The awakening 2
The awakening 2The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman into her own person, in spite of the mold society has formed for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier through about a year of her life. During this time we see her struggle to find who she really is, because she knows she cannot be happy filling the role of the mother-woman that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society, and ends up taking her own life. Should readers sympathize with her death? The answer is no.
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book that she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware however, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life readers are told about before her newly appearing independence, we see that she has never been fully content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. She knew he loved her but she did not love him. It was not even the case that she did not know what love was, for she had had infatuations that at the time (being so young) she believed was love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision of marrying Mr. Pontellier. Readers should not sympathize with this because she was the one who had set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him but will never once admit that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way society has defined the roles of men and women. She does not attribute any of the blame to herself.
The only other example of married life in the book is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional roles of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of that society. Edna evidently was not. Mr. Pontellier knew this but had apparently not known before. This shows through in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work something out that would be able to make Edna feel satisfied in her life. They could possibly have created some outlet for her feelings of frustration, while she upheld the responsibilities that she had tied herself to. Instead of this, she began to rebel, but she ended up crossing the line. When a mother has children she cannot simply decide they do not need care because...
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