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.”