Give your opinion about the end of this novel. Is Edna’s behavior a cop out or does she experience an extreme moment of self-realization? Provide examples and support for your view.
Edna Sleeps With The Fishes As we all know, Edna decided in the final chapter to take her own life. After living a life of what she would view as oppression, she felt the only way to free herself from her societal chains was to take her own life. The question at hand, as I see it, is whether or not Edna made the logical choice. In my personal opinion, suicide, as grim as it may seem, was Edna’s only escape. Throughout her life she had been viewed as a piece of property to her husband and was expected to care for the house and play her role in society: as every woman was. On page 44 we see Leonce express on concern for his wife’s sunburn, however as the story progresses, Leonce is more concerned with how his wife makes him appear to society, rather than worry about his wife’s health. Edna did not lead an uncomfortable life style; in fact it was quite the opposite. The purpose of the story was to show that even in the most fortunate of situations; any woman could feel trapped under the weight of the social pyramid. We see the constant motif of the birds in the gilded cages crying “…allez vous-en, sapristi…” (Page 43). It becomes clear that the bird represents Edna, trapped by her gilded mansion with her seemingly perfect husband and her darling children. Edna is able to use the men of her life as an escape from her life. For example, it is never clearly stated in the text that Edna has an affair with Mr. Arobin, however it is clear that she has no emotional attachment to this man yet still spends a lot of time alone with him. The author infers that the two had an affair, not for love and not even definitely for lust, but for the idea of an escape. Edna’s art was also a way for her to transcend the mundane duties of a housewife and escape her role; but somehow in the end of the novel, these things do not seem to appeal to her, certainly not enough to pull her back to shore.
Many can argue that her affairs with Mr. Arobin and her love for Robert and even her art could have sustained Edna and kept her free from her society; I disagree for many reasons. We find that towards the end of the story, Edna gives herself freedom and moves to the “pigeon house.” Ironically enough, she gains freedom by moving into a larger bird cage, but still a cage nonetheless. In the end, Edna is faced with only two options, run away from her family and life in Grand Isle, or commit suicide. If we consider the first option, it may have actually worked out for Edna. She could have taken whatever of her husband’s money was lying around, said goodbye, and fled the city to start a new life, awakened, and empowered as a female. In my opinion, this would not have allowed her to feel empowered because she would have been cast out of society and it would not be her choice to live in exile. Edna hated being trapped by her society, but we never see her honestly consider running away because being trapped by a society that has exiled you is far worse than living in restraint by that same society. Finally we observe the last scene of the story. Edna swims out to sea and once again sees a bird with a broken wing. The bird spirals down and splashes dead because its wings are not strong enough to carry it to safety. In the same respect, Edna’s wings are not strong enough to allow her to break free from her societal chains and she is unable to claim her life as her own. The only way I view Edna’s suicide is by viewing it as an empowering experience for her. As grim as it may seem, Edna has lived her whole life feeling enslaved by her surroundings. Edna had never been able to make choices for herself which lost her an identity as a woman. When the time had come for her to commit suicide, she had finally allowed herself to claim her life as her own. Edna proved, in the only way she could, that her life was her own: to live out or to take away. This act was her awakening, her death gave her the realization that she did control her own fate, and she could live her life it were her own…too bad she didn’t live long enough to make the choice to swim back to shore…
The social view of The Awakening would accuse Edna Pontellier of being selfish and unjustified in her actions. Romantics would however falsify that statement based on her desire to be independent at the turn of the century. Edna Pontellier did not like to do anything that did not please her or be commanded by someone other than herself, making the social view of this novel more prevalent, proving that this character was generally a selfish woman. We see in the early chapters of this novel that Edna tends to strive to take care of herself above anyone else. For example, during their family trip to Grande Isle, Edna insisted on staying outside on the hammock instead of going inside to sleep. Her husband said, "This is more than folly. I can't permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the house instantly" (31). Since she was being commanded, she decided to disobey her husband and only listen to herself. This was a problem because this was around the turn of the century when women still had to do right by their husbands. Edna was chained by the limits of society, with that being the source of her unhappiness. Also, when it came down to her children, she would “give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me."(140). When it came down to tending to her children, she would always be leaving something out, never giving one hundred percent of herself. Mothers have to be willing to give all of themselves to their children because they are not old enough to care for themselves, let alone experience the world by themselves. They need their mother’s love and affection more than anything. We also see her selfish nature through her relationships with Leonce, Robert and Alcee. When Leonce is away, Edna pursues her relationship with Robert. The same goes for when Robert is away, Edna fills the void with Alcee Arobin. She enjoys the rush of emotion and lust that she gets when being with her lovers Robert and Alcee, something that she does not get from her husband. So she has concluded that the only way to get that feeling is to cheat and find someone who gives her that feeling of romance and independence. Also, she fails to consider anyone's feelings or values over her own. But in the end, she left her husband and Alcee to be with Robert who ended up leaving her, creating a vicious cycle. When she waded into the water at Grande Isle for the last time, she once again thought of just herself and her happiness. If she wanted her children to grow up to be beautiful human beings, she would have endured her role as a Creole woman, because it was indeed much like acting- for she had little Creole in her blood, and done right by her family. Yet, her family was not even her final conscious thought. That was, instead, about Robert; and it too was selfish. She thought "He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand" (116). She thought not of breaking her lovers heart, not even about her family, but about how Robert did not understand her. Edna may have believed that her actions were reinforced by her unhappiness, but instead, they seemed more selfish than ever. Her entire life, she had been selfish and self-serving, so ultimately her last action would be completely for herself. No one would benefit from her suicide and that is what she failed to realize.
