This is a look at 'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin. When
you first look at the life of Edna you think there is not much to
discuss. Edna is a married woman who at first seems vaguely
satisfied with her life--'she grew fond of her husband, realizing
with some unaccountable satisfaction that no trace of passion or
excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection, thereby
threatening its dissolution.' (Chopin, 558).
Edna doesn't know what she wants from life. It is evident
from the way she tries to change her life to make it better, that
she wants her own happiness. She refuses to stay home on
Tuesdays, which she is expected to do to satisfy the social
conventions of the time. She spends more time on her art. She
goes to races and parties all the time. All of this doesn't seem to
help her maintain happiness all the time.
Kate Chopin in 1894
Photoportrait of writer Kate Chopin
English: Underwater photograph of a woman plunging...There were days when she was very happy without knowing
why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole
being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the
odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day.
There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,
when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be dead
or alive; when life appeared to her like a grotesque
Pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly
toward inevitable annihilation. (Chopin, 588)
Edna struggled to make her life more fulfilling. Edna
wanted what? Passion, excitement? She states to the Doctor,
'But I don't want anything but my own way. That is wanting a
good deal, of course, when you have to trample upon the lives,
the hearts, the prejudices of others--but no matter--still, I
shouldn't want to trample...