What Is Edna's Role In The Awakening
In her novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin depicts a woman much like herself. In the novel, the reader finds Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who, like Chopin, struggles with her role in society. The Victorian era woman was expected to fill a domestic role. This role requires them to provide their husbands with a clean home, food on the table and to raise their children. They were pieces of property to their husbands, who cared more about their wives’ appearance than their feelings. Edna initially attempts to conform to these roles, her eyes are gradually opened to possibilities of liberation. Throughout the novel, many aspects to Edna’s awakening are revealed. Edna’s emotional awakening and change in perspective on romance lead to
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Edna was, “very fond of music” and musical renditions, sometimes, “evoked pictures in her mind.” Hearing Adele Ratignolle play, Edna’s imagines a “figure of a man.” His countenance was one of “hopeless resignation.” Here the music internally affects Edna only with feelings of loneliness. Also, Edna pictures a man instead of a woman, which might suggest that early in the novel, Edna’s life is controlled by men. This control effects even her inner thoughts and emotions. Comparatively, when Mademoiselle Reisz plays the first chord a “keen tremor” goes down Edna’s spinal column. Edna has heard other piano artist play. This time, hearing Reisz play was perhaps the first time “her being was tempered to take an impress of the abiding truth.” Edna waits for the inevitable lonely images in her mind, but they do not appear. Instead, “passions themselves were aroused within her soul.” Edna, “trembles…chokes…and the tears blinded her. Such is the physical reaction Edna has to the music. This physical reaction is described in sexual language, which shows that Mademoiselle Reisz’s music has awakened Edna to the possibility of sexual passion as well as emotional expression. This is the beginning of Edna’s awakening where she allows herself to fully feel and express her
Edna was, “very fond of music” and musical renditions, sometimes, “evoked pictures in her mind.” Hearing Adele Ratignolle play, Edna’s imagines a “figure of a man.” His countenance was one of “hopeless resignation.” Here the music internally affects Edna only with feelings of loneliness. Also, Edna pictures a man instead of a woman, which might suggest that early in the novel, Edna’s life is controlled by men. This control effects even her inner thoughts and emotions. Comparatively, when Mademoiselle Reisz plays the first chord a “keen tremor” goes down Edna’s spinal column. Edna has heard other piano artist play. This time, hearing Reisz play was perhaps the first time “her being was tempered to take an impress of the abiding truth.” Edna waits for the inevitable lonely images in her mind, but they do not appear. Instead, “passions themselves were aroused within her soul.” Edna, “trembles…chokes…and the tears blinded her. Such is the physical reaction Edna has to the music. This physical reaction is described in sexual language, which shows that Mademoiselle Reisz’s music has awakened Edna to the possibility of sexual passion as well as emotional expression. This is the beginning of Edna’s awakening where she allows herself to fully feel and express her