Self-Perceived Inadequacy in The Awakening - Essay Example

 Self-Perceived Inadequacy in The Awakening I. Introduction Edna Pontellier, around whom the events of Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” mainly revolve, was settled in the United States during the 1800s. During those days, men dominated U.S. society while women were considered as inferior to them. The Feminism movement that demanded women should be treated equally as men, having the same political, economic and social rights began only in the 1900s, starting with suffrage or the right to vote, before gradually intensifying during the mid-1900s as more and more women began entering the labor force. The suppressive attitude of society during Edna’s lifetime has an increasingly frustrating effect on her, making her develop a feeling of self-perceived inadequacy that becomes exacerbated as her life unfolds. She feels herself compelled to rebel against the feeling. Not caring about society’s approval, she follows her heart and her instinct by entering into a series of life-changing relationships in an attempt to find new meaning and happiness in life and dispel the overwhelming feeling of being denied self-expression and not being allowed to follow her heart’s dictates, but instead being forced to follow the restricting {related to females only} rules that were authoritatively imposed by society in those days that is literally stifling her life. Although she succeeds for a while in overcoming the feeling of self-perceived in adequacy, in the end contemporary society’s expectations of women become so overpowering, that Edna is forced into choosing either to follow societal norms and restrictions {thereby betraying her own beliefs, thoughts, emotions and desires and once more succumbing to full force of self-perceived in adequacy}, or leave society forever; she chooses the latter way out by committing suicide. II. Body There are several examples in the novel that reflect society’s discriminatory attitude towards women which makes Edna become increasingly frustrated as they unfold in different, usually consecutive stages in her life. As each such event occurs, it leaves Edna with dejection and frustration at not being able to do the opposite which is what she actually craves to do, a craving that is exacerbated by watching males freely doing those things while females are willfully barred by doing them. As such events increase in number, the accumulating frustration in Edna builds up due to the snowball effect, with the overall result being a direct assault on her autonomy, which is accompanied by a ballooning feeling of self-perceived inadequacy. In one instance, when she returns from the beach with sunburn, her husband Leonce Pontellier looks at her “as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin, 7) meaning that women were considered possessions of their husbands with no right to indulge in independent thoughts, expressions or actions. In a second example, Leonce describes women in general as “mother-women who idolize their children and worship their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin, 16), meaning that women were only fit to do the jobs of mothers and wives, rendering service to their children and husbands, and they should be proud of being allowed to perform such a role in life. In a third example Edna’s father, the Colonel, tells Leonce, “authority, coercion are what [is] needed. Put your foot down good and hard; [it is] the only way to manage a wife” (Chopin, 119), meaning that women must be constantly subjected to authority, strictly scolded and reprimanded by their husbands. Fuelled by the rising tide of self-perceived inadequacy that is buffeting her, which has an equal but inverse reaction on her self-confidence, Edna musters courage to rebel against the overwhelming traditional role expected of her by society (Smith). Edna’s rebellion begins with her romantic relationships that form the basis for her awakening. The first relationship takes place when a very young Edna feels puppy love for a “dignified and sad-eyed” cavalry officer; the second occurs when a teenage Edna briefly falls in love with a man who visits the lady on a neighboring plantation; and the third occurs when Edna as a young woman falls in love with the picture of an actor who specialized in tragedy roles (Chopin, 31/32). These relationships serve to make Edna realize that a woman’s life is not so drab and boring after all, but can be changed for the better if bold steps are taken, just as she did by indulging in the 3 romantic interludes. However, in keeping with the normal role expected of women by society, Edna dutifully gets married to Leonce Pontellier. Edna’s friendship with Adele Ratignolle sparks her real awakening. Adele has very open-minded views about many things in life. She shares her views with Edna, discussing about supposedly private subjects like underwear, pregnancy and love affairs while “withholding no intimate detail” (Chopin, 19). As Edna assimilates this information, in its narrow as well as wider perspective, she begins looking at her own inner self for the first time. She becomes engulfed in contradiction between the roles society expects her to play and the way she perceives herself (Bernard, pg.1). She gradually becomes aware of her own views, feelings, emotions, views and desires – things she was bottling up inside her just to please society and adapt herself to what it considers women should be like or what women are supposed to do. At this point Edna realizes she has been living under a cloud of self-perceived inadequacy and has not been living a life as she wants to. Her feeling of self-perceived inadequacy begins to disappear as she begins to believe in herself and understand “her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (Chopin, 25). Strengthened by her self-discovery, Edna {who by this time is married to Leonce and has children}, embraces the freedom of unhindered individuality (Sprinkle, pg.1) and blatantly refutes societal norms by doing the unthinkable for most women in those days, namely, leaving her family, moving into an independent apartment and having a sexual affair (Smith, pg.1). Edna begins indulging in physical sex with Arobin. She does this after honestly admitting to herself that she has “devilishly wicked” (Chopin, 137) sexual desires that are physical in nature and not related to love. Edna is totally in control of the relationship with Arobin, making sure she gets sexual satisfaction while at the same time not being dominated by him. By doing this, Edna proves to herself that just as many men who have wives and mistresses do, a woman too can indulge in purely physical sex while continuing to love one man. In the eyes of the conservative society during those times, she has flaunted societal rules of family and womanhood. She also develops a romantic relationship with Robert Lebrun. This relationship brings great excitement to Edna’s