| |
In Kate Chopin’s book, titled The Awakening, she clearly displays to her
audience the role of mother and housewife that is forced upon women during the
nineteenth century. Her main character Mrs. Edna Pontellier however begins to
realize this oppression of women and decides that this way of life decided for
her by society is not the one for her. Through her insights, actions and other
characters’ responses to her newly found desire to be free as her own person the
reader is able to understand how hard it is to go against the norm of a standard
set by society.
In the scene where Mr. Pontellier returns home after being out with the men
at
the Klein’s hotel he wakes up Mrs. Pontellier and tells her that their child
Raoul has a fever. She tells him that she’s sure that he doesn’t being very
tired and just wanting to go back to sleep, but her husband, Mr. Pontellier
becomes upset and thinks to himself, “If it was not a mother’s place to look
after children, whose on earth was it” (471). Mr. Pontellier’s thought explains
to the reader the expected role of his wife to take care of the children night
and day no matter what—even while she’s sleeping and her husband is awake and
perfectly capable of tending to his child if he has a fever. Mr. Pontellier
goes on further complaining to himself of how his wife is neglecting the
children, even though he is the one that forgot to keep his promise of bringing
them back bonbons and peanuts. His forgetfulness and neglect is excused and
accepted because he is a man and his job in society is to tend to his brokerage
business—not his children.
Shortly after this, Mrs. Pontellier begins to observe and compare herself
with
the other mothers on the beach that summer and comes to know and recognize that
“she was not a mother-woman” (473). She describes these “mother-women” in great
detail and speaks of how content they are in their roles of serving their
husbands and caring for their children. Edna, goes into additional detail of
how when she is around these “mother-women” she has to pretend to be interested
in doing motherly things so that they wont think that something is wrong with
her, like when Edna is sewing children’s clothes with Madame Ratignolle, the
perfect mother and wife. Here Edna is explaining to the reader her feelings of
separation and remoteness from this group of the “mother-women” making her
difference from them as not a “mother woman” evident. Her pretending to be
interested in the concerns of this group demonstrates the strong control of
social expectations and influence.
Mrs. Pontellier begins to not care about these social expectations and
influences after a while, for instance, when she goes out on Tuesday the day
that she is supposed to be home to receive quests her husband is disturbed with
her behavior. He wants to keep up appearances for his business relations, and
not having his wife home on the day that she is expected to be a hostess is
embarrassing to him and looked on as not proper. He lets the reader know this
when he says, “Well, I hope you left some suitable excuse” (507). Edna didn’t
leave an excuse because she now feels that she doesn’t have to conform or do
what everyone else requires her to do. She should be able to go out or do
whatever she wants whenever she pleases without having to worry about what other
people will think. She is on her way to becoming her own person now. This
unusual sudden behavior alarms Mr. Pontellier so much that he mentions it to the
doctor looking for a remedy or an answer, since it was assumed that women should
be content in their role as mother and wife.
Another example of Edna’s behavior that was thought to be unusual was her
refusal to attend her sister’s wedding. This refusal led to an argument with
her father who said to Mr. Pontellier, “You are too lenient, too lenient by far,
Leonce” (523). Edna’s father disapproved of her behavior too, blaming it on
Leonce or Mr. Pontellier’s inability to control his own wife. Edna’s disregard
for what was proper and expected of her appalled her husband and even father.
In addition to her improper behavior and disregard for appearances Mrs.
Pontellier wanted to live on her own, in her own house, so that she would not
have to depend on anyone. She wanted to own herself, and by owning herself she
could do as she pleased. This way she would have no obligations to anyone,
especially her husband. Madame Ratignolle, Edna’s friend and the picture
perfect “mother-woman” of course voiced her opinion to Edna of her living in her
own house by herself. She said, “In some way you seen to me like a child, Edna”
(543). Madame Ratignolle calls her a child because she has observed how Edna
has acted on her emotions with no restraint. This conduct concerns Madame
Ratignolle because Edna should not be left alone in the house all by herself if
she has this childlike impulse to do as she pleases. Madame Ratignolle further
expresses her concern for Edna being alone by bringing up Edna’s reputation and
discussing how it is at stake with her man visitor Alcee Arobin. Edna ignores
these warnings of how she is ruining appearances and goes on living her life as
she chooses trying to not let the world around her influence her new way of
life. Even though it is always creeping in here and there, with memories of her
children and friends remarks, bothering her conscience.
Kate Chopin created the excellent character Mrs. Edna Pontellier for
demonstrating the confusion that women were faced with in society when they
tried to act on their realization of being a person who deserved social,
economic and political equality. Because of this “mother-woman” mold that was
crafted for Edna and all women of her time the only way that Edna could live the
life that she now desired was to alienate herself from society and this is why
the novel ends the way it does. She separates herself from society by taking
her own life. |
