Vlad Aura-Marina

Professor: Diana Benea

English Major
American Literature
20 January 2015

Naturalism in “The Awakening”

Introduction

In this essay i will try to demonstrate the fact that “The Awakening” by Kate

Chopin is a naturalistic novel where the main character Edna Pontellier is a woman

being forced into a life she cannot escape being boxed in by societal norms and slowly

fading away with no means of getting out. Hence, one important factor of a naturalistic

novel is represented: the pressure of the society she lives in is too much for her to bear

and this eventually makes her take a dramatic decision - to her take her life.

Edna Pontellier throughout the novel

Edna’s life seems perfect: married to a rich man, mother of 2 children living in a

manor. Even from the beginning of the novel we can see very clearly that she is not

happy with her marriage, she doesn’t communicate with her husband, she’s not

involved in the life of her own children - the only thing that gives her excitement in her

life

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 being Robert, whom she met in vacation. “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother

woman.”(p.50)1

At the beginning she’s doesn’t have the idea of having an affair, but eventually she

wakes up acknowledging that she is not happy with her life and that she would like to

change it. Edna realises that she’s very lonely and doesn’t have things to herself. The

social responsibilities towards her husband, children and society are suffocating her.

When she goes back to her family in New Orleans she completely changes her

behaviour and habits, but still remains extremely lonely.

Edna doesn’t want to feel pressured by any constraints and the fact of being married

and also having children she’s feeling like a bird in a cage.

“He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children”(p.48).

Her husband is aware of Edna’s change of behaviour, but he doesn’t give away any

clue that his wife is cheating on him, and he keeps an eye on her.

“I would give up the essential: i would give my money, i would give my life for my

children but i wouldn’t give myself.”(p.97) Just as the naturalist principle suggests the

simple fact that she was born a female shows the fact that she is nothing more than a

puppet on strings. Also, the environment in which she lives determines her

unhappiness. She is struggling in the whole novel through a combination of pain and

love which eventually brings her into a life of despair. What differentiate from the other

women and mothers living in Grande Isle is that even though on the surface it seemed

that she lived a happy life along with her husband and children in reality she was

struggling and wanted to escape - she wanted her independence back.

1
- Kate Chopin, The Awakening and selected stories. 1984. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc 1986

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Even after her awakening we don’t see love from her towards her children and husband.

She was searching for freedom, but once she gave herself unconditionally freedom she

lost all directions in life. She did not realise that it was not freedom because she did not

understand the boundaries. The selfishness drove her off what could have been a good

life because she started going against the social rules.

Edna was not prepared to give herself up and her marriage with Leoncé was an

accident, but unfortunatelly she realizes that too late. “She fancied there was a

sympathy of thought and taste between them , in which fancy she was mistaken. ”(p.62) é

Once she gets married she becomes trapped in a cage from where she cannot escape

anymore.

After they get married, Pontellier sees his wife just like an object. While Leoncé is

always thinking Edna views all of this as a way of giving self-esteem. “I feel as if i

wanted to be doing something”.(p.100) However, the society in which Edna lived

women where supposed to be happy just by taking care of their children and loving their

husbands. Edna wants to breakthrough these stereotypes decided by the society. She

considers that happiness cannot be bought and decided with money . Even though

Edna had was self-destructive it was brave what she did considering the fact that in

that period of time women where taught to ignore their own feelings and desires.

Edna’s personality is very emotional: she is sensitive to sound, light. She becomes

depressed on cloudy days, but the nice weather and the music she listens to brighten

her mood. This, according to the naturalistic aspect, predicts Edna’s tragic ending.

Edna is presented as an outsider in the community “Edna’s face was a blaze picture of

bewilderment, which she never thought of disguising.”(p.89) She is perceived as a naive

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woman when in fact she is foreign to everything that is happening around her.

Moreover, Edna refuses to think about the future. She lives her life day by day, even

though she’s not contented with it, never thinking about what it’s going to happen. By

that, she tries to isolate herself from the world, running away from responsibilities.

The creole society in which Edna had to love restricted women to have any talents or

hobbies. Their main focus was on being a good wife and mother. Edna and her

relationship with other women is strictly business she is only helping Leoncé with his

work. When Edna stops playing the role that the creole society gave her, Leoncé starts

accusing her of neglecting the family and that she is thinking only at herself. From the

beginning of the novel Edna admits that she is not a very religious person “I was

running away from my prayers.”(p.60) Her break with religion made her regain her

freedom from the values required by the church. She regained her freedom and tried to

enjoy life as it is, away from the restrictions imposed by the society.

Conclusion

However, if we were to look beneath the surface there would be turmoil in her life

swirling below. The expectation of tradition coupled with the imitations of law gave

women of the late 1800 very few opportunities for individual expression. She was

trapped in her marriage not only by society but also by her own insecurity . In reality she

is distant with her husband she has few friends and her only way to express herself is

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through her artwork. The only thing that makes her truly happy is the passion she

shares with Robert. After Robert’s departure she loses her spark, but she eventually

acts out her desires by purchasing and living in the pigeon house. After Robert’s

departure consumed by their destructive love and when the ocean tries to steal her

away she does not resist to the temptation. The author, Kate Chopin tried to embody

the romantic characterization of breaking free from the traditions she was supposed to

follow as a woman and as a mother.

Bookmarks:

- Kate Chopin, The Awakening and selected stories. 1984. New York: Penguin

Books USA Inc 1986

- Boren Lynda S. “Taming the Sirens - Possession and strategies of art in Kate

Chopins’s The Awakening” Kate Chopin reconsidered - Beyond the Bayou. Ed.

Lynda S. Boren and Sara deSaussure Davis (Baton Rouge and London:

Louisiana State University Press, 1992)

- - Kathleen Margaret Lant, “The Siren of Grand ise: Adele’s role in The

Awakening” Kate Chopin, Ed. Harold Bloom (Chelsea House Publishers, 1987)