The Awakening by Kate Chopin Book Analysis

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, is a turn of the 20th century novel that examines the relationships between women, specifically mothers, and the societal roles that were forced upon them during this time. This story takes a deeper look into the life of Edna, a young mother and wife, whose life revolves around the wants and needs of her husband and children. Throughout the novel, Edna experiences a spiritual awakening while swimming far out into the ocean, allowing her to gain a clearer insight on the way she truly feels about filling this role that is placed upon her by society. She begins to question her role within the societal system and slowly starts the process of breaking free from the chains of patriarchy. The novel ends rather abruptly as Edna eventually comes to a self-realization that the only way to truly gain freedom and escape oppression from those who surround her is to drown herself, ending her life as well as the duties that she was expected to act upon during her lifetime. In The Awakening, Chopin uses the dramatic and unexpected death of Edna to end her novel in an appropriate way, portraying her beliefs on the immense pressure that society places on women to occupy a set position in the household and ultimately showcasing the extremes that one may be willing to suffer through in order to earn complete physical and spiritual freedom. 

Mr. Pontellier was quite often discontent with the effort that Edna put forth into different jobs and tasks around the house, often having to do with taking the workload off himself. He felt as if the mother-like role was left vacant in their family, as “it would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define to his own satisfaction or any one else’s wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children”(7). Not only does he state that his wife could have been a better mother to their children, he decides to go as far as to say that she failed in this role, forgetting the needs of her children and placing hers first. Edna didn’t purposefully leave her children struggling, but rather it was a side-product of the search within herself for what she truly wanted to do with her life, gain freedom from the patriarchy within society. Any hint of freedom for herself was thought to be thrown out the window in this situation by Edna, who wanted to stray as far away from the “women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels”(8) as possible. Whatever way it was shaped, this situation always put her into a position of blindly following whatever person or group that was pressuring her to fulfill her believed societal duties. This passage draws a connection between her husband and her children to god-like characters, having an ultimate say in all details of her life, illustrated by the use of highly religious language such as “holy”, “idolized”, “worshiped”, and “angels”. Another mother within the town, Madame Ratignolle, known as the “embodiment of every womanly grace and charm”(8), is used as a foil character to Edna, further developing the idea through the novel that Edna lacks interest in certain motherly duties and has a deeper yearning within herself for freedom. 

The constant build-up of tension between the pressure that Edna was receiving to perform well in her maternal role, as well as the constant yearning for freedom within herself, forces her to make a decision regarding the way in which she wants to live the rest of her life. One night, Edna has a moment of realization while her husband is ordering her to get into bed, wondering “if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command”(31), which after some thinking she comes to the conclusion that “of course she had; she remembered that she had”(31). At this point, she has taken a large step towards gaining the freedom that she longs for, as her husband is one of the most restricting implements of her life. She then continues to make more of these strides towards her liberation by opting out of various tasks and duties assigned with her societal position, as “every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual”(94). Even after all of her efforts, it seems as if she is only able to get infinitely closer to complete freedom within her life, never fully reaching the state of independence from her responsibilities to her husband and children that she worked to achieve. Edna makes the rash decision that in order to reach the free state of being that she so greatly wanted, she needed to end her life. To do this, she did this by swimming out into the ocean until “Exhaustion was pressing upon and overpowering her”(116), ultimately continuing outwards until “the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone”(116).  This moment concludes the novel abruptly, as there is no story to tell once the story of Edna’s life has ended. This ending is appropriate due to the message that it is able to express to the reader through the use of an unexpected and tragic ending. By using this conclusion, Chopin is able to drive home her negative thoughts on the pressure that was placed on women, especially mothers, during this time period.

Although the ending of the novel was able to get the main points of the story across, it is not the only way in which the book could have possibly been concluded. Other endings could have appropriately closed the novel as well, adding in elements and scenarios that would have been seen as more satisfying for its readers.  As much of the book was spent developing Mr. Pontellier as an antagonist of the story, a closing scene in which harm was placed upon her husband in some form may have filled the reader's hope for Edna to get revenge. An event such as Edna leaving her family for a new life in a place far away from her current home, or Edna killing her husband in a dramatic turn of events, fulfills the readers' desire for Edna to take control of her life, and upset the societal system that she is forced into. Even with Edna overcoming her oppression in these instances, she would still feel some form of entrapment caused by living within a world filled with stereotypes and traditional beliefs on the roles of women, never allowing her to reach a state of complete freedom. In this sense, the ending that is instated is the most in line with the ideas that Chopin is trying to express, as it is the only one that allows Edna to reach the level of freedom that she was trying to achieve. With her death being the only way for Edna to fully break free from her role that society placed upon her, it is revealed that it is impossible to achieve complete freedom when one exists within a societal system, due to the lingering pressure to fill one’s believed role that will always exist in some shape or form.