he is madly in love with her, which throws her off the track. When Robert arrives, her old feelings come back right away. Although some emotional wounds are not healed yet, they confess their love to each other. Someday however, Robert tells Edna that he has to leave again! Desperately, she tries to go on and let go of him, but it does not work. After all that she has achieved, Edna got hurt once more again, which she is not able to deal with. She comes to the conclusion to leave everything behind her and drowns herself in the sea.
3. The old life vs. The new life of Edna Pontellier
Robert Lebrun made Edna realize that she deserved much better. Although he was not present throughout her whole changing-process, he was responsible for that. “It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream.” (Chopin 147). Through the loss of Robert, Edna became stronger and more independent than ever before. She managed to break up with Mr. Pontellier and started a completely new life! Moreover, she found a group of people with whom she could be herself, which she had never experienced before.
Although it seemed at some point that she had already closed that chapter with Robert, he was still unconsciously part of her life. According to the narrator, “s he was still under the spell of her infatuation. She had tried to forget him, realizing the inutility of remembering. But the thought of him was like an obsession, ever pressing itself upon her” (Chopin 73).
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- Anonym,, 2019, The Role of Emancipation in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening", München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1289048
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