Greetings everyone, and welcome back to the seemingly bygone days of blog-posting, literature analysis, and..erm..mental stimulation in general! From the fact that it is the morning of Sunday, January 2nd and only one person has posted here, I surmise that everyone has enjoyed their winter break as much as I have. As we part from the luxuries of a lazy (or college-app filled) vacation and prepare to trek the halls of Hamilton once again, I wish all of my classmates a healthy and booming 2011; may we all grow and prosper during this last year together as high school students.
Anyway, please allow me to begin this response by saying (or better yet, apologizing for the fact) that I simply cannot be objective in this debate. Call me a dogmatist, deem me principled and irrationally unwavering, but the fact is that I cannot simply and detachedly analyze evidence to determine whether or not a woman's suicide was justified, for my personal convictions are just too strong. It is my firm belief that to determine whether or not life is worth living simply by weighing the pros and cons of one's circumstances against each other is to reduce the value of human life down to that of a business venture or some monetary transaction, a reduction nothing short of insulting to the human race. As mere human beings, how can we, with any semblance of moral rectitude, use such mundane criteria as living conditions and relationship statuses to judge the value of one's life and thus to determine whether or not one should go on living? Something about that just does not sit right with me. Risk of sounding cliché accepted, I believe that every life, regardless of circumstance and despite any magnitude of suffering and despondency, is worth living and that there is always an alternative to suicide. With this being said, while I understand that Edna spent her lifetime enchained by an oppressive society and suffered a most poignant grief and hopelessness throughout every chapter of her life, I assert that suicide, in the words of the prompt, was in every way a "cop out," and that she had a more reasonable alternative.
I implore felo-de-se supporters to answer one simple question: have we not already engaged in this very debate, only in a slightly different context? In his famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy, Hamlet asks us: "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heartache..."
Knowing Hamlet, we all know that he is basically asking us whether one should resort to suicide to end one's troubles, or if we should just tough it out, grow from our suffering, and move on. As the events of that play unfolded, we arrived at the conclusion that it is indeed nobler to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," rather than cowardly attempting to escape them in death. The same can be said for Edna.
For me, the most overwhelming piece of evidence that Edna's suicide is not the culmination of some "extreme moment of realization" is found in the imagery of the flying bird in the closing pages of the novel. One cannot deny that throughout the entire volume, birds, whether caged or free, are used to represent the plight of women in 19th century Creole society in some shape or form. While caged birds symbolize the oppression and limitations forced upon women every day, the image of a free, soaring bird is used to represent Edna's ideal state of existence: completely independent and free to venture wherever the wind takes her. Two cages birds, for example, are presented in the very first scene of the novel to show the degree of oppression present in Creole society. The first bird, a "green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door" repeats "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Saprisiti," or, "Go away! Go away! For Christ's sake!"
As it utters this grim message, the parrot tragically reminds us readers of the words that must be spoken to Edna each and every day. Like Edna, the parrot is admired only for its beauty and is kept isolated within a small cage, tantamount to the metaphorical "cage" society places upon Edna to limit her behaviors and thoughts to those of a proper 19th century woman. Opposite the parrot, we find "the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence." The mocking-bird, a species famous for repeating commonly-heard phrases, is a powerful symbol of the 19th century women: expected to blindly regurgitate whatever values, ideals, and beliefs are thrust upon them, never to question or deviate from the accepted norm. During a conversation between Edna and Madameoisselle Reisz, we find more evidence that the bird is used to represent the plight of women, as Reisz tells Edna: "The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings" (138). Since by this point in the novel Edna has already transgressed social norms by indulging in an affair with Alcee Arobin, going to the races with Robert, and participating in many other contemptible behaviors, it is clear that the "bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition" is Edna.
Great, so we have established that birds represent women, it is clear throughout the entirety of the novel. Why, then, do people forget that motif in the final chapters? If we follow the bird symbolism up to Edna's last swim, we find this haunting piece of imagery: "All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water" (175). Assuming that the free bird retains its symbolic value as Edna and the "ideal" state of existence, what does this fluttering and ultimate debilitation mean? It means defeat. Echoing Mademoiselle Reisz's message, the bird has failed to "fly above the plane of tradition," and thus Edna has failed to rebel against her society, has failed to sustain her spiritual awakening and has failed live the ideal life of independence from social constraints. Thus, Edna's suicide should not be misconstrued as a successful rebellion against limits placed upon her, but as the end result of utter failure. A "cop out," if you must.
