Sexism in The Awakening Essay

Living in the Victorian era, it was hard for a woman to realize her position in life or recognize her duties as an individual while coming in contact with the world around her. Edna Pontellier, in The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is a mere example of these characteristics. Dealing with these attributes on her shoulders, Edna struggles with self-damnation and is on a journey to seek independence, or in other wordsfeel free.

The first lines of the novel, Chopin describes A green and yellow parrot which hung in a cage outside the door. During the course of the novel, the reader will soon see that this parrot does, in fact, symbolize Ednas character. Her place is merely just to be looked at and not to be taken seriously because she is a woman. The parrot is a possession to its owner. Edna too, is also seen as a possession to her husband. Mr. Pontellier looks at Edna as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage. One obstacle, THE MAIN OBSTACLE, Edna wants to break free of.

In addition to the barrier of possession, Chopin further describes Edna as blindly following whatever impulse moved her as if she had placed herself in aliens hands for direction. This statement takes in to account, at least two things; her phase of a sleeping beauty and the phase of freeing herself from any society created responsibilities. The blindness in this case is the sleep. In the phase of a sleeping beauty, sleep is not meant to be taken literally. Sleeping encounters dreaming and awakening (things that Edna does much of). Sleeping, in the novel, is a metaphor of Ednas oppression. She doesnt show the world her disapproval of the position society has given her to hold. She is no satisfied with the life she has. But, as a sleeping beauty, she doesnt understand why this is so. This phase metaphorically describes Ednas inability to swim in the sea and escape the restrictions set forth to women. In the phase of freeing herself Edna recognizes her ability to live for herself. Placing herself in the hands of the aliens hands freed her soul of responsibility. Who would ever think that soul freeing experiences would mean suicide, a permanent get-away of conformities?

There are many points at which the reader would believe that Edna has awakened, such as her symptoms of her infatuation with Robert, her choice to get away from everyone, her realization that she doesnt want to live up to societys standards, and so on. But, Edna shows us, at the end of the novel, that she is not yet free. The one since of her feeling free is to be lost at sea. Im not going to be forced into thingsI want to be let alone, Edna says. And her drowning concludes this. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.

Kate Chopin tells her story through Edna. Chopin wants readers to know the conformity in which women hold, the challenges women faced, and also the identities many women left behind. Ednas death (the awakening of the novel, which says Edna no more has to deal with the restrictions life sets forth to her) signifies the death of this era. And, maybe a rebirth of a new era, where women are free and are not in the hands of their husbands or at home tending to childrens needs, forgetting that women too have dreams.