Edna's Multiple Houses In The Awakening

The first being the house itself. The house represents the stubbornness of Emily. When everything near her was changing, she did not, and neither did her house. They both remained constant through the revolutions. Another symbol is the smell that is trapped inside the walls of the house, then eventually escapes. It symbolizes the decaying of Miss Emily’s mind, and how her mental state is continually going downhill. The sidewalks that are being built around her house, resemble evolution. While everything around Miss Emily changes and becomes better and bigger by evolving, she chooses not to change. She refuses to pay the taxes the new tax collectors are demanding of her because she is set back in her ways and is too stubborn to admit

The ending of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is both controversial and thought provoking. Many see Edna Pontellier’s suicide as the final stage of her “awakening”, and the only way that she will ever be able to truly be free. Edna’s suicide, however, is nothing more than her final attempt to escape from her life. Edna Pontellier’s life has become too much for her to handle, and by committing suicide she is simply escaping the oppression she feels from her marriage, the suppression she feels from her children, and the failure of her relationship with Robert.

It is not new or unique that an individual is looking for one’s purpose and meaning in life. Nor is it unique that men and women imitate the norms of society. In Kate Chopin’s novella, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the antagonist, knocked against the societal norms of the late 1800’s. Houses represent Edna’s search for her inner self. The houses which Chopin uses in The Awakening come in pairs which contrast

The Awakening by Kate Chopin ends with the death of the main character, Edna Pontellier. Stripping off her clothes, she swims out to sea until her arms can no longer support her, and she drowns. It was not necessarily a suicide, neither was it necessarily the best option for escaping her problems.

The movie leaves out a crucial part of the novel that is a peak of Edna's independence. This peak is Edna's dinner party, at which she invites ten friends to a celebratory final dinner in Leonce's house before she moves into the "pigeon house." The party is Edna's last grand gesture. It is "visual, social proof, accompanied by approval and joy, that Edna is moving out,' an artist on her own." (Skaggs 96) This party symbolizes Edna's freedom from her sheltered, unhappy life in her passive role. She is even dressed the part. Her gold satin gown and jewelry "suggested the regal woman, the one who rules, who looks on, who stands alone." (Chopin 118) This vital scene in Edna's awakening is

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, two people who have the ultimate influence on Edna are Mademoiselle Reisz, and Robert Lebrun.

The setting Edna is in directly affects her temperament and awakening: Grand Isle provides her with a sense of freedom; New Orleans, restriction; the “pigeon house”, relief from social constraints. While at Grand Isle, Edna feels more freedom than she does at her conventional home in New Orleans. Instead of “Mrs. Pontellier… remaining in

    A second similarity is that Edna and Nora each had an awakening about her own marriage.  Edna's awakening took place early in the novel, while Nora's awakening occurred at the end of the play.  The realization that she was not happy taking care of her husband, house or children began Edna's awakening.  Represented by the quote, "An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish" (Chopin 14).  Edna feels the entrapment of her marriage that has been present subconsciously, and it fills her mind and soul with pain and hurt.  At the end of "A Doll's House," Nora announces to her husband the need to leave the marriage due to the oppression caused by his power over her.  Nora feels as though their marriage has never been a true marriage, and that Helmer and herself never truly knew

The text is very descriptive and loaded with symbols. The author takes the opportunity to relate elements of setting with symbols with meanings beyond the first reading’s impressions. The house that the characters rent for the summer as well as the surrounding scenery are introduced right from the beginning. It is an isolated house, situated "quite three miles from the village"(947); this location suggests an isolated environment. Because of its "colonial mansion"(946) look, and its age and state of degradation, of the house, a supernatural hypothesis is implied: the place is haunted by ghosts. This description also suggests stability, strength, power and control. It symbolizes the patriarchal oriented society of the author’s time. The image of a haunted house is curiously superimposed with light color elements of setting: a "delicious garden"(947), "velvet meadows"(950), "old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees"(948) suggest bright green. The room has "air and sunshine galore"(947), the garden is "large and shady"(947) and has "deep-shaded arbors"(948). The unclean yellow of the wallpaper is

