American Literature

Kate Chopins novel The Awakening has inspired many women to rethink what they are going through and seek freedom from their oppressors. Kate Chopins novel, The Awakening is intended to let the public know that women are being oppressed by the society itself. The society assumed women to act a certain way because that is how women should act, not giving them a chance to think for their own, boxing them in that category that is hindering the growth of womens artistic side and the power to think on their own.

Madame Lebrun parrot and mocking bird represent Mademoiselle Reisz and Edna in the story, both characters like the parrot and the mocking bird have both limited space to move in, they are both trap in a cage and in Ednas case, trap in a patriarchal system, where women are not heard and has no say.

The lady in black along with the two unnamed lovers has accrued in the novel more than once, she seems senseless to most of the readers that have read the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, but other critics that have devoted themselves to understanding the smaller details in the novel of Chopin. The lady in black and the unnamed lovers have a symbolic meaning to Ednas independence. Mademoiselle Reisz, a pianist who Edna looks up to as her guidance to gaining independence, like the lady in black also wears black clothing and is always near lovers, the lovers being Edna and Robert.

Joseph Church and Christa Haveners article about the Kate Chopins novel The Awakening, has suggested its readers to read between the line and to analyze the involvement of the minor character in the life of Edna and how it is impossible to define identity and freedom instantly, the impossible simultaneous requirement for defining identity and freedom from definition (Church  Havener 197).

In the article of Joseph Church and Christa Havener, they have discussed that Mademoiselle Reisz is the opposite of the lady in black, because unlike Mademoiselle Reisz, the lady in black only follows the lovers and not dictate them what they should do next, nor did the lady in black influenced the lovers to do anything. Mademoiselle Reisz has also followed her lovers, Edna and Robert and has encouraged them to be together and to pursue their love, that in the end failed.

In Joseph Church and Christa Havener article, they have quoted from Donald Ringe that the lady in black and the unnamed lovers difference from Edna who cant commit herself truly, whether in love or in religion, Edna, who never really achieves the loss of self in love for another, and who is never portrayed as submitting herself to worship God in communion with others (Church  Havener 197).

As the novel progress the independence of Edna widens when she submerges herself in the water and tries to swim, she doesnt really know how to swim prior to the incident. When Edna went a little too far and realized that she can swim and that she wasted her time splashing like a baby, in this passage, it is like the infant inside her is growing or maturing.

When she got home she tested her new found independence by not doing what her husband asked her, going to bed, sipping wine, she has rejected all this, making her feel more independent, making her feel more separate from his husband. The next day, she asked Robert to accompany her for Sunday mass, this is another sign of independence, she has never asked a boy out and it is not how women usually act in her time.

In the novel, Chopin has written different kinds of women, not only about the persona of Edna, she has also written about women that can rebel the norm and still be look at the way society expects them to be, a mother-women.

The mother-women is being criticized by critics because they dont truly understand what is in-between the context, Chopin did not intend for the public to critic those who choose to be mother-women, she suggested that the mother-women are what society expects every woman to be, but is not necessarily evil. Edna feels as if motherhood is being handed to her and she is taking it blindly, although she loves her kids, but she always feels a slight relief whenever they are sent to relatives or take vacations somewhere else without her, Chopin has described Adele to be the very opposite of Edna, Adele is to be described as the ideal woman to be a mother woman, she was described to have grace and majesty (Chopin 17) that most queens have.

In Kathleen M. Streaters analysis of the character Adele and being a mother-woman, she has summed up that Chopin did not intent Edna to be a mother-woman, she doesnt exist in Adele, and, importantly, this non-existent, idealized woman cannot be realized by Edna (Streater 412), that is why Edna always wanted more and is never satisfied, unlike Adele that is contended with how her life is now. Edna looked at Mademoiselle Reisz to be her role model, which Streater think doesnt have the slightest potential as Adele have, As such, Reisz is barely presented as a worthy alternative to Adele (Streater 413), because was Edna is too blinded by what she wants and her perception of freedom, she has failed to realize as what Streater calls authentic feminist potential (Streater 412) that Adele obtain. In the novel, even Chopin has described Mademoiselle Reisz differently to Adele, Mademoiselle Reisz was described to have her body settled into ungraceful curves and angles that gave it an appearance of deformity (Chopin 69), far from the how she has described Adele.
In the end of the novel even Edna has seen, that what Mademoiselle Reize says is nonsense and it has only poisoned her mind and her perception of being free, Edna looked down at Mademoiselle Reisz and wondered how she could have listened to her venom so long (Chopin 53).

