Happiness in Kate Chopin's The Awakening Essay Sample

📌Category: Kate Chopin, Writers
📌Words: 1140
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 23 April 2022

In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the author seems to suggest that happiness is dependent upon having agency. She conveys this theme through her use of characterization and plot conflict. 

Chopin shows the deficiency of happiness when a person lacks agency through plot conflict within the marriage of the Pontellier’s. Throughout the novel, Edna is portrayed as a woman who goes against the expectations that society has placed on her. In the Victorian era, women were expected to be mother-women who live and die for their children and husband. Edna loved her children, but she did not live for them, she lived for herself. This facet of Edna’s personality is a major point of conflict between Edna and her husband. Mr. Pontellier expects her to live and die for her children and him. One night during the summer at Grand Isle, Mr. Pontellier went out and Edna stayed at their home with their children. When Mr. Pontellier returned that night, he went into the children’s room to check on them and reported back to Edna that one of the children had a fever. Mr. Pontellier accused Edna of being so neglectful of their children that she did not notice that their child was ill. It was now Edna’s responsibility to go and take care of the child, as that was a mother’s duty; “She could not have told you why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life” (Chopin 49). Sitting on the deck crying over her husband’s harsh feelings towards her, Edna recognizes that she often finds herself in situations similar to this one. It is not “uncommon” that she experiences her marriage making her feel poorly about herself and it is not a healthy relationship. A relationship such as this one makes happiness almost unachievable. Without some sort of agency or the ability to rely solely on oneself, one cannot be truly happy. When one has to rely on someone else for their self-worth and opinion of themselves, similar to how Edna seems to base her value as a human and as a mother on how her husband views her, one cannot find happiness within themselves. Freedom is a powerful feeling that can empower someone to be completely independent and free of people’s judgment and opinions. Edna gets her first taste of independence when she learns to swim over the summer. Returning home from her first independent swim, she has a significant moment of desire with her love interest Robert. This moment with Robert, along with the freedom she felt swimming in the ocean empower her. Later that night, Edna and Mr. Pontellier get into an argument because Edna is refusing to go inside one night. Mr. Pontellier is stunned by her lack of obedience to her husband and Edna feels awakened by a new sense of freedom and power (Chopin 78). Mr. Pontellier has the expectation that Edna will blindly obey his every command. This belief that women live to obey their husbands was not uncommon in the Victorian era and was more of a societal norm. What was actually uncommon in this situation was Edna’s refusal, if Edna had done what was considered normal in this time period, she would have gone inside to please her husband. When Edna holds her ground in the situation and stays outside, it awakens a new sense of freedom that she did not know was in her. She realizes that she has more power in the relationship than she had previously thought. When Edna realizes her own freedom and influence in her life, she realizes that she can take control of her own life and decisions as to how she wants to spend it, which makes her more excited about life. 

Chopin uses the characterization of Edna to show happiness being achieved when agency is achieved. Throughout her marriage to Mr. Pontellier, Edna is never truly happy. Edna expresses unhappiness with her life and marriage and that lack of freedom that accompanied her relationships. The expectations that Edna has as a wife and a mother limit who she can be and how she can act to a point where she feels oppressed. Edna’s personality requires a certain amount of freedom to be happy that is not possible in her marriage. From an outside perspective, Mr. Pontellier seems like the perfect husband, but this is true only as long as his wife is compliant and obedient. Similarly, he is perfectly happy with Edna’s hobbies as long as they do not interfere with her attentiveness to her their children or home. Edna enjoys painting, but Mr. Pontellier believes that Edna spends too much time painting and not enough time taking care of their home and their children, when he mentions this to Edna she takes time alone to think about her duties and she recalls, “days when she was unhappy; she did not know why—when it did not seem worthwhile to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead” (Chopin 109). Looking back at her marriage, Edna remembers days, where she was unhappy for no apparent reason, just simply being alive in her relationship made her dejected. It is Mr. Pontellier’s reaction to and opinion on Edna’s hobbies that prompts her to recall these times. She realizes that these standards that her husband is forcing her to meet as a wife and mother make her life feel not “worthwhile”. She recognizes that her unhappiness stems from the oppressive relationship she has with her husband, where he expects her to be the head of the household, attentive to the children, and a dutiful wife. It is these expectations that restrict Edna’s agency and make her unhappy. If it is her marriage that is restricting Edna and causing her unhappiness, then separation from her husband should allow Edna the freedom to be happy. Distance from Mr. Pontellier when they returned from the Grand Isle allowed Edna to become her own person. Edna began to abandon some of the traditional responsibilities of a wife and mother that Mr. Pontellier expected of her. Mr. Pontellier was so worried about his wife’s new disposition towards life, that he called in the family doctor to observe what was wrong with her; “[The Doctor] observed [Edna] attentively… and noted a subtle change which had transformed her from the listless woman he had known into a being who, for the moment, seemed palpitant with the forces of life” (Chopin 123). The Pontellier’s family doctor had come into the Pontellier’s house for dinner with the preconceived notion that he would be observing Edna acting odd or down, as Mr. Pontellier suggested. Mr. Pontellier implies that his wife had become somewhat of a social outcast, not associating with anyone or taking care of their home. When the doctor sees Edna, he forms his own opinion which is that Edna had in fact “transformed”, but not in the way that Mr. Pontellier had suggested.  Chopin has revealed to readers that while Mr. Pontellier was away, Edna had been involved in relationships with other men and friendships with women such as Mademoiselle Reisz who encourages Edna to be more independent. It is through these relationships and time away from her husband that Edna becomes “palpitant with the forces of life”. Edna’s temporary freedom from her husband allows her to become energetic and excited for her life and freedom.

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