The cowardly and exorbitant nature of Edna's suicide is also made evident once we broaden our focus from one solely on Edna and her development to one one all of the secondary, albeit extremely important characters in the novel. From the moment that Edna sits on her porch weeping after Leonce returns home from a night out and scolds her for failing to tend to their children, she sinks into a deeper state of despondency with each passing chapter. This downward spiral is aptly demonstrated by Edna's gradual transformation from a woman passionately in love to a lackadaisical woman so far removed from the normal ebb and flow of society, all she could do is sit idle and watch her life pass by. Simply put, she is transformed from one of the two nameless lovers to the nameless "lady in black" that are found so commonly throughout the work. On page 82, for example, Edna still possesses a general vigor and passion for life, as she hopes that she will one day end up with Robert:
"She gazed away toward Grand Terre and thought she would ilke to be alone there with Robert, in the sun, listening to the ocean's roar..." (82) Here, she clearly resembles the two lovers in that she feels passion for some part of her life, and draws enough inspiration from those passions to keep on living. Just 45 pages later, however, she loses that passion and inspiration. Chapter XXV opens with this description of Edna: "[she]...stayed indoors and nursed a mood with which she was becoming too familiar..it was not despair; but it seemed to her as if life were passing by, broken and unfulfilled" (127). By this point, all of the vigor and passion has been seeped out of Edna, undoubtedly due to the fact that she remained trapped and buckling under the weight of a stringent, limiting social code. Now, she has transitioned from the mentality of the two nameless lovers to that of the mourning widow. Some people may take this evidence and use it against me, arguing that the downward spiral shows that she had no choice but to end her life, for there was no chance of self-improvement or of dealing with the narrow-minded Creole society. So there was no alternative to suicide, eh? Hmm...if only there was some other character similar to Edna...a woman who understood and shared her sentiments, but managed to endure the oppressive society...
Oh that's right, there is! Mademoiselle Reisz. For all intents and purposes, Mademoiselle Reisz is the same person as Edna: they both understand that it is not just to keep women subjugated to men or to keep them within the realm of domesticity, and they both express their emotions (their discontentment) through art. How, therefore, can anyone claim that Edna had no choice but to take her own life? M. Reisz is the living, breathing example that there is indeed an alternative: to live in relative obscurity, taking solace in the fact that it is better to live a modest lifestyle in accordance with your values than to live an extravagant lifestyle as a hollow shell, regurgitating the values of others. Ayn Rand's hallowed corpse is smiling, ladies and gentlemen.
I've rambled on for long enough, but there is one last, pretty important point that I'd like to make. In the last chapter of the novel, Edna makes it pretty clear that her children are primarily responsible for dragging "her into soul's slavery for the rest of her days" (175). When you couple this with Edna's declaration that she would give up her life for her children, but would never sacrifice her self, we conjecture that Edna gave up her life more for Etienne and Raoul's sake than anyone else's. How does this make sense? Well, think about it this way. If Edna were to go on living in isolation in the pigeon house, her reputation as Leonce Pontellier's ex-wife who one day decided to go rogue would surely bring ignominy to her children. Therefore, some would argue that to take her own life was Edna's only only way to simultaneously protect her values and her children. Convincing. Shockingly, however, I still disagree. The way I see it, Edna's reputation would not bring shame upon her children as they reach adulthood, for, "since it was the fashion to be in love with married people" (173), I don't think citizens of Grand Isle or de le Quartier Francais de N'awlins would harp on Edna's insubordination. Instead, I think Edna, through example, would one day be able to inspire her children and teach them that social customs are not as absolute as they seem. Thus, living out her life would bring enlightenment rather than embarrassment to her children.
P.S. - I said "it's the morning of Sunday, Jan. 2nd" earlier but clearly i'm posting in the evening...I actually did start writing this post this morning, it just..well, took me a little longer than I thought to complete. Bye all!
From the beginning of Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier did not fit into the Creole world; just like it did not fit into her world. Edna was never a “mother-woman,” or happy enough with her husband to be a tentative wife and/or fold into being his property. Personally, I stand by my opinion that Edna could have “bumped” him off. The Pontelliers had no intimacy in their relationship; in fact they were not even friends. Both Leonce and Edna where completely indifferent (or ignorant in Leonce’s case) to one another’s needs. There were several examples early in the novel that they both knew they were unhappy. On page 48, we learn that Leonce “thought it was very discouraging that his wife…evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.” On pages 46-47, Edna is unalarmed when Leonce states that he may or may not be home for dinner. So, there was really nothing to salvage for Edna. Getting Leonce out of the way was easy enough; one could just simply poison someone’s food and get away with it in those days. Then, after she was widowed, Edna could have all the freedom and fun she wanted. She would be free from answering to callers and could leave the house whenever she “simply felt like going out,” (pg 100). And Leonce would be free from covering for Edna, as he did when he wrote a notice in the newspaper stating that the Pontelliers were going abroad and altering their home on pages 150-151. If Edna had approached her circumstances differently from the beginning of the novel, she would have never had to “swim with the fish.”
