Edna

I found myself intrigued with our class discussion on Wednesday regarding overall reactions to Edna. Many of the women in class had a negative view of Edna, primarily because she had children. Their argument was along the lines of “yea, we liked that she was independent—BUT SHE HAD CHILDREN.” While I am not disregarding the importance of raising children and being present in a family setting, I have to wonder how these reactions would have been reversed should Edna have been a male character. Meaning, would the women in class be more supportive of an Edna-like character should the point of view been from a husband confined by the barracks of his wife? I can’t help but question the role and responsibility a mother has over her children and the role and responsibility of a father. I can only speculate how the novel The Awakening would read should the roles have been reversed. Obviously the attraction to the novel is based on the feministic qualities it embodies. As a woman, perhaps I am supposed to have a motherly instinctive distaste to Edna—yet I completely enjoyed her as a character. Her needy, and disillusioned idea of independence amused me (and I use amused in the least degrading way). The reader and I see a woman character pushing the boundaries of her societal role. I think as modern readers we forget to read the novel as if we were living during 1899. The reaction of the public then and the reaction now must be vastly dissimilar. I want to think many women read this novel and secretly embraced Edna and began to make slight changes in their own lives to carry out Edna’s message. Whereas, the modern woman reads this novel already having the freedom Edna so greatly wished for. Perhaps I am assuming too much and taking liberties not available to me—however, I think this novel was exactly what society needed in 1899; and exactly what society needs in 2012.

Love

Critical reading of the works written by Kate Chopin, “The Awakening,” has led me to believe love is multifaceted. Analytically, I questioned what constitutes “love” and how the role of an individual’s actions justify love; more specifically, how courtship, friendship and stewardship embody holistic, or not so holistic, forms of love.  

The respect and intimacy formed by the courtship between two individuals embodies the act of being in love. Illustrating the intimacy between lovers, Walt Whitman writes of the “exultation, victory and relief” that comes from “the bed fellow’s embrace in the night.” Sharing a bed with one you love is a symbol of trust and respect. Beyond the passion or “physical love” a bed symbolizes today, Whitman introduces a modern reader to the concept that sharing a bed fosters fragile yet fulfilling love between two individuals. However, courtship as written by the words of Walt Whitman also included the acknowledgement of gender equality as he writes: “by my side, or back of me, Eve following, or in front, and I following her just the same.” The equality Whitman describes translates into a love in which a man acknowledges a woman as his “other half” rather than his “property.” As I begin to read “The Awakening” I could not help but compare the complete disparaging relationship Edna and her husband share.

“Do! By all means,” urged Mr.Pontellier. “What evening will you come? Say Thursday. Will you come Thursday?”

This urgency in Mr. Pontellier’s voice reinstates his immature concern for his wife. Her “health” is in danger simply because she has stopped the housekeeping? Further down the page Mr. Pontellier voices his concern regarding Edna’s well being while he leaves town. The tone in his voice presents Edna as a material good—property if you will. Allocated to Mr. Pontellier through the confines of marriage Edna (as seen through his eyes) is nothing more than currency. By means of society Edna is a form of currency Mr. Pontellier can use to maintain his status; a nowadays “trophy wife.”