The Awakening of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"

This diploma paper elaborately describes the awakening of Edna Pontellier’s character. She gains her independence, liberation of her real character and sexual desire through series of little awakenings. Women’s position in the late nineteenth century is being discussed, because in this novel, through the character of the main protagonist Edna, Kate Chopin is showing experiences of a woman trapped in that time. With her naturalistic narrative style Chopin has perfectly depicted a woman who was shackled to the Creole society and its norms, and whose life was ruled by the collective. After that, Edna’s unhappy marriage, and her Creole surrounding in which she, a Kentucky Protestant, does not fit in, and the beginning of her awakening is being described. Her friendship with Robert Lebrun, and love toward him, initiated her self-awakening and the beginning of her sexual awakening. The experience of her first time swimming alone, when she realized her own strength, symbolizes the awakening of her real self. In much the same way, the excursion with Robert to Cheniere Caminada, where she became aware of her own sexuality, initiated her sexual awakening. Also, her rebellion against the conventional society, breaking of social norms, leaving her husband and children, and her isolation which provoked a sexual affair with Alcee Arobin, with whom Edna’s sexuality fully flowered, are stations on her trip to her final, tragic awakening. After Robert’s final good-bye, Edna realizes the depth of her solitude, and commits suicide, because this is the only way she could preserve her freedom, integrity, and independence.