Edna The Awakwening

This is a look at "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin.   When

you first look at the life of Edna you think there is not much to

discuss.  Edna is a married woman who at first seems vaguely

satisfied with her life--"she grew fond of her husband, realizing

with some unaccountable satisfaction that no trace of passion or

excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection, thereby

threatening its dissolution." (Chopin, 558).

Edna doesn't know what she wants from life.  It is evident

from the way she tries to change her life to make it better, that

she wants her own happiness.  She refuses to stay home on

Tuesdays, which she is expected to do to satisfy the social

conventions of the time.  She spends more time on her art.  She

goes to races and parties all the time.  All of this doesn't seem to

help her maintain happiness all the time.

There were days when she was very happy without knowing

why.  She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole

being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the    color, the

odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day.

There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,

when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be dead

or alive; when life appeared to her like a grotesque

Pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly

toward inevitable annihilation. (Chopin, 588)

Edna struggled to make her life more fulfilling.  Edna

wanted what? Passion, excitement?  She states to the Doctor,

"But I don't want anything but my own way.  That is wanting a

good deal, of course, when you have to trample upon  the lives,

the hearts, the prejudices of others--but no matter--still, I

shouldn't want to trample upon the little lives." (Chopin, 629).

In the title of "The Awakening" I get the impression of

someone waking up and deciding that their life is not what they

want.  Edna goes from being reasonably happy in her life to very

unhappy with her life and tries to change it to make it better.

The ways she goes about it are not necessarily the right ways,

but at least she tries to change it to make it better.

The acceptable behaviors of the time in which she lived

worked against her.  Edna stays married because divorce was

unheard of in those days.  She wants to marry Robert, but he will

not because it will disgrace her to leave her husband.  She

exceeds the social boundaries of the day by going her own way

and doing what she wants, but she is still bound by the will of

others no matter what she wants.  In the time period we are

talking about she would have been ostracized by society if she

and Robert were  to be together.  The only solution she sees is to

commit suicide.  That would not happen in this day and time

either, because she would have been able to get a divorce and

marry Robert with no special stigma.  Edna could not get what

she thought she wanted and ended up with no responsibilities.