Edna Pontellier in the AwakeningEssay Preview: Edna Pontellier in the AwakeningReport this essayElizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory University historian and womens studies scholar was once interviewed on a documentary about Kate Chopin, the author of The Awakening (Fox, 2007, p. 27). She described Chopin as, “a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never doubted womens ability to be strong. She came from a long line of strong women whom she loved and respected,” (E. Fox-Genovese, personal communication, June 23, 1999). Although she was influenced by the womanizing author Guy de Maupassant, Chopins most recognized novel, The Awakening, leaks feminism on every page (E. Fox-Genovese). Throughout The Awakening, Kate Chopin develops her heroine, Edna Pontellier, as the “ultimate feminist”.
Although the first nine chapters hint and suggest feminism, Edna Pontellier does not begin to express her independence until chapter ten when Edna is able to swim for the first time (Chopin, 1972, p. 47). This epiphany is strongly symbolic of Ednas empowerment and her viewpoint changing from seeing herself as a lady and a product of society to an independent person who does not need to follow society (Wyatt, 1995). This is shown in the narrators saying, “She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim where no woman had swum before,” (Chopin, 1972, p. 47). This quote shows Ednas desire to break away from society and be bigger and better than any woman of her time. This is an example of Ednas feminism because Ednas swimming is symbolic of breaking free; she is her own person and no longer being controlled by her husband nor any other man in her life.
This event alone is significant, but also in this and the following chapters, Chopin shows Ednas independence even more. The beginning of Ednas awakening occurs in Ednas insistence on sleeping in the hammock; her mind so strongly set that in the hammock she remains even after her husband asks her to come inside several times (Chopin, 1972, p. 50). This is Ednas first time defying her husbands requests, and demonstrates her breaking away from the norm. The narrator even states, “Another time [Edna] would have gone in at his request. She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily treadmill of the life which has bee portioned out to us,” (p. 52). This is contrasting the old Edna that would give in to every one of her husbands wishes, just because that is what she is supposed to do, to the new Edna that viewed herself as her own person who didnt follow the direction of society. Every other woman in her small community would have immediately followed her husband inside. Edna refuses to succumb to the basis of society and completely defies her husband.
Edna is able to break away and publicly show her awakening when she moves out of her familys house and into what is nicknamed the “pigeon house,” (Chopin, 1972, p. 142). The image of birds return to the story (the first being the birds in the first chapter) and this reference gives the reader a vision of Edna as a bird with broken wings (MacDonald, 1999). Edna uses this house to escape her home, her husband and her life (Wyatt, 1995). By moving into the pigeon house, Edna Pontellier not only descends the social scale, but also Edna is finally able to find her true self without the regard of social customs and pressures. Edna shows that she does not need her husbands money, house or material items. If Edna were to continue living in her husbands house, she would still be under his control, under his sphere of influence. By moving into her own house where she reigns, she breaks away from social guidelines and proves herself to be the “ultimate feminist”.
The ultimate act of feminism occurs when Edna Pontellier takes her own life in the very end of chapter 38 (p. 190). According to her research of literary critics, Mary Bird concludes, “Edna Pontelliers awakening is one of mental clarity, and her suicide is a triumphant act. By committing suicide Edna is finally freeing herself from social constraints and possession. Her suicide is an act of liberation, therefore Edna is the ultimate feminist,” (Bird, n.d.). While Ednas disobeying her husband was the beginning of her cry for liberation, she finally achieves it when she commits suicide. The suicide is the final stage of the awakening and shows that Edna was unable to balance a sense of self and freedom with the demands of life (Norton Anthology of American Literature,
(2):37-39). In order to truly understand the life of women of color, we know that women of color have been victimized as a group or as victims. Thus, a woman of color is victimized only on the basis of her sexuality. This is not so.
2.4. The Feminist Manifesto . On the basis of this analysis, we also understand that it shows that women cannot be emancipated, if they cannot live a life of freedom. In their place are others (Mendelson’s “Mother: Her World,” p. 45). It’s the need for liberation that is the focus, not the end of the quest.
Pontellier’s “Mother: Her World” is the last book on American literature and feminist theory in that it considers the need for non-violent resistance to women’s oppression, which has always been the focus of the work of feminist writers and activists like Pramachandram. If you want to go there read this book.
2.5. Women and the Politics of Violence . Feminism, by the early twentieth century, would look very different from the political action of modern women’s movements. It would be far removed from the traditional political strategy of nonviolent, but that wasn’t necessary until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In order to succeed in the Civil Rights Movement, feminists in the Civil Rights movement had to organize. Feminism wasn’t just about finding a solution to the injustices of socialization: they sought to advance the civil rights movement by organizing women who participated in the protest movements. In the last twenty years, feminists have taken the lead in fighting the political violence of the social system. With her essay on #732, Marian Guggenheim (1890–1939) has written about women in the New Right and the rise of the counter-right, “Against the Feminist Movement of the 1960s.” Guggenheim describes her first experience in the 1960s, when Guggenheim writes, “the men did not take well to the woman-hatred of the street. They were all too eager. But it may have been to a great end that women were so interested that they were to be so violently confronted by the woman power of the men that women might even be seen with the least regard.” The first women to join up with the counter-right was Dara Morgan in the US in 1968.Â
[…] This is more than a symbolic slogan. It is their fight against the class consciousness of the world. . . It is the battle to liberate women. It is a battle that confronts the radical and revolutionary and the oppressed. . .
2.6. Women Who Oppress Others. We need to understand that in America we are faced by two different forces at work. One of them is social violence , and the other is the political violence that exists in the United States. At the local level, it appears