life, making her feel “like one who awakens gradually out of a dream” (Chopin, 53). As her life unfolds, she becomes more and more free (Bernard, pg.2). She becomes awakened to a feeling of independence and an awareness of her sexuality, emotions and desires. She is overjoyed when Robert returns to New Orleans and openly declares his love for her, gleefully anticipating that Robert and she can defy society and live together openly “loving each other” and being “everything to each other” (Chopin, 179). The pull and tug of her familial, romantic and physical relationships vis-à-vis societal scrutiny and disapproval ultimately take their toll on her life. Society’s traditional expectations of women go on intruding inexorably into her life, gradually deflating her feeling of independence and self-discovery and bringing back the feeling of self-perceived inadequacy in increasing volume. She becomes increasingly depressed and starts believing she will never achieve total freedom from societal expectations (Smith, pg.1). The increasing pressures ultimately force Edna to take her own life. The first reason for her suicide is the motherhood element. Edna is constantly bombarded by advice from Adele and Dr. Mandelet to stop her affair with Arobin as it could ruin the reputation of her children and spoil their future {“Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children” (Chopin, 182)}. As stated by critic Joyce Dyer, society calls upon mothers to give up their lives for their children – figuratively. But Edna takes it further by giving up her life for her children – literally {“I would give the unessential, I would give up my money, I would give my life for my children” (Chopin, 188)} because she finally realizes the bitter truth that, as remarked by critic Joyce Dyer, her children were in danger of losing their good reputation and good future prospects because of her actions, and as motherhood and selfhood were irreconcilable in her days (Wyatt, pg.1), she decides that suicide is the only way to solve the two problems pressing her down in relation to her family: preservation of her children’s reputation and future, and prevention of her own self-hood. The second reason is the betrayal by Robert. As pointed out by critic Peggy Skaggs, Edna, who was overjoyed at finding her selfhood with the apparent fairy-tale ending {living openly with Robert “loving each other” and being “everything to each other” (Chopin, 179)} is suddenly faced with having the process and victory at attaining self-discovery denied by her supposedly faithful lover (Wyatt, pg.1); worse still, she faces the very real possibility of the lively feeling of self-discovery being replaced by the dreaded feeling of self-perceived inadequacy that she has successfully fought against and eradicated. The third reason is the societal pressure to stop her physical affair with Arobin. Edna feels that it is her right to seek physical pleasure as she wants and such restrictions amount to unfair pressure. Critic Helen Emmit agrees on this point, calling Edna’s story a tale of ‘female development and liberation’ (Wyatt, pg.1). Unfortunately the struggle for development and liberation in Edna’s case {the First Wave of Feminism began only a century after her time} is too one-sided and has no chance of contending against the overwhelming and antagonistic pressure of the prudish Victorian society. Edna becomes fed up with life {“despondency had come upon her and had never lifted” (Chopin, 188)} because, as stated by critic Joseph Urgo, she realizes that her ‘sense of self’ is ‘unacceptable in her culture.’ Critic Peggy Skaggs agrees, stating Edna is denied by her family, Arobin and Robert the right to be what she wants and must adapt her life to the roles expected of her by society (Wyatt, pg.1). She finds herself in a situation where, if she toes the line as required by them, she would compromise what she has struggled to achieve, namely, her emphatic self-discovery and the banishment of feelings of self-perceived inadequacy. Edna decides the only way out is suicide to liberate herself, in the words of critic Helen Emmit, from the stifling bondage of marriage, societal rules and family. Critic Joseph Urgo agrees with her on this point, saying suicide is Edna’s way of eluding all those who were pressurizing her, a way that ‘rejects this muting of her voice,’ enabling her to ‘write her own end’ and save herself from ‘an ending others would write’ (Wyatt). III. Conclusion There are many similarities between the life of Edna and her creator, American author Kate Chopin {1850 – 1904} – it has relevance in this topic because of the feelings of intense autonomy and being caged behind societal bars that spawned a similar vociferous reaction from Edna as well as Kate, namely, a bold lashing back at restrictive society {in the latter’s case, it provoked the writing of ‘The Awakening’}. Both were choked by the stifling discrimination of the Victorian era (Sprinkle); just as Edna has no freedom to live life as she thinks fit, so also Kate has no freedom to give free rein to her thoughts in the form of writing (Bernard). Just as Edna defies society by living separately and indulging in extramarital sexual and romantic relationships, Kate defied society by writing ‘The Awakening’ as a way of giving vent to her anger and disillusionment with life (Angelfire.com) {her husband, brother, father and mother died before she was 33 years old, leaving her to look after her 6 children (Bernard)}. Just as Edna slowly succumbed to the ever increasing societal pressure and was forced to take her life, Kate was greatly disappointed at the way ‘The Awakening’ {published in April 1899} was called ‘unrefined’ and ‘unsound’ by critics both for the immoral character of Edna Pontellier as well for Chopin daring to write a story having such a prurient theme (Sprinkle); her disillusionment, coupled with her poor health, resulted in her death just 5 years after ‘The Awakening’ was published (Angelfire.com). Finally, just as Edna was looked upon as the epitome of the New Woman of the latter part of the 19th century, Kate Chopin was hailed for epitomizing the social goals which women of those days were struggling to achieve (Sprinkle). References used: Bernard, Greg. “Literary Analysis: The Awakening, by Kate Chopin.” Helium.com. 2008. 29 November 2008. Chopin, Kate. “The Awakening.” New York: Avon Books. 1982. “Kate Chopin: A Woman Ahead of Her Time (1858 – 1904).” Angelfire.com. (N.d). 29 November 2008. Smith, Nicole. “Character Analysis of Edna in ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin and Discussion about Conflict & Climax.” Article Myriad. 2007. 29 November 2008. Sprinkle, Ross. “Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’: A Critical Reception.” Womenwriters.net. 1998. 29 November 2008. Wyatt, Neal. “Ways of Interpreting Edna’s Suicide: What the Critics Say.” Virginia Commonwealth University. 1995. 29 November 2008. Read More