The Awakening Manipulation

The final reason for Edna’s escape from her troublesome life is the failure of her relationship with Robert. Edna was able to find some form of escape through her desire and hope of being with Robert, but when those plans fell through Edna feels as if she has nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for in life. Robert realizes that he and Edna will never be able to have a true

Freedom - Edna wants to be free of the social norms of society and be her own person.

She is an acquaintance of Edna’s; they spend time together sewing and visiting. She is the antithesis of Edna: she is openly affectionate with her children, lavishing both her children and her husband with total love. She has three children and is planning for a fourth.

Edna’s suicide was victory of self-expression. Edna undergoes a gradual awakening process in which portrays not to only her newly established independence from the constraints of her husband, but also her ability to go against the social norms of society in order to individually express herself. Her suicide encompases the question and critique of living life through the perspective of society such as being responsible for taking care of the kids, cleaning the house, and entertaining any guests that the husband may have over anytime. In the first couple of capters, the novel is quick to emphasize the gerneralized roles kthat are placed onto females, making it apparent that fe,ales are expected to successfully fulfil these roles. For example, Leonce enters home after being out and stated one of the kids had a fever. Edna was certain the child had no fever but Leonce belittles her capability as a mother for indifference with him. “If it was not a mother’s place to look after the children, whose on earth was it?” (27capac).

Edna’s deliberate sacrifice is that she chooses a man who has her relive her young fantasies and mind over her husband and family who demonstrate that responsibility and maturity dictate her life. Before Edna meets Robert, the man who reminisces youth, she has her up and downs with her husband but has a consistent and regular lifestyle with her family. She constantly praises her children over everything but however,

With a new mindset, Edna’s behavior becomes that of a child; she begins to ignore her role as expected from her by society, and starts to develop an atypical behavior. She even immaturely starts to fathom an adventurous and adulterous romance with Robert, not thinking of the possibilities of consequences. Edna soon renounces her family in the sense that she divorces her husband, Leonce, and sends her kids to their grandmother’s without a second thought; she believes her perfect life with them is a mere mirage and is an appearance of what society deems

Robert leaves Edna behind because Edna does not give a clear answer to his marriage

For one thing, I didn't appreciate this story, and I didn't see why Edna's life was totally hopeless. I couldn't have cared less about her, truly. Also, her situation didn't address me by any means. Everything is subjective, be that as it may, Edna has numerous a greater number of alternatives and decisions than a few ladies ever have. More than anything she has wellbeing and the capacity to secure herself and her kids. That in itself is more than numerous ladies have, even today. I can comprehend feeling limited, however I think Edna was an extremely narrow minded lady. On the off chance that anything, she ought to have thought about her youngsters. I am not here to say that ladies don't have presences outside of their relational unions, their

By giving her children a sense of independance early which may enable them for success later on. While other children of the times may have a pseudo unhealthy reliance on a mother, much like Robert's brother Victor who still lives at home. Another more risky thing she did was make a statement that most women even now wouldn't agree with. Edna states: “I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself.”(Chopin 47) This statement holds quite a lot of weight in the way we can view edna. Some may call her selfish for a lack of an undying love for her children. But I view it as brutal honesty. The fact that edna is coming to this conclusion and fighting the ever pushing stream of society really shows how she is trying to fight. Giving up one's self is a very dangerous thing to do. For once you give too much you can lose who you are. But too little and people can lose sight of what you can be/who you are. As a mother edna realizes this and decides to make herself known in a different way than as a mother-woman.

Though some may see the actions taken by Edna as justified, I feel that she was in no way justified in her actions. In the realm of the social situation in the story, she acted selfishly and disregarded her duties as a mother and a wife. She threw away a perfectly fine life for no reasons beyond her own selfishness, and abandoned her family. However, in terms of the romantic tones of the story, she freed herself from her perceived bondage and lived the life she wanted to live.

Unlike most women at the time, Edna refuses to conform to simply being a housewife. Edna tells Madame Ratignolle, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” indicating that even in the early stages of her awakening she had accounted herself more pretentious than society proclaims. At the end of the story Edna stands by her word by ending her life due to the level of unhappiness she was feeling. A housewife of those times would have simply lived her life unhappy and suffered until she possibly couldn’t. Edna on the other hand, chose to take actions into her own hands and take control of what is to happen in her life resulting in her suicide.

“Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (547). She looked at and heard things as if for the first time. “The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier’s spinal column” (556). She decided that she would move out of her house with her husband and children and would move into a small apartment by herself. This is something that women of her day simple did not do. Edna was different.

rather than relying on their husband. Edna demonstrated this by her reliance on her husband early

The mansion that Edna lives in may seem so perfect on the outside, but on the inside it’s completely different. Because Edna is affluent she is a prestigious woman within her social class. But in her house she felt like a prisoner. All the things that she did not want to do; taking care of her kids, she felt obligated to do so. Her husband Lèonce treated her like a materialistic objects ,which Edna was not greatly fond with. The decisions were out of reach, she needed to be this perfect wife like Madame Ratignolle. Expressing that she wasn't not happy she did

Here we see that Edna has always been “different” and that she perceived early the difference between “the outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.”