Edna’s suicide was most definitely the only way out (for her). I in no way, shape, or form believe that suicide is the answer to anything. Life is a gift and to just kill oneself on a whim is absurd and impractical. However; in the context of Edna’s life, suicide can be seen as her only option. Edna lived a very privileged life. Most people would say that Edna’s life was easy. She had a multitude of servants who cleaned her home and prepared her meals, she had a nanny who took care of her children, and she lived a lavished lifestyle in an exquisite mansion. She also had a very laid back and somewhat understanding husband. Even with all of this, Edna could not find happiness. She constantly felt like a “caged bird”, her needs could not be met by materialistic things. Edna needed to find freedom within herself but the time period in which she lived in, prevented her from doing so. At first, Edna tries to escape the chains of her matrimony to her husband Leonce, by exploring relationships with other men. While married to Leonce, Edna is deduced to a mere object of possession. In spite of this, Leonce is a very laid back and understanding husband. Leonce attempts to care for his wife, but Edna shows no interest in him. Leonce even states “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.” Edna is clearly discontent with her plot in life. She states “An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul’s summer day.” Leonce takes notice of his wife’s discontent and tries to help her in the only way he knows how, by seeking medical assistance. The one thing that seems to free Edna’s soul is sexual exploration. Edna pursues a relationship with both Robert Lebrun and Alcee Arobin. Edna’s connection with Robert is more emotional, whereas her relationship with Alcee is more sexual. While with Robert, Edna recognizes “anew the symptoms of infatuation which she had felt incipiently as a child… newly awakened being demanded.” Her relationship with Robert seems to be the only cure to her desire for freedom. However, due to the time period, Robert does not desire a mistress, he desires a wife. Although a life with Robert is what Edna’s heart desires, she does not desire to return to the chains of matrimony. Edna’s thought mentality was clearly progressive for her time period. Had Edna been born years later, she would have been able to obtain the freedoms that she had desperately sought. If Edna decided to continue her life, not only would she be enslaved but her family and friends would also be enslaved by her very presence. Her existence affected the lives of everyone around her. She was incapable of being a proper wife of that time period which brought shame upon Leonce. She was an absentee mother, which negatively affected her two sons who were practically abandoned. Also, Robert and Alcee both loved Edna but could not actually be with her. Through Edna’s discontent with life, Edna caused discontent among her family and friends. It seems that the only way to fix this discontent was through Edna’s suicide.
Edna is a punk for committing suicide. She lived the most privileged life a woman could possibly live within that time period and for her it just wasn’t enough. She was an ungrateful “female dog”. Edna didn’t want to conform to the societal ideals for a woman and she didn’t. “I’m no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose.” She had fully detached herself from under the ownership of her husband that was assumed by the ideals of the New Orleans society. She lived her life based on her ideals. She drank publicly, she smoked publicly, and she didn’t uphold to the requests of her husband to take calls or host parties or constantly tend to the children. She was having affairs with several men. She lived in a separate house than her husband. She always just went to the beach and chilled. The reason why she decided to kill herself was because it just wasn’t enough for her. She just wanted to live without any responsibility or constraints whatsoever. In addition, she was lonely. She had no companions that lived a similar life or could understand and support the ideals of life that she lived by. She just wasn’t strong enough to keep on standing alone. Even when she had hope that she could live a life with her lover, Robert, she still realized how she would still be alone because even he lived by the ideals of having a strict and confining marriage. “I forgot everything, but a wild dream of your some way becoming my wife,” but Edna doesn’t want to be anybody’s wife. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the same will power as other women who were going through this similar awakening, the women who gave birth to the women’s suffrage movement or the people who pushed the civil rights movement or generally any people who created any revolution in the history of the world. She simply didn’t have enough strength to stand firmly by her beliefs.
As we all know at the end of The Awakening Edna decides to end her life by walking into the sea. She came to the realization that she did not have the strength to carry on in a society where much was expected of her as a women. She felt out of her place and did not fit the criteria of a mother women, or the traditional women in society during this time era. Edna felt that she lived in a society of opression. She did not agree with the responsibilities of a woman but rather believed that one should be able to find oneself and live how one pleased.She rebeled against the traditional view of a woman in various ways."She drank her liquor from the glass as a man would have done"(133).She also did not like being portrayed as someone's property."I’m no longer of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose"(167).She believed she had her own saying although others like Robert and Leonce viewed her as property. Edna did not want to be a wife she was not content with the concept of nature and all that came along with it."Edna began to feel uneasy. She was seized with a vague dread. Her own like experiences seemed far away, unreal, and only half remembered. She recalled faintly an ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which has deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life to which she had given being, added to the great unnumbered multitude of souls that come and go." She was not the ideal mother because she lacked the responsibility that came with caring for the children. She would often cast them aside and focus on her own life. Edna attempted to get away from the societal chains that held her back by obtaining her own place with her own money. This made her feel independent both financially and emotionally. Although she attempted to find solitude and freedom she did not have enough strenght to carry her beliefs. She still felt out of place and her only way out was suicide.When one thinks of suicide one thinks of a grim death but what one fails to realize is that it also is a way that a person come to peace with themselves.The last scene in The Awakening where Edna kills herself is beautified "The foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out. The water was chill, but she walked on. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." Giving the reader a sense that Edna has come to peace with herself.She has found her solitude and freedom not in society but in death.
