The Awakening
In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, the drastic change in character and morals that Edna Pontellier goes through is dramatized by the contrast and connections made between her and her best friend Adele Ratignolle. While Edna evolves into a character that becomes more engrossed with freedom of spirit and sexual liberty, Madame Ratignolle remains a symbol of chastity and a paragon of 19th century womanhood. In addition, Edna's involuntary existence in a morally chaste Creole society further exacerbates the contrast between her and Madame Ratignolle. Similarly to the protagonist of her novel, Chopin lived in New Orleans in a Creole society after marrying. This setting was what first formed her initial impressions of Creole society as a wife and a young mother. (Oxford Companion to Women's writing in the US - 188) Although a celebrated American writer, Chopin was very much under French influence. This was evident in the Creole societies which frequent her stories (TCLC, vol.5 - 147). It was more than plot that Chopin tried to capture with the characters in the Creole communities, it was the ambiance. The communities which Chopin wrote about were ones in which respectable women took wine with dinner and brandy after it,
Chopin makes bold steps for her time by creating Edna's character simply because she rejects the role that Adele happily embraces: she loves her children, yet sees them as opponents, she separates herself from her husband, and she has wild sexual encounters for the purpose of satisfying feeling, rather than the need for procreation. Also, although Adele is the embodiment of unselfishness in her care for the children, she uses them to garner attention. Edna, however, uses sex as a means of liberating herself from the confinements of Creole society. In a society such as this, Edna is frequently presented as someone who is drowning; she is helplessly falling into a void with nothing to hold on to. In terms of sex, Adele primarily sees it as a means of procreation. Many of them were delicious in the role: one of them was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm. Moreover, her children represent an obligation that, unlike Edna's obligation to her husband, is irrevocable. She spends her days caring for her children, performing her domestic duties, and ensuring the happiness of her husband "They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. It is something that can be surreptitiously chatted about, but they still lace the conversation with their sexually chaste morality. Her talent is childbirth and being a wife. " (The Awakening 52)Other large differences between Edna and Adele appear in their views on marriage, sex and motherhood. This is why Edna is shown not as a woman who is aware of the opposition of two ideals but as one who drifts.
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Acceptance Essays
