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Casting All Women
Broadway shows. Just like the main roles in these famous plays, the roles in the late 1800s society were just as defined. In The Awakening, author Kate Chopin stresses the roles in society that limited the freedom of both men and women. Edna Pontellier, the main character in the novel, falls in love with a man by the name of Robert Lebrun while away for the summer at Grand Isle. They form a very close relationship, and it grows into a passionate affair. Edna fights and struggles against society for independence and is overwhelmed with confusion, but she is finally able to break free from the role she was cast for through her successes.
Like an audition, Edna does not make the cut for the role of a motherly woman. She loves her children dearly, but she does not express it like most mothers do. Madame Ratignolle and Edna have very different feelings and perspectives on motherhood. Madame Ratignolle gives up her whole self and being for her children, but Edna Pontellier tells Madame Ratignolle, “I would give up the
unessential . . . I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (64). Edna does not like to be known as just a mother; she prefers to be an individual being. She does not always think of her children first. For example, when the possibility arises that she might leave her husband for Robert, she does not even consider her children. But Madame Ratignolle reminds her to “think of the children . . . oh think of the children” (149). There is a time, however, when Edna appears to be more than satisfied with being a mother. When the children are away spending time their grandparents, Edna goes to visit them. O how happy she was to see them, for “she wept for very pleasure when she felt their little arms clasping her” (127). Loving her children greatly, Edna Pontellier loves to be an individual more.
Edna realizes her reputation as one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions, so she rebels against...