Edna Sleeps With The Fishes
ReplyDeleteAs we all know, Edna decided in the final chapter to take her own life. After living a life of what she would view as oppression, she felt the only way to free herself from her societal chains was to take her own life. The question at hand, as I see it, is whether or not Edna made the logical choice.
In my personal opinion, suicide, as grim as it may seem, was Edna’s only escape. Throughout her life she had been viewed as a piece of property to her husband and was expected to care for the house and play her role in society: as every woman was. On page 44 we see Leonce express on concern for his wife’s sunburn, however as the story progresses, Leonce is more concerned with how his wife makes him appear to society, rather than worry about his wife’s health.
Edna did not lead an uncomfortable life style; in fact it was quite the opposite. The purpose of the story was to show that even in the most fortunate of situations; any woman could feel trapped under the weight of the social pyramid. We see the constant motif of the birds in the gilded cages crying “…allez vous-en, sapristi…” (Page 43). It becomes clear that the bird represents Edna, trapped by her gilded mansion with her seemingly perfect husband and her darling children.
Edna is able to use the men of her life as an escape from her life. For example, it is never clearly stated in the text that Edna has an affair with Mr. Arobin, however it is clear that she has no emotional attachment to this man yet still spends a lot of time alone with him. The author infers that the two had an affair, not for love and not even definitely for lust, but for the idea of an escape. Edna’s art was also a way for her to transcend the mundane duties of a housewife and escape her role; but somehow in the end of the novel, these things do not seem to appeal to her, certainly not enough to pull her back to shore.
Many can argue that her affairs with Mr. Arobin and her love for Robert and even her art could have sustained Edna and kept her free from her society; I disagree for many reasons. We find that towards the end of the story, Edna gives herself freedom and moves to the “pigeon house.” Ironically enough, she gains freedom by moving into a larger bird cage, but still a cage nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, Edna is faced with only two options, run away from her family and life in Grand Isle, or commit suicide. If we consider the first option, it may have actually worked out for Edna. She could have taken whatever of her husband’s money was lying around, said goodbye, and fled the city to start a new life, awakened, and empowered as a female. In my opinion, this would not have allowed her to feel empowered because she would have been cast out of society and it would not be her choice to live in exile. Edna hated being trapped by her society, but we never see her honestly consider running away because being trapped by a society that has exiled you is far worse than living in restraint by that same society.
Finally we observe the last scene of the story. Edna swims out to sea and once again sees a bird with a broken wing. The bird spirals down and splashes dead because its wings are not strong enough to carry it to safety. In the same respect, Edna’s wings are not strong enough to allow her to break free from her societal chains and she is unable to claim her life as her own. The only way I view Edna’s suicide is by viewing it as an empowering experience for her. As grim as it may seem, Edna has lived her whole life feeling enslaved by her surroundings. Edna had never been able to make choices for herself which lost her an identity as a woman. When the time had come for her to commit suicide, she had finally allowed herself to claim her life as her own. Edna proved, in the only way she could, that her life was her own: to live out or to take away. This act was her awakening, her death gave her the realization that she did control her own fate, and she could live her life it were her own…too bad she didn’t live long enough to make the choice to swim back to shore…
The social view of The Awakening would accuse Edna Pontellier of being selfish and unjustified in her actions. Romantics would however falsify that statement based on her desire to be independent at the turn of the century. Edna Pontellier did not like to do anything that did not please her or be commanded by someone other than herself, making the social view of this novel more prevalent, proving that this character was generally a selfish woman. We see in the early chapters of this novel that Edna tends to strive to take care of herself above anyone else. For example, during their family trip to Grande Isle, Edna insisted on staying outside on the hammock instead of going inside to sleep. Her husband said, "This is more than folly. I can't permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the house instantly" (31). Since she was being commanded, she decided to disobey her husband and only listen to herself. This was a problem because this was around the turn of the century when women still had to do right by their husbands. Edna was chained by the limits of society, with that being the source of her unhappiness. Also, when it came down to her children, she would “give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me."(140). When it came down to tending to her children, she would always be leaving something out, never giving one hundred percent of herself. Mothers have to be willing to give all of themselves to their children because they are not old enough to care for themselves, let alone experience the world by themselves. They need their mother’s love and affection more than anything. We also see her selfish nature through her relationships with Leonce, Robert and Alcee. When Leonce is away, Edna pursues her relationship with Robert. The same goes for when Robert is away, Edna fills the void with Alcee Arobin. She enjoys the rush of emotion and lust that she gets when being with her lovers Robert and Alcee, something that she does not get from her husband. So she has concluded that the only way to get that feeling is to cheat and find someone who gives her that feeling of romance and independence. Also, she fails to consider anyone's feelings or values over her own. But in the end, she left her husband and Alcee to be with Robert who ended up leaving her, creating a vicious cycle. When she waded into the water at Grande Isle for the last time, she once again thought of just herself and her happiness. If she wanted her children to grow up to be beautiful human beings, she would have endured her role as a Creole woman, because it was indeed much like acting- for she had little Creole in her blood, and done right by her family. Yet, her family was not even her final conscious thought. That was, instead, about Robert; and it too was selfish. She thought "He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand" (116). She thought not of breaking her lovers heart, not even about her family, but about how Robert did not understand her. Edna may have believed that her actions were reinforced by her unhappiness, but instead, they seemed more selfish than ever. Her entire life, she had been selfish and self-serving, so ultimately her last action would be completely for herself. No one would benefit from her suicide and that is what she failed to realize.
