The Awakening 2

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
March 6, 2009
Journal #18 Kate Chopin 2

QUOTE:

“The years that are gone seem like dreams – if one might go on sleeping and dreaming – but to wake up and find – oh! Well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life” (621).

SUMMARY:
In Chapter XXXVIII of the story, after Edna witnessed the labor of Madame Ratignolle, she walked with Doctor Mandelet. This scene is right after Edna and Robert relit their love. She mentioned how immense her feeling for freedom and rebellion was and how bad she did not want to conform to anything. Edna then used some metaphor to describe all her past years, which were her dreams and sleeps. The process she was going through now was the part she woke up eventually. She was glad about this because she no longer needed to force herself to embrace any social and gender roles, and her passions and cravings would no longer seem that distant and illusive to her. Even if she was required to pay much effort and suffer in finding her own place on earth, she described this as “better.”

RESPONSE:

If I have to separate Edna Pontellier’s awakening, I would say there are four processes. According to Sparknote, “Initially, Edna experiences her independence as no more than an emotion.” This sentence summarized the essence of her first stage, which was a kind of existence without truly faced emotions, desires and thoughts. This kind of living can be said as mentally dead, as a person can feel the sentiment, but at the same time is indifferent in their action and reaction. Edna at first was just like this. Living a high-class, luxurious and restful life as a wife of rich Creole man, Edna noticed the difference between her true self with the background, religion, social conventions and expectations on a woman. Having an independent and thoughtful heart, Edna did not want to conform to the vast majority, yet she failed to express her minds. Therefore, all her emotional intensity was trapped inside her body until they are rotten and dead.

Upon Edna’s vacation on Grand Isle during the summer, her stony heart again trembled just like what she had had during her youth. Her experience of love, passion and intimacy enlightened and puzzled Edna’s heart. She began to act like a new-born creature who was not accustomed to anything, and therefore she tried to rebel. This embarked the second stage of Edna. The third stage started after she was back to New Orleans, as her seek for independence and connection to her true desires grew much stronger. This was a stage when Edna began to imaginatively fantasized Robert, the reality and herself, because her optimism and hope were restored. Even Robert was far way in Mexico, her wish, expectation and anticipation for him allowed her to remain in an awakening shape.

The quote I chose earlier exactly described Edna’s optimistic search of hope and social position. She talked to Doctor Mandelet about all the benefits from awakeing, while neglecting all the potential destruction done to her courageous heart upon searching. She at the time of the quote definitely did not know she would finally submit herself to the vast ocean in a suicidal attempt. The last passage of Edna’s death signified the last stage of all, which was an inevitable failure of attempt to escape from the wicked reality. Edna, at the end, did not succeed because she was somehow doomed to be alienated and submerged in obscurity and confusion.