The Awakening by Kate Chopin | Characters, Summary, Analysis

 The Awakening by Kate Chopin | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Awakening is a feminist fiction novel that was published in the year 1899. The novel depicts the story of Edna Pontellier, a married wife and a mother who feels suffocated in her married life and tries to attain freedom. The novel was against the moral norms of victorian society and hence it was highly criticized after its publication. However, with the changing social norms, the novel gained popularity after the death of Kate Chopin and is considered a prototype of feminist literature. The meaning of the title and the message of the novel is that the central character Edna succeeds in rediscovering herself, independent of her familial identity and role as a mother and wife as she awakens.

The novel suggests the strong influence of French writer Guy de Maupassant and is considered as an example of naturalism or nineteenth-century literary realism.

Characters:

Edna Pontellier is the central character of the novel. She is a respectable presbyterian married woman, a mother of two sons (Etienne and Raoul). She rediscovers her individual identity and rebels against the social norms while rejecting the conventional expectations as a mother and wife.

Leonce Pontellier is a successful businessman, husband of Edna. He is unaware of her wife’s struggle in the married life.

Mademoiselle Reisz is a gifted musician, an individualist who doesn’t conform to the expected role of her as a female in society. She invests most of her time in music and herself without caring what society thinks of her. She lives an asexual life like a celibate. Edna finds herself disagreeing with Reisz more than often, yet she finds her inspiring. Adele Rantignolle is Edna’s friend. She represents a perfect victorian woman of the 19^th century. She is completely devoted to her husband and children. She is a good pianist but all her music is to please her kids and family. She continues to remind Edna of her duties as a mother and a wife. Alcee Arobin is a womanizer known for seducing married women. Edna engages in a short-lived relationship with him. Robert Lebrun is a charming young man who succeeds in winning Edna’s heart. He has a history of falling in love with women he cannot have. He flirts with Edna and this instigates rebellious feelings in Edna.

Summary of The Awakening

Leonce Pontellier is a rich businessman in Louisiana who goes on a vacation at a resort in Grand Isle on the Gulf of Mexico with his wife Edna and two sons Etienne and Raul. The resort is managed by Madam Lebrun and her two sons Victor and Robert.

Edna is an introverted person who spends most of her time with her friend Adele Ratignolle. Adele is a devoted wife who cheerily continues to remind Edna of her duties towards her sons and husband. At the resort, Edna finds the calmness and solitude that she longed for. Robert is infatuated with Edna and he flirts with her. Eventually, Edna makes a connection with Robert who actively seeks her approval. Robert has a history of falling in love with such women who he cannot have.

Robert helps Edna in learning how to swim. Edna and Robert fall in love but when Robert realizes that their relationship cannot reach a happy conclusion as she is already married with two sons, he decides to fly away to Mexico. He pretends to go for an important business venture.

However, Robert has already instigated Edna who was already feeling suffocated in her married life. She desires an independent life and she wants to live with Robert. As Robert runs away, she tries to reconcile with her married life and duties and her desires of being independent, free.

Edna meets Mademmoise Reisz on the Grand Isle as she was also there for vacation. Reisz is a musician. She lives alone, an independent life. Unlike Rantignolle, Reisz creates music for herself. Edna is attracted towards Reisz and one day, when Reisz plays piano for Edna, she gets overwhelmed and cries. She realizes a certain awakening in herself to find her own identity independent of her being a wife or mother. Edna likes painting and she starts as a painter.

While Edna appreciates Reisz, she cannot agree with her and she finds a definite void in Reisz’s life. Edna realizes her natural inclinations as she likes sex very much. However, Reisz is celibate, living a life almost like a hermit.

Edna realizes that nature forces her either to lead a life like Adele, where she can have sex and become a devoted wife and mother. Or else, she can choose to be like Reisz, independent, successful, yet, away from carnal pleasures, as if giving up a part of her womanhood. Edna is not ready to succumb to this societal pressure. Adele unknowingly awakens Edna’s sexual self.

