The Awakening by far is my favorite piece from Kate Chopin, as you can see by this blog and the numerous mentions of it. The Awakening is the only book I have read completely but I have looked and skimmed through some of her other works. This book just has so much meaning to it. The lead character Edna is struggling with a few inner and outer demons. She is struggling with her inner battles of wanting to become her own woman and artist but she is also facing the suffering from the confinement of society. Edna is a wife and a mother to a very successful man the story takes place with the family on their summer vacation in Louisiana. During this vacation Edna meets a new love affair named Robert which is a big influence on her inner struggles. Edna begins to become very unhappy and starts to realize her marriage is “increasingly predictable, constraining, and oppressive” (Evans). Edna begins to have an affair with Robert hoping to satisfy her passion not just sexual but mental. She has felt so oppressed by her husband and society that she begins to rebel. She actually moves out of the summer house and starts to stay in a little cottage in town. She differentiates between her own personality and that of the mother-women "who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals" (Evans). This clearly was not a common thing to do during this time period which Chopin shows with that statement. People viewed her as abandoning her husband and children and as someone who was not in right sense. Edna goes through a time of “rebirth” and finding herself by doing this. The love affair with Robert eventually ended due to the fact he knew she would never be able to be his wife. She than had another affair but among her differ trials and attempts at becoming satisfied as an individual they all failed and she ultimately still ended up unhappy. This was a recurring theme not only at this time in Edna’s life but in her early years. Also, she often did things and said things that showed she was unsatisfied with her life. After realizing this and gaining a clear understanding of her own ways, she has an “awaking” moment, which was really the beginning of accepting her unsatisfied ways. She realized that she was unable to love her husband or children unselfishly which led to her death. Whether this death was intentional or accidental still leaves critics wondering. It is viewed as being defeated by society, “stillborn death” or as a “rebirth” as a free soul.
Evans, Robert C. "Renewal and Rebirth in Kate Chopin's The Awakening" In Bloom, Harold, ed. Rebirth and Renewal, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. May 3, 2010.http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID= WE54&SID=5&iPin= BLTRR004&SingleRecord=True.
No comments:
Post a Comment