growaw Personal Growth and Death of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopins The Awakening :: Chopin Awakening Essays

The waking up Personal Growth and Death The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna inhabits that she can non be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own biography. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life. Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is likely that she had never re totallyy been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was roughly sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life beforehand her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For examp le she admits she unify Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT 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 TO bond Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her save when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS unornamented in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been fitted to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work discover THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.