Edna Pontellier: A Rebellious Defeat

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Emma Baird Dr. Meredith McCarroll English 232 25 September 2010 The Death of Edna Pontellier: A Rebellious Defeat Even from its first publication, Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening has caused controversy. While today The Awakening is praised for its feminist undertones, the piece was first criticized for its lack of representation of American values. Instead of depicting a main character that embodied the Victorian ideal of a woman fulfilling the role as an “Angel in the House” which was the norm for American women during this particular historical period, Edna was a rebellious wife and an adulteress, whose desires and yearning for independence lead her to make many radical decisions throughout the course of the novel¾ from inwardly…show more content…
Living in Louisiana, the Gulf of Mexico plays an important role in society. It provides support for the area’s economy through fishing, but at the same time it also geographically isolates Edna Pontellier on the Grand Isle. While isolated for the summer on the island, Edna is at first reluctant of the waters because she does not know how to swim, yet she is always intrigued. When the reader is first introduced to Edna, she is emerging back with Robert from a lazy day at the shore. After spending the day on the beach with Robert, Edna begins to ponder why she did so, and as she wonders, Chopin tells us that her thoughts turn¾and she is “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” (Chopin 544). Immediately following that, her thoughts transition to the sea. “But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult! But 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. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace” (Chopin 544). The sea is a constant presence in Edna’s life¾ it is always near her yet at the same time it is also new to her. Since it is a territory that is still unexplored for her, it strongly beckons her, and in a way becomes for Edna an embodiment of what she wants most¾ freedom. In the article “Surviving Edna: A Reading of the Ending of “The Awakening,” Treu makes a reference to Patricia Yeager’s analysis of The Awakening in which Yeager describes the voice of the sea as “more than a sign of dark
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