Subversion of Gender and Freedom without Responsibility in the Awakening - Essay Example

Subversion of Gender and Freedom without Responsibility in the ‘Awakening A Critical Response In her novel “The Awakening” Kate Chopin explores into the position of a woman in the Victorian male dominated society by subverting the gender role. She makes her heroine Edna Pontellier play independently and autocratically in the realm of men. The prospect of freedom provokes Edna to defy her social responsibilities that tends to define the Victorian femininity and womanhood. But ultimately she fails to perceive that greater freedom is entitled with greater sincerity and responsibility. Though she chooses to act on her own, she fails to understand that freedom without responsibility brings about anarchy. While defying the Victorian ideals of femininity, she gullibly defies her motherhood and wifehood by deserting her children and husband. Her husband Leonce Pontellier appears to be the ideal Victorian male who is devoted to his family and remains busy in his business. Though Leonce effectively represents the authoritarian and possessive Victorian patriarchy, he –as a father and a husband- is less culpable. Before her romance with Robert, Edna’s relationship with Leonce was quite healthy. It essentially testifies that apart from the authoritarian patriarchal essence Leonce appears to be a good husband. Before the awakening at Robert’s second escape, Edna appears to be one of those heroines, of feminist metanarrative, who are aggressive to their men accusing them as their restrictive superiors. Chopin’s heroine also grows hatred for her husband’s restrictions. She actively seeks a way out of it and begins to isolate her from the so-called male dominated society. She learns how to swim. Here swimming metaphorically refers to Edna’s perception of freedom. In the vast expanse of the ocean Edna can realize her own strength. When she is in the water, she perceives her position as an individual entity amid the universe. Until the readers reach the end of the novel, they mistake Edna’s husband Leonce Pontellier for a traditional patriarchal antagonist. Chopin presents the male characters as the passive patriarchal role-players of the society. Both Leonce and Robert cannot but succumb to the demands of the male dominated society. Neither Robert nor Leonce can be considered as villainous toward Edna. Rather the true villain, if there is any, is the society in which Robert and Leonce live. Chopin further explores deep into modern feminist metanarrative with a question how far it will be justifiable to condemn motherhood and wifehood as the patriarchy-imposed restriction on women’s freedom. Far from portraying men as villains she attempts to impeach the society in a broader context for mutilating women’s freedom. Also she does not let a feminist go unquestioned. In the first place, she puts Edna’s role into question whether her decision to leave her husband and family is justified or not. She longs for Robert’s love. But she is not considerate enough to think that someone else such as her husband and children need her love. If she needs absolute freedom, she has got it. But even then she commits suicide because she does not get Robert’s love. Thus Chopin attempts to show that loveless freedom is meaningless. In addition, Chopin wants to purport that Edna is in search of freedom. Necessarily she asks the readers what Edna’s freedom is for. It is seems that Edna’s freedom is to fulfill her carnal hunger. She is infatuated with Robert’s charm. But she seems to be oblivious to the aftermaths of such extramarital affair. Very likely, Chopin wants to say that the society which Robert, Leonce and even Edna herself are committed to is one based on the universal rules of human relationship. Robert’s awareness of adultery and his Declination from their extramarital affair are more of his respect for the marital agreement between Edna and Leonce than of his fear of patriarchal authority. Again through Edna’s attempt to attain freedom by distancing herself from her wifehood, Chopin attempts to point out the self-contradiction within the traditional feminist metanarrative. Unrealistically she assumes her wifehood as well as her husband as a barrier to her freedom. Once she frees herself from it, she finds her freedom meaningless, since she at once sees herself depended on Robert’s love. In the beginning of the novel, she is confused about what freedom is and what her true identity role in Leonce’s family. She erroneously takes the marriage-induced duty to the family for the restriction and mutilation of her freedom. But the same marital institution imposes some duties upon Leonce. Though Leonce performs his share, she betrays her share by committing adultery. Even she fails to attain freedom because of her erroneous presupposition. She frees herself from her ties with the family and society. But she is prepared to embrace the sufferings and perils that such freedom infers on an independent individual. If Edna attains the freedom in its true sense by repealing Leonce’s husbandry on her, she would not commit suicide upon seeing the oncoming perils and ordeal. In this regard, the narrator comments: There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; 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. (Chopin 187.) Indeed Edna’s avoidances of her social responsibilities enhances, not her freedom, but her self-confidence to be more assertive in her love for Robert. When she sees that freeing herself by repealing her wifehood and by having the freedom to love Robert neglecting the society imposed restriction is nothing but an illusion, and a self-appointment to some other duties and responsibilities, she feels devastated with her sense of betrayal to her family, Leonce and her children. Since she is not prepared for such a U-turn in her awakening, she commits suicide. Edna fulfills her carnal desire from her relationship with a town seducer Alcee Arobin. Though she is not emotionally to Arobin, her animalistic urges are satisfied by him. This affair immediately reminds a reader of the marital relationship between Edna and Leonce. The relationship seems to be a medium of satisfying their hunger. Again Edna’s love for Robert even after her sexual fulfillment by Arobin indicates that it is more than sexuality. Chopin does not say anything clear about what it really is. Robert, in some way, appears to be the personification of the carefree sexuality and equality in relationship, or some explainable emotional attachment that is nothing but one kind of illusion, as at some point while discussing with the doctor Edna refers to her awakening about her love for Robert as well as for her social roles: “The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.” (Chopin 143) A feminist interpretation of Chopin’s novel may be misguided on the point that she commits suicide because her attempt to live freely has been refused by Robert. But such an interpretation often ignores the fact that a self-committed and self-depended individual does not depend on anyone else’s appraisal. Edna also decides to leave Leonce’s with the pretension that she needs freedom of sexuality and freedom of loving. But at Robert’s refusal, she learns that love is nothing more than an illusion and self-interestedness. Therefore not by Robert’s refusal to acknowledge her freedom, but by her sense of being a betrayer, Edna has been devastated the most. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Mike Publishers, 2001. Read More