Streater believes that Chopin has described two kinds of women who both symbolizes feminism, one through Adele and another through Edna, although most readers and critics recognizes the feminism traits that Edna has shown all throughout the novel, they have failed to notice that Adele has a much better hope of being a symbolism of real feminist than Edna.

In Ednas character Chopin has showed what radical feminist might end up too, in Streaters article, she has also stated that we need both the radical side of feminism and the realist side of feminism. Being radical can catch the attention of the society and let them know what the real situation is, while the realist influences people but still do what they ought to do in Adele and Ednas case, to raise their children and teach them not to follow or at least think of what society has done to its people, She appeals to both the radical and realist feminist blended in every woman, and we need both (Steater 415).

In the end when the time has come for Edna to choose her destiny, the influence of Adele overpowered the influences of Mademoiselle Reisz, and her love for her children has overpowered her intensions to be free, she went into the water and never returned. Although it is not certain that she did commit suicide or not, the act of never returning from the sea symbolizes that she is dead.

Many critics have scrutinized Ednas death and in Sean Heustons article, he has focused his analysis in the death of Edna. He said that although most critics have assumed that Edna did commit suicide, the novel itself did not state that Edna did commit the act, In short, most critics indicate that Edna commits suicide, but The Awakening itself does not (Heuston 224).

He argued the passage which most critics claim to have suggested that Edna did commit suicide, A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water (Chopin 120), he said that even if the bird did have a broken wing, these will not cause the bird to die or at least drown, the bird will only float in the sea, Although a broken wing would be a very serious hindrance for a bird and might well lead to the birds death (Heuston 225).

Heuston has argued that when Edna was walking down the beach, she did not think that her children were the antagonist in her life, She was not thinking of these things when she walked down to the beach (Chopin 120).

He also said that the scenario of Edna in the swimming in the lake happened twice, first when she first learned how to swim, she has also swam out in the lake without realizing it, Chopin wrote that it was like an encounter with death, Edna also had flashes and seen death before her eyes in that scenario, She made no mention of her encounter with death and her flash of terror (Chopin 32). The scenario suggest that Edna could have swam further than she did when she last swam, but it was not intentional, she was not attempting to commit suicide and if she did die in the end it might be subconscious, the possibility that Edna intended only at a subconscious or unconscious level to commit suicide (Heuston 226). In another scene, before Ednas alleged suicide and in the novels last few paragraphs, the novel never indicated that Edna wanted to die and the passage, it was too late the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone (Chopin 121), tells its readers that she probably did not notice how far out she swam and not realizing how far she is, she did not calculate that she might not be able to make it back to the shore, thus living herself to die. Adding that even if Edna wanted to die that time, she was not aware of it, she was not aware of her psychological state and all through out the novel, Ednas character was never stable, she did not know what she really want to do, her mind is always lost and wondering, she wants to die, she is not conscious of this desire (Heuston 226).

Kate Chopins work on The Awakening has been critiqued by a lot of people and they all have there say to what the novel really wants to portray, it is obvious that Kate Chopin is writing about feminism, but what does she want to the feminist to see.

The novel The Awakening has been compared to a lot of other novels, like how Patricia Bradley has compared it with The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche, she has not only argued what the novel is about, she has also researched about how the novel was written, who the influences of Kate Chopin is and what her influences has influenced in the novel.

She has stated the women in the novel of Chopin only play the limited role of women in Nietzscheans The Birth of Tragedy, limited role women can play in a Nietzschean script (Bradley 56). The Birth of Tragedy is considered a masculine literature that women often have limited roles in, unlike the novel of Kate Chopins novels that have embraced femininity like in her novel The Awakening.

The presumed death of Edna in the end of the novel in the sea can be linked to the resurrection Nietzsche has written, Bradley has pointed that the idea of Edna being resurrected in the water The death the reader knows must follow, however, is affirmed, but in terms that echo the Nietzschean concept of eternal recurrence (Bradley 59), in the novel when Edna was standing in front of the sea, she felt resurrected and entering the water made her feel like she was being born, She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known(Chopin 120).

The novel The Awakening has more symbolic meaning than first presumed Kate Chopin has written and given clues to even the smallest details in the novel. From what the society dictates women and the solution womens problem, Streater said that Chopin wants us to acknowledge that working with only the radical feminist and without realist feminist can end their work to shambles, although it is a quicker solution, it is also something a dead end, the realist feminist can help put the ideas of the radical feminist in order.