Conflict Between Edna’s Outward Existence and Inward Life in Chopin’s The Awakening

Abstract

A woman, who wants to live according to the dictates of her inner self, refusing to conform the ideals of the patriarchal codes, ultimately fails to survive in such society. Chopin’s The Awakening portrays a woman with the similar plight, who, quite overwhelmed by the ‘feminist’ awareness, seeks alternatives to marriage and motherhood, contemplates over the problem of woman’s inequality in society and raises the question of whether men and women are ‘essentially’ different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different. Edna, the protagonist of the Novel, therefore, is desperate from the beginning to attain self-fulfillment and to comprehend herself as an autonomous self, and makes a series of protests against all who try to limit her into ideological duties of feminity. In an attempt to break free from her domestic confinement, she grows indifferent to her role as ‘self sacrificing’ mother and ‘faithful’ wife. She entertains adultery, pursues art, neglects social obligations, abandons both her children and husband, and lives separately in a ‘pigeon house’. Yet, she still fails to find some sort of meaning of her whole existence. When Robert, whom she loves, does not wait for her at the end, she fails to find fulfillment in her life without a man. She could live alone like Mademoiselle Reisz was living, as an artist. But the frequent thought of children tries to drag her into ‘soul’s slavery’, threatening her inner self that was slowly revealing to herself. At last, in order to prevent any harm to her inner self, she destroys Mrs Pontellier -- the ‘mechanical’ and ‘hostile’ outward existence of Edna. However, choosing death she has been able to sanctify her moral and spiritual height. She got victory even in defeat.