ReplyDeleteGreetings everyone, and welcome back to the seemingly bygone days of blog-posting, literature analysis, and..erm..mental stimulation in general! From the fact that it is the morning of Sunday, January 2nd and only one person has posted here, I surmise that everyone has enjoyed their winter break as much as I have. As we part from the luxuries of a lazy (or college-app filled) vacation and prepare to trek the halls of Hamilton once again, I wish all of my classmates a healthy and booming 2011; may we all grow and prosper during this last year together as high school students.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, please allow me to begin this response by saying (or better yet, apologizing for the fact) that I simply cannot be objective in this debate. Call me a dogmatist, deem me principled and irrationally unwavering, but the fact is that I cannot simply and detachedly analyze evidence to determine whether or not a woman's suicide was justified, for my personal convictions are just too strong. It is my firm belief that to determine whether or not life is worth living simply by weighing the pros and cons of one's circumstances against each other is to reduce the value of human life down to that of a business venture or some monetary transaction, a reduction nothing short of insulting to the human race. As mere human beings, how can we, with any semblance of moral rectitude, use such mundane criteria as living conditions and relationship statuses to judge the value of one's life and thus to determine whether or not one should go on living? Something about that just does not sit right with me. Risk of sounding cliché accepted, I believe that every life, regardless of circumstance and despite any magnitude of suffering and despondency, is worth living and that there is always an alternative to suicide. With this being said, while I understand that Edna spent her lifetime enchained by an oppressive society and suffered a most poignant grief and hopelessness throughout every chapter of her life, I assert that suicide, in the words of the prompt, was in every way a "cop out," and that she had a more reasonable alternative.
I implore felo-de-se supporters to answer one simple question: have we not already engaged in this very debate, only in a slightly different context? In his famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy, Hamlet asks us:
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache..."
Knowing Hamlet, we all know that he is basically asking us whether one should resort to suicide to end one's troubles, or if we should just tough it out, grow from our suffering, and move on. As the events of that play unfolded, we arrived at the conclusion that it is indeed nobler to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," rather than cowardly attempting to escape them in death. The same can be said for Edna.
For me, the most overwhelming piece of evidence that Edna's suicide is not the culmination of some "extreme moment of realization" is found in the imagery of the flying bird in the closing pages of the novel. One cannot deny that throughout the entire volume, birds, whether caged or free, are used to represent the plight of women in 19th century Creole society in some shape or form. While caged birds symbolize the oppression and limitations forced upon women every day, the image of a free, soaring bird is used to represent Edna's ideal state of existence: completely independent and free to venture wherever the wind takes her. Two cages birds, for example, are presented in the very first scene of the novel to show the degree of oppression present in Creole society. The first bird, a "green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door" repeats "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Saprisiti," or, "Go away! Go away! For Christ's sake!"
As it utters this grim message, the parrot tragically reminds us readers of the words that must be spoken to Edna each and every day. Like Edna, the parrot is admired only for its beauty and is kept isolated within a small cage, tantamount to the metaphorical "cage" society places upon Edna to limit her behaviors and thoughts to those of a proper 19th century woman. Opposite the parrot, we find "the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence." The mocking-bird, a species famous for repeating commonly-heard phrases, is a powerful symbol of the 19th century women: expected to blindly regurgitate whatever values, ideals, and beliefs are thrust upon them, never to question or deviate from the accepted norm. During a conversation between Edna and Madameoisselle Reisz, we find more evidence that the bird is used to represent the plight of women, as Reisz tells Edna: "The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings" (138). Since by this point in the novel Edna has already transgressed social norms by indulging in an affair with Alcee Arobin, going to the races with Robert, and participating in many other contemptible behaviors, it is clear that the "bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition" is Edna.
ReplyDeleteGreat, so we have established that birds represent women, it is clear throughout the entirety of the novel. Why, then, do people forget that motif in the final chapters? If we follow the bird symbolism up to Edna's last swim, we find this haunting piece of imagery: "All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water" (175). Assuming that the free bird retains its symbolic value as Edna and the "ideal" state of existence, what does this fluttering and ultimate debilitation mean? It means defeat. Echoing Mademoiselle Reisz's message, the bird has failed to "fly above the plane of tradition," and thus Edna has failed to rebel against her society, has failed to sustain her spiritual awakening and has failed live the ideal life of independence from social constraints. Thus, Edna's suicide should not be misconstrued as a successful rebellion against limits placed upon her, but as the end result of utter failure. A "cop out," if you must.
