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Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998
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MCCCWC entry—literary essay division
The Secrets of Edna Pontellier
by Heather Carmichael
In the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin tells of Edna Pontellier's struggle with fate. Edna Pontellier awakens from a slumber only to find that her life is displeasing, but these displeasing thoughts are not new to Edna. The actions taken by Edna Pontellier in the novel The Awakening clearly determine that she is not stable. The neglect of her duties as a wife and mother and as a woman of society are all affected by her mental state. Her choices to have affairs and disregard her vow of marriage represent her impaired judgment. The change in her attitude and interests becomes quite irresponsible, and that change along with her final decision to commit suicide tell the reader that Edna Pontellier is not capable of making valid judgments. Had Edna Pontellier been of sound mind and body, she would not have ended her young life by suicide. The fact that she can clearly and easily turn to such an alternative suggests that she is depressed and obviously in opposition to the church. The thoughts and actions of Edna Pontellier are solely determined by her manic depressive state, her apparent repressed abuse from her childhood, and her abandonment of Christianity.
Throughout the novel the reader gets a clear sense of Edna Pontellier's peculiar mind and her manic depressive state. She is continually plagued by the moment. Her mood shifts from highs to lows show the reader that a sadness is perpetually within her:
We are told there are days when she "was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with sunlight.." On such days Edna "found it good to be alone and unmolested." Yet on other days, she is molested by despondencies so severe that "it did not seem worthwhile to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling towards inevitable annihilation." (Platizky 100)When she chooses such a selfish path, she casts her depression upon the members of her family and her friends. Her disposition clearly affects their lives on a regular basis. Edna Pontellier defies her husband and is ready to depart from her children at any time. Counseling of some sort for her temperament might encourage her to put her family's needs before herself. She constantly enjoys her freedom and abandons her responsibilities, displaying a childlike ideal of reality. Edna frequently likes to be alone throughout the novel. She mentions feeling caged and sets out to free herself by moving to another house, when, contrary to her immature thoughts, she is still very much in the same predicament. These actions do not help Edna to better her condition. The lows manic depressives experience can be detrimental, and by placing herself in an isolated atmosphere, she is making her problem greater:
But alone Edna is prey to suicidal thoughts, the voices which distort the victim's choices and exaggerate her plight. Edna's idea in her last moments that her children are "antagonists" whom she must "elude" is patently irrational behavior, for her progeny have given her little trouble and seem her happiest links to life. But for her at this moment they represent the powers arrayed against her. (Franklin 526)Clearly Edna Pontellier is an unstable woman. She is unable to determine the value of her children and what they represent to her. She becomes so depressed that she commits suicide and abandons them completely. A mother with a stable character would never think to do such a thing.
Perhaps it is not solely Edna Pontellier's fault for her condition. She is the one making such vital changes, but since she is a manic depressive we are led to believe that there are underlying circumstances that have brought on this condition. Her attitude towards family life and her daily activities change dramatically. One critic says, "She felt no interest in anything about herself" (Skaggs 104). She withdraws from society. She is also unable to control her emotional state. It is also stated that "Edna felt depressed rather than soothed" (Skaggs 106). Platizky says, "She did not know why she was crying"(100). Kate Chopin portrays Edna as suffering from "an indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate some unfamiliar part of her conscience filling her whole being with a vague anguish." Edna Pontellier should not be left to make her own decisions. The decisions she does make have to be caused by some other force, a force that has caused her depression.
Edna Pontellier makes brief references to her childhood. She mentions the bluegrass meadow of her childhood, the visit from her father, her lack of concern about her sister, and the fact that she was raised a motherless girl. All of these factors contribute to some type of apparent problem in her past. Platizky also says, "Although there is no explicit evidence that Edna was personally violated in childhood, Chopin suggests that Edna's childhood is what we would call dysfunctional" (101). Her family life apparently was not a good one