Kate Chopin's The Awakening

¶ … Role of Women Examined in "The Awakening"

Life is a struggle. Throughout history, the oppressed have sacrificed much in order that they may see their dreams achieved. Women have seen their history change over the centuries but it has not been without sacrifice. Kate Chopin explores the difficulty involved with overcoming obstacles and societal constraints in her short story, "The Awakening." Edna Pontellier is trapped in a day and time that is not ready for her. She attempts to find fulfillment beyond what society has told her is normal and only discovers that she is too far ahead of her time to make any of her dreams come true. Edna is a victim of society because she refused to be something that she instinctively knew she was not. Her life as a wife and mother were unfulfilling and her dream was to discover her possibilities beyond those roles. Society was unable to accommodate her and her only recourse was escape. Chopin paints a portrait of a normal woman held back from the likes of C.L. Deyo, who refuse to acknowledge that women can be more than wives and mothers. Edna's only problem, besides that of her husband and her society, was that she was ahead of her time.

Deyo's impression of the book and Edna in general is misguided but it represents exactly the attitude that Chopin was attempting to expose. In her day and time, women simply could not reach out to become anything more than wives and mothers. It was unconscionable and immoral. Deyo's criticism corroborates the point because while he understands the story that Chopin is telling, he condemns it because it does not measure up to his definition of what a woman should be or what a woman should do. Deyo suggests that Edna was "not courageous. So she was not an artist" (Deyo). Deyo's limited view of women includes that of Mademoiselle Reisz, whom he declares is a "witch, " (Deyo) and concludes to know what she thinks by adding if she spoke what was on her mind, she would tell Edna that to be "a great sinner a woman must be courageous, for great sinners are those who sin for a pure, howbeit unlawful, motive" (Deyo). Deyo's opinion of women in general is filled with contempt if they dare to venture outside the box he and society has constructed for them. Deyo's opinion of women represents the oppressive attitude that women faced every day. It also demonstrates the incredible battle that women faced should they dare to dream outside the box.

Edna was very courageous. The fact that she did not want to live in a loveless marriage is not something that makes her a "derelict in a moral ocean" (Deyo); it makes her a human being. Edna was smart enough to realize that there was more to life and living and she was brave enough to seek it out. Edna's failure is not being courageous; it is not being courageous enough. She did finally give in to her sorrow because she came to the realization that she could never be the woman she wanted to be in such an oppressive society. Edna was light years ahead of the people that surrounded her every day. They could not relate to her because they were still living with the notion that all a woman was good for existed in the home. A woman could be a good wife and a woman could be a good mother and that was the extent of it. That was their destiny. Edna realizes that her destiny is greater and does all that she can to have that destiny. She moves to the pigeon house and discovers hope as she looks at the house "with her own eye; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to 'feed upon opinion' when her own soul had invited her" (124). It took courage for Edna to not only think this but act upon it. Deyo wishes to condemn Edna for an attempt at self-discovery instead of congratulating her on realizing that there is far more to life than motherhood.

Edna's problem was that she bought into the hype of motherhood. She believed that marriage and a family would somehow fulfill her desires and when they did not, she felt the restraints of society attempting to rein her in. She tried to be a good mother but she began to realize that she was "not a mother-woman" like Adele. Critic Karen Simons maintains, "The unbearable truth for Edna is that this is all there is. Physical life is the reality; the rest is illusion" (Simons). Edna's husband is constantly nagging her about her "habitual neglect" (Chopin 7) of the children, worsening the matter. The stress produces more angst for Edna as she attempts to find recourse. Simons explains that things become worse for Edna because "the children have invaded her imaginative life, she has no space in which to delude herself again" (Simons). The depression becomes such that in the end "the men in her life do not matter -- not even Robert" (Simons). While the husband and the family are supposed to be a solid foundation, they only become great burdens for Edna and, as Simons puts it, in "one cataclysmic moment, her spiritual world has collapsed into motherhood and left her with no hope of transcendence" (Simons). Edna would have rather faced no life at all than face the drudgery of the only life she knew. While many may say her actions were selfish, they were in response to an oppressive situation that demanded some sort of resolution because life could not continue on as usual.

Edna's society failed her. Women in the eighteenth century simply did not have the freedom to explore their options as human beings. Edna was a victim of circumstance. She has inclinations that there might be more to life but she has no support when it comes to seeking out a more productive life. Everyone around her believes that the best she can achieve is motherhood but Edna knows this is not true because of her own situation. Edna is not fulfilled with being a wife and mother and there is nothing wrong with this but in the eighteenth century, everything was wrong with it. Jay Parini writes that Chopin explores the "emotional, creative, and sexual awakening of a married woman with children, who questions the ability of any woman to develop into an independent, fulfilled self within the confines of marriage and motherhood" (Parini 68). Edna is smart enough to realize that there is more to life and she is brave enough to want to try to find fulfillment in something. This is not her crime; her crime is buying into the notion that all women need husbands and families to be happy. When these things do not satisfy her, she falls into depression because her marriage "put an end to romance and dreams" (xix). In addition, "society becomes a regime of brutal, minor propriety, spiritual hardness domiciled in excessive material comfort, intellectual vacancy with or without pretension but absurd in either case" (Robinson ix). Edna is a victim of a society that refuses to let women be independent. Her last act was a defiant one, claiming what little independence she had left.