The Awakening: Edna's Path Through Life
There are many important paths that we must follow on our journey
through life. We follow the path without questioning its intent. The path
informs us when we should learn to talk, to walk, to marry, and to have
children. We are told that we should never stray from it, because if we do,
society will make it certain that we are bound for damnation. In the novel
The Awakening the main character, Edna Pontellier, has followed this path
without so much as a fuss. All that changes when Edna is awakened from a
life long slumber�a slumber, which she found repetitious, monotonous, and
futile. She discovers that she is incomplete being just a wife and a mother.
She needs to fill the void that has ...
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her fantasies and dreams
in the depths of the shadows. "The acme of bliss, which would have been a
marriage with the tragedian, was not for her in this world. As the devoted
wife of a man who worshiped her, she felt she would take her place with a
certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind
her upon the realm of romance and dreams." (P. 24) After marriage, hidden
around the curvatures of the path, were the expectations of motherhood and
being a devoted mother, after all "if it was not a mother's place to look
after children, whose on earth was it?" (P.7)
The appearance of Edna's life looked perfect�she was the envy of
many women who declared, "Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world.
Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit she knew of none better." (P. 9) The
cover of her life had that of a fairy tale, but inside, the pages were
filled with the emptiness and the loneliness she was feeling. During that
summer at Grand Isle, the pages were finally ...
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heart; she would sometimes forget them, and their
absence was a sort of relief." (P. 24)
Around her, Edna could see the devoted Creole mothers flocking
about their precious children. These women frowned upon Edna's laissez
faire attitude toward her children. None of the other women could relate to
Edna's declaration, "I would give up the unessential; I would give my money,
I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself." (P. 25)
Edna made the decision to have a family when she was young, naive, and
unaware of what she truly wanted. That summer, she awakened from her
slumber and frantically began to search for the gateway to her dreams. As
for her children, "they need ...
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The Awakening: Edna's Path Through Life. (2005, June 5). Retrieved November 28, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Ednas-Path-Through-Life/27996
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"The Awakening: Edna's Path Through Life." Essayworld.com. June 5, 2005. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Ednas-Path-Through-Life/27996.
"The Awakening: Edna's Path Through Life." Essayworld.com. June 5, 2005. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Ednas-Path-Through-Life/27996.
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