As summer approaches, Edna returns to New Orleans with her family. She starts living a secluded life, giving less and less attention to her husband and children. Leonce notices this change and he thinks that Edna is suffering some illness. They consult a doctor. The doctor gets some inkling that maybe Edna is having an affair. However, he doesn’t reveal this to Leonce.

When Leonce plans to go to New York City for a business meeting, he decides to send his sons to his mother’s house as Edna is sick and unable to take proper care of her children. This lets Edna have some solitude. She actually enjoys this independence when she is alone, away from her husband and children. Yet, she continues to remember and miss her sons. She realizes that nature forces a woman to be a mother. However, Edna has vowed not to succumb and give up her individual self to just become a wife and mother. She decides to pursue a career as a painter. She hires a small house for rent and starts living there. She names this rented house 'Pigeon House'.

She starts earning good money through her money and hence breaches the market which is male-centric. Edna uses that money for herself. She bets on horses and buys things she likes. She also buys and sends confectionaries to her sons and realizes that she loves them too much. Edna also realizes her sexual self as she makes a short-term relationship with Alcee Arobin to get sexual relief in absence of her husband. She realizes that while a man can easily enjoy sex without taking responsibility for children and family, a woman cannot do so easily.

In New Orleans, Edna continues to remain in contact with Reisz and Adele. Reisz informs her that she is in contact with Robert through letters. Edna requests her to let her read those letters. Reisz shows her the letters written by Robert. These letters confirm that Robert still loves her.

Robert returns from Mexico to New Orleans. He continues to maintain distance from Edna. However, he succumbs to his feelings and confesses his love for Edna as he goes to visit her at Pigeon House.

Adele is pregnant again and about to give childbirth. Edna is called to help her as her delivery is proving to be complicated. When Edna meets Adele, Adele pleads with her to reconsider her choices and says that she will lose a lot if she doesn’t behave appropriately. Soon after Adele dies while giving birth to a child. Edna again confronts the nature that prompts a woman to be a mother, a wife.

Edna returns home as she decides to choose her freedom and be with Robert forever. However, when she reaches home, she finds a note written by Robert who has already left. The note says that Robert is leaving Edna because he loves her and their relationship has no meaning and hence he could not pursue it.

Edna is heartbroken. She has to make a choice, either to be like Reisz, independent but celibate, or be like Adele, a devoted wife, and mother while forgetting her own self. Edna returns to Grand Isle where she met Robert for the first time. Robert taught her how to swim. She faces the sea and gets completely naked as a newly born child and starts swimming in the open sea under the sun. She continues to swim far in the sea until her limbs get tired, and then she drowns. Her death resembles her new birth where she could be independent, free, and satisfied.

Analysis of The Awakening

The story is about the struggle of a woman seeking independence. She is at struggle against societal and natural norms that force her to accept the identity of a woman recognized by her husband, and children. She loves her sons but she says that she can give her money and life for her kids, but she cannot sacrifice herself, her freedom to them. Reisz and Adele are the two epitomes that Edna may follow. While she gets sexual and emotional fulfillment if she chooses to be like Adele, she will have to accept the societal norms and set up defined for a domestic woman. On the other hand, if she chooses to lead an artistic life like that of Reisz, she will have to compromise her sexual self which she is not ready to do as she likes her sexual self. Edna decides to act like a man. She begins her career and starts making money. She engages in a short-termed affair with Alcee while she still loves Robert and is the wife of Leonce. She realizes that while it is easy for a man to do so, it is not that easy for a woman. 

Edna desires to enjoy the freedom that a man easily attains while remaining a female. She loves her feminine sexuality and sensuality, yet wants to be independent of the responsibilities of being a woman that she thinks society forces on her. As she realizes that not only societal rules, norms, and expectations, but nature itself forces her to be a woman defined by their husband and children, she opts to end herself.

So this is about The Awakening by Kate Chopin. We will continue to discuss American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!