In the iconic debated novel “The Awakening”, Kate Chopin’s novel takes place in the Victorian Era, which is in the 19th- century, similarly the novel was published in 1899. Edna is depicted as a woman longing for more, a woman who was looking for more than just a life of complacency and living in the eyes of society. The story uses Edna to exemplify the expectations of women during this era. For example, a woman’s expression of independence was considered immoral. Edna was expected to conform to the expectations of society but the story reveals Edna’s desires which longed for independence in a state of societal dominance. Throughout The Awakening, Chopin’s most significant symbol,

After being crushed with deep sorrow over the death of his beloved Ligeia, the narrator moves into a decaying abbey to leave behind his lonesome house. Although he leaves the exterior of the house untouched, the narrator decorates the interior with strange but lavish furniture. “The furnishings take on the shapes and colors of his fantastic dreams” as he attempts to cope with his loss (Kincheloe). This supports the idea that the narrator would rather live in his own colorful fantasy (like the inside of his house), than engage in the dark reality (as represented by the outside of the house). Losing Ligeia meant the narrator lost his fulfillment in life; which is why his reality is now gloomy and undesirable. Not only does is the furniture an example of dream imagery, the walls of the desolate house also have a dream effect. The moving images on the walls cause the house itself to seem restless and alive. The narrator imagines this because it represents himself; always on the edge of monstrosity with each changing mood. As he hallucinates on opium, his sense of reality and fantasy is put together as one. With each furnishing, a looming memory of Ligeia haunts him as he reminances her during his opium dreams.

There are many symbolic houses in the novel: the one on Grand Isle, the one in New Orleans, the pigeon house, the house in which Edna falls asleep on Cheniere Caminada. The first two of these houses serve as cages for Edna. She is expected to be a "mother-woman" on Grand Isle and to be the perfect social hostess in New Orleans. The other two are places of supposed freedom. On the island she can sleep and dream, and in the pigeon house she can create a world of her own. In the same way, places have a similar significance. Grand Isle itself is a place of women.

Edna becomes increasingly dissatisfied as a mother-woman once she realizes that sacrifice means choosing between an “outward existence which conforms” and an “inward life which questions” (13). After the summer at Grand Isle, Edna begins to pursue her own interests, “relieving herself of obligations” because she no longer feels “content to ‘feed upon opinion’ when her own soul had invited her” (94). Edna’s awakening is directly caused by her perception of sacrifice. Realizing that fulfilling social roles necessitates giving up her autonomy, Edna fights against the sacrifice that her culture expects from women. She moves out into a pigeon-house and refuses to entertain guests on reception day, small actions which resist the social pressures threatening her personal identity. Edna consciously destroys the facade of a traditional life for her genuine desires, noting that “it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions” (112). Self-discovery is worth life’s delirium to Edna; the possible social repercussions and stigma are painful but necessary sacrifices. Edna dismantles the false life she leads, and with it social benefits and status, believing that the the suffering is preferable to sacrificing and repressing her true self. Her understanding of sacrifice as

Edna’s decision to leave the home she shares with her husband and children is a huge reflection on the development she’s made as the new woman she is becoming. She isn’t fond of the lifestyle she has with her husband, like having servants or a large estate. She is trying to feel as disconnected from her husband as possible. It also is a step in her discovering her sexuality, since the house will be used so she can bed other men. She is deciding what is best for her, not worrying about what society or her husband will think.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel full of symbolism which reveals much of the deeper meaning in the story. Within each narrative segment there is often a symbol that helps to add meaning to the text, and the understanding of these symbols is essential to a full appreciation of the story. These symbolic elements help the reader to make a connection between Edna’s world and her eventual awakening. Throughout the novel there are a huge number of symbols but three of the most meaningful symbols used are birds, houses and the ocean.