The Awakening - Friend Influences
In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the protagonist of the story, Edna Pontellier, is a woman in the late 1800's who has been living a life of the expectations of the women of that time. She is a devoted wife and mother. After a vacation in Grand Isle, she meets new friends and new surroundings that influence the way she thinks. These influences also help to establish herself as an independent woman and break free from the traditional everyday womanly duties. But, will this road to becoming independent consume her so much that she will lose everything that she has come to known? It all starts with the new friends she meets while she is on vacation with her family at Grand Isle.
While Edna is on her vacation, she meets Adele Ratignolle, the epitome of the typical 1800's woman. Chopin describes these women as "women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it as a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels." (Chopin 10) She also says women, in particular Creole women, were impressive because of their freedom of expression about anything, including things society doesn't speak openly about like romantic gossip. Edna on the other hand is the complete opposite and is not the "mother-woman" type. She admires Adele because of her quality of being outspoken and it inspires her to think about old times in her youth of romantic dreams or fantasies. This is the start of Edna beginning to think in depth about her life. It also makes her begin to be more outspoken, especially to her husband. With her being more outspoken, she is able to break free from the natural hold her husband has on her and becomes free. It also begins the unspoken love that she has for another character in the story, Robert Lebrun.
Robert is what the people at Grand Isle call a big flirt. Every year he courts a different woman but this time, when he chooses Edna, everything is different. Since most of the women that Robert courts are Creole women, they find his flirting funny and they enjoy his company. Edna on the other hand, takes it seriously and begins to develop feelings for Robert. She sees in Robert everything that she doesn't have with her husband: love and devotion. They develop a relationship where they're together all the time but...