Female Conciuosness in The Awakening

CXL

  Regarded as Kate Chopin’s real feminist work, The Awakening calls for more profound reflections on equality of different genders. The protagonist Edna was a housewife who had lost her identity, as she existed as if only to meet the needs and wants of her family. Edna’s“awakening”was wakened by Robert, a young man by whom Edna befriended on the island. Edna gradually realized that she wanted the autonomy of her body and the realization of her self-value. What she fought for was “women’s eternal right”.  Determined not to let anyone, including her children, possess her, Edna swam away from the shore. After exhaustion overtook her, she drowned among the waves, finally and totally free.

  One important theme of The Awakening is a woman’s right of control over her own body and will. Edna desperately resisted objectification by her husband who regarded her as“a valuable piece of personal property.”She even opposed Robert when he said that she was“not free”and must be“set...free”by her husband in order for them to be together,“You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours, ’I should laugh at you both.” When a woman is seen as personal property of her husband, she is inferior to a man. Readers may notice that there is no equality in Edna’s marriage. While learning to swim, Edna took control of her body and regained her strength, confidence and independence, “A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.” She found that she could dominate her life again in the sea.