The cowardly and exorbitant nature of Edna's suicide is also made evident once we broaden our focus from one solely on Edna and her development to one one all of the secondary, albeit extremely important characters in the novel. From the moment that Edna sits on her porch weeping after Leonce returns home from a night out and scolds her for failing to tend to their children, she sinks into a deeper state of despondency with each passing chapter. This downward spiral is aptly demonstrated by Edna's gradual transformation from a woman passionately in love to a lackadaisical woman so far removed from the normal ebb and flow of society, all she could do is sit idle and watch her life pass by. Simply put, she is transformed from one of the two nameless lovers to the nameless "lady in black" that are found so commonly throughout the work. On page 82, for example, Edna still possesses a general vigor and passion for life, as she hopes that she will one day end up with Robert:
"She gazed away toward Grand Terre and thought she would ilke to be alone there with Robert, in the sun, listening to the ocean's roar..." (82) Here, she clearly resembles the two lovers in that she feels passion for some part of her life, and draws enough inspiration from those passions to keep on living. Just 45 pages later, however, she loses that passion and inspiration. Chapter XXV opens with this description of Edna: "[she]...stayed indoors and nursed a mood with which she was becoming too familiar..it was not despair; but it seemed to her as if life were passing by, broken and unfulfilled" (127). By this point, all of the vigor and passion has been seeped out of Edna, undoubtedly due to the fact that she remained trapped and buckling under the weight of a stringent, limiting social code. Now, she has transitioned from the mentality of the two nameless lovers to that of the mourning widow. Some people may take this evidence and use it against me, arguing that the downward spiral shows that she had no choice but to end her life, for there was no chance of self-improvement or of dealing with the narrow-minded Creole society. So there was no alternative to suicide, eh? Hmm...if only there was some other character similar to Edna...a woman who understood and shared her sentiments, but managed to endure the oppressive society...
ReplyDeleteOh that's right, there is! Mademoiselle Reisz. For all intents and purposes, Mademoiselle Reisz is the same person as Edna: they both understand that it is not just to keep women subjugated to men or to keep them within the realm of domesticity, and they both express their emotions (their discontentment) through art. How, therefore, can anyone claim that Edna had no choice but to take her own life? M. Reisz is the living, breathing example that there is indeed an alternative: to live in relative obscurity, taking solace in the fact that it is better to live a modest lifestyle in accordance with your values than to live an extravagant lifestyle as a hollow shell, regurgitating the values of others. Ayn Rand's hallowed corpse is smiling, ladies and gentlemen.
I've rambled on for long enough, but there is one last, pretty important point that I'd like to make. In the last chapter of the novel, Edna makes it pretty clear that her children are primarily responsible for dragging "her into soul's slavery for the rest of her days" (175). When you couple this with Edna's declaration that she would give up her life for her children, but would never sacrifice her self, we conjecture that Edna gave up her life more for Etienne and Raoul's sake than anyone else's. How does this make sense? Well, think about it this way. If Edna were to go on living in isolation in the pigeon house, her reputation as Leonce Pontellier's ex-wife who one day decided to go rogue would surely bring ignominy to her children. Therefore, some would argue that to take her own life was Edna's only only way to simultaneously protect her values and her children. Convincing. Shockingly, however, I still disagree. The way I see it, Edna's reputation would not bring shame upon her children as they reach adulthood, for, "since it was the fashion to be in love with married people" (173), I don't think citizens of Grand Isle or de le Quartier Francais de N'awlins would harp on Edna's insubordination. Instead, I think Edna, through example, would one day be able to inspire her children and teach them that social customs are not as absolute as they seem. Thus, living out her life would bring enlightenment rather than embarrassment to her children.
P.S. - I said "it's the morning of Sunday, Jan. 2nd" earlier but clearly i'm posting in the evening...I actually did start writing this post this morning, it just..well, took me a little longer than I thought to complete. Bye all!
From the beginning of Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier did not fit into the Creole world; just like it did not fit into her world. Edna was never a “mother-woman,” or happy enough with her husband to be a tentative wife and/or fold into being his property. Personally, I stand by my opinion that Edna could have “bumped” him off.
ReplyDeleteThe Pontelliers had no intimacy in their relationship; in fact they were not even friends. Both Leonce and Edna where completely indifferent (or ignorant in Leonce’s case) to one another’s needs. There were several examples early in the novel that they both knew they were unhappy. On page 48, we learn that Leonce “thought it was very discouraging that his wife…evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.” On pages 46-47, Edna is unalarmed when Leonce states that he may or may not be home for dinner. So, there was really nothing to salvage for Edna. Getting Leonce out of the way was easy enough; one could just simply poison someone’s food and get away with it in those days.
Then, after she was widowed, Edna could have all the freedom and fun she wanted. She would be free from answering to callers and could leave the house whenever she “simply felt like going out,” (pg 100). And Leonce would be free from covering for Edna, as he did when he wrote a notice in the newspaper stating that the Pontelliers were going abroad and altering their home on pages 150-151. If Edna had approached her circumstances differently from the beginning of the novel, she would have never had to “swim with the fish.”
Edna’s suicide was most definitely the only way out (for her).
