Summary on The Awakening by Kate Chopin - Essay Example

Review on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening Kate Chopin, a prominent of the 19th century, mostly wrote novels and short stories that centered aroundfemale protagonists and their suppressed lives. Through her stories, Chopin provided these characters with an opportunity to rebel against the traditional norms and conventions of the society, thus prompting her readers to do the same. Chopin’s most noteworthy works include Bayou Folk, A Night in Acidie and The Awakening, the last of which was published in 1899.

The paper at hand focuses on her novel ‘The Awakening,’ and by addressing the given questions, tries to give a summary of this interesting and inspiring work.The Awakening tells the saga of Edna Pontellier, a married woman and mother of two, who lives in the 18th century Victorian era. During that time, the world in itself was patriarchal and suppressed the species of women altogether, thus not providing women with the chance to neither express themselves, nor even think about their needs and wants.

Edna faced similar situation in her life, as she had to conform to the society’s envisioned role for her, and take care of her family rather than acknowledging her needs and desires. However, throughout the book, Edna’s character undergoes significant change and she develops into something more than a mere puppet of the society. Edna’s awakening is depicted at various instances through the story, for example, when she tells Robert that she is “no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions” (113) and when she is at sea and she feels like a “new-born creature” (120).

Though Edna stops conforming to the general role of women cast by the society, and although she engages in a lot of rebellion, in the end she commits suicide, and it is left for the reader to think of this act as either representative of cowardice or her last rebellion. Through the awakening that Edna undergoes she tries to reverse the duality of life- “outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” which she has known since her childhood (18). That is, she not only physically rebels against the conformations of the society, but also she brings to surface all the questions she has stifled throughout her life.

Edna’s character transforms when she finds herself vacationing with her family in Grand Isle, where she meets different people, each of whom have something new to teach her. Thus, in the process she learns three new languages, namely, verbal, artistic and sexual languages. She learns about the verbal language, that is, expressing herself through words from the Creon women of the place. They make her understand that she need not be frightened to acknowledge her needs and desires as well as to express them.

They teach her to be more expressive and in sync with her inner feelings, this develops her character in the sense that she can name, define and further understand every single one of her emotions. In terms of the artistic language, Edna perfectly understands and acknowledges what Mademoiselle Reisz is trying to teach her. She stops associating the latter’s piano playing with mere solitary images, such as the lonely “figure of a man, the dainty young woman, the demure lady” etc, that her mind invokes in accordance with the music (30).

She learns that her feelings and emotions can be expressed through the medium of art, and thus she starts to paint. Edna perceives painting as not just a distraction from her life, but a process through which she can better communicate her feelings to the outside world, and in the process to herself. The third language she learns regards with her acknowledgment of her inner sexual desires, which she understands with the help of Alcee and Robert. Although Robert shows her the way to express her passions and not keep them locked inside, he fails to express it out too much fearing the consequences, however Edna surpasses this fear and has become better at the language than her own teacher.

Chopin uses the imagery of birds to further exemplify the life of the women of that period. The entrapped birds in the cages, that is, Madam Lebrun’s parrot and the mocking bird are representative of Edna as well as the females in general. The author says that the parrot spoke little Spanish as well as a “language which nobody understood” (5). This language can be perceived as the amalgamation of the three new languages that Edna has learned and that no one including her teachers also could understand.

The novel talks about “winged women,” however, these women are only capable of protecting themselves by using their wings as a shield, and cannot fly away or escape their entrapment within the society (). Towards the end of the story, the author says “a bird with broken wing… down to the water,” this again is representative of Edna as she commits suicide in the vast expanse of sea (). However, as far as I am concerned, Edna’s character really achieves awakening throughout the story and in the end this awakening is further heightened, as she realizes that she can never actually conform to the society’s norms or idealized image of her.

Thus, she ends her life attaining the ultimate freedom from a world which not only does not understand her but is hell bent on suppressing her and making her nothing but a flightless bird with broken wings. Edna proves towards the end that she is a true artist, as this last highlights that she does indeed possess a “courageous soul that dares and defies” (121). Therefore, one can understand that Edna has remained successful in her awakening throughout the story and more so towards the end, where she escapes forever from the curbing oppressive thoughts of the world.