From the moment I first opened "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin I immediately fell in love with Edna Pontellier. She's definitely not a typical protagonist, especially for late 1800s literature. Edna is a married woman who within the first chapter of the book engages in a flirtatious relationship with the young and ambitious Robert Lebrun. Such an act would make her an example of bad morality in nearly any other novel. "The Awakening" is different. It delves under the surface, explores what has driven Edna to such behavior, and ultimately makes the reader question whether it would be any different today.
Edna seems like she has the perfect life. She has money, a husband, two little boys. She is beautiful. Yet, she is unhappy. She does not love her husband, and, while she does love her children, she does not like to preoccupy herself solely upon them. The titular "awakening" occurs when Edna decides to follow her own true wishes. She stops conforming to the society she lives in. She stops having social gatherings in her home. She spends most of her time painting. She visits only the friends whom she actually wishes to see. The piece de resistance occurs when she decides to fully move out of her house, away from her family, and into a new, smaller home. What Edna desires is the ability to follow her passions and to define her own life. Edna wishes to support herself without having to depend on her husband. She wishes to have a meaning to her life that does not depend on her children. At the end of the novel, Edna realizes that she will never be truly happy, so long as she lives in her society. But is our society today that much different?
Edna is still not the typical protagonist in today's world. She is strong on her own. She wishes for love, but not because she needs it. She makes choices based on her own self. Edna is the definition of selfish. We should scorn her. And yet, it is strangely liberating for a woman to feel as if she can do what makes her happy regardless of what anyone thinks or says about it. If Edna wants to lock herself away and paint all day long and not tend to the house at all, then why shouldn't she be able to? Who are we to sit in judgement of her seeking what all of us want: happiness. Women today are still taught early on that they are supposed to care about the happiness of everyone around them before they consider themselves. They spend so much time taking care of others that they are wasting away inside. We live in a society where women are defined by their relationships to men. We see it in movies, in advertisements, in our daily conversations. Women still struggle in the workplace, as equal pay for equal work is still a hotly debated topic. Women still are expected to have children, whether they want them or not. Women who do have children can be criticized if they want to return to the workplace. It's been over a hundred years since "The Awakening" was first published, but I believe that if Edna lived today, her story would be the same.
