The Awakening

4 Pages 1103 Words

According to literary critic, Michael Gilmore, Edna commits suicide as a way out of the society she was entrapped in. He says, “She can find no room for her newly awakened self in the present social system…there is no way for the world she inhabits to accommodate the change in her.” The society of Grand Isle places towering expectations on the women to become men’s property devote a majority of their lives to their children. Edna Pontellier is sourouded by what she declares the “mother-women”, women who “idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it to a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals.” Every aspect of her life contributes to the portrayal of the image she cannot ensue; Her husband, lovers, children, and friends all directly contribute to Edna’s tragic demise.
Kate Chopin explains that it isn’t that Edna neglects her children, but rather she abandons her mother-woman image. Edna attempts to explain her outlook when she says, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money; I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.” This attitude specificly contrasts the mother-woman idea of self-sacrificing for your husband and children. Also, the '”something . . . which is revealing itself” does not become completely clear to Edna herself until just before the end, when she does indeed give her life, but not her self for her children's sake.
Just as Edna’s rapport with her children deducted from her sense of self, so too did her relationship with her husband, Leonce. The Grand Isle society defines the role of wife as fully devoted and self-sacrificing to their husband. Edna didn’t fulfill societies definition. This is clear when the other ladies at Grand Isle “all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world.” A...