ReplyDeleteI in no way, shape, or form believe that suicide is the answer to anything. Life is a gift and to just kill oneself on a whim is absurd and impractical. However; in the context of Edna’s life, suicide can be seen as her only option. Edna lived a very privileged life. Most people would say that Edna’s life was easy. She had a multitude of servants who cleaned her home and prepared her meals, she had a nanny who took care of her children, and she lived a lavished lifestyle in an exquisite mansion. She also had a very laid back and somewhat understanding husband. Even with all of this, Edna could not find happiness. She constantly felt like a “caged bird”, her needs could not be met by materialistic things. Edna needed to find freedom within herself but the time period in which she lived in, prevented her from doing so.
At first, Edna tries to escape the chains of her matrimony to her husband Leonce, by exploring relationships with other men. While married to Leonce, Edna is deduced to a mere object of possession. In spite of this, Leonce is a very laid back and understanding husband. Leonce attempts to care for his wife, but Edna shows no interest in him. Leonce even states “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.” Edna is clearly discontent with her plot in life. She states “An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul’s summer day.” Leonce takes notice of his wife’s discontent and tries to help her in the only way he knows how, by seeking medical assistance. The one thing that seems to free Edna’s soul is sexual exploration. Edna pursues a relationship with both Robert Lebrun and Alcee Arobin. Edna’s connection with Robert is more emotional, whereas her relationship with Alcee is more sexual. While with Robert, Edna recognizes “anew the symptoms of infatuation which she had felt incipiently as a child… newly awakened being demanded.” Her relationship with Robert seems to be the only cure to her desire for freedom. However, due to the time period, Robert does not desire a mistress, he desires a wife. Although a life with Robert is what Edna’s heart desires, she does not desire to return to the chains of matrimony. Edna’s thought mentality was clearly progressive for her time period. Had Edna been born years later, she would have been able to obtain the freedoms that she had desperately sought. If Edna decided to continue her life, not only would she be enslaved but her family and friends would also be enslaved by her very presence. Her existence affected the lives of everyone around her. She was incapable of being a proper wife of that time period which brought shame upon Leonce. She was an absentee mother, which negatively affected her two sons who were practically abandoned. Also, Robert and Alcee both loved Edna but could not actually be with her. Through Edna’s discontent with life, Edna caused discontent among her family and friends. It seems that the only way to fix this discontent was through Edna’s suicide.
Edna is a punk for committing suicide. She lived the most privileged life a woman could possibly live within that time period and for her it just wasn’t enough. She was an ungrateful “female dog”. Edna didn’t want to conform to the societal ideals for a woman and she didn’t. “I’m no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose.” She had fully detached herself from under the ownership of her husband that was assumed by the ideals of the New Orleans society. She lived her life based on her ideals. She drank publicly, she smoked publicly, and she didn’t uphold to the requests of her husband to take calls or host parties or constantly tend to the children. She was having affairs with several men. She lived in a separate house than her husband. She always just went to the beach and chilled. The reason why she decided to kill herself was because it just wasn’t enough for her. She just wanted to live without any responsibility or constraints whatsoever. In addition, she was lonely. She had no companions that lived a similar life or could understand and support the ideals of life that she lived by. She just wasn’t strong enough to keep on standing alone. Even when she had hope that she could live a life with her lover, Robert, she still realized how she would still be alone because even he lived by the ideals of having a strict and confining marriage. “I forgot everything, but a wild dream of your some way becoming my wife,” but Edna doesn’t want to be anybody’s wife. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the same will power as other women who were going through this similar awakening, the women who gave birth to the women’s suffrage movement or the people who pushed the civil rights movement or generally any people who created any revolution in the history of the world. She simply didn’t have enough strength to stand firmly by her beliefs.
ReplyDeleteAs we all know at the end of The Awakening Edna decides to end her life by walking into the sea. She came to the realization that she did not have the strength to carry on in a society where much was expected of her as a women. She felt out of her place and did not fit the criteria of a mother women, or the traditional women in society during this time era.
ReplyDeleteEdna felt that she lived in a society of opression. She did not agree with the responsibilities of a woman but rather believed that one should be able to find oneself and live how one pleased.She rebeled against the traditional view of a woman in various ways."She drank her liquor from the glass as a man would have done"(133).She also did not like being portrayed as someone's property."I’m no longer of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose"(167).She believed she had her own saying although others like Robert and Leonce viewed her as property. Edna did not want to be a wife she was not content with the concept of nature and all that came along with it."Edna began to feel uneasy. She was seized with a vague dread. Her own like experiences seemed far away, unreal, and only half remembered. She recalled faintly an ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which has deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life to which she had given being, added to the great unnumbered multitude of souls that come and go." She was not the ideal mother because she lacked the responsibility that came with caring for the children. She would often cast them aside and focus on her own life.
Edna attempted to get away from the societal chains that held her back by obtaining her own place with her own money. This made her feel independent both financially and emotionally. Although she attempted to find solitude and freedom she did not have enough strenght to carry her beliefs. She still felt out of place and her only way out was suicide.When one thinks of suicide one thinks of a grim death but what one fails to realize is that it also is a way that a person come to peace with themselves.The last scene in The Awakening where Edna kills herself is beautified "The foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out. The water was chill, but she walked on. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." Giving the reader a sense that Edna has come to peace with herself.She has found her solitude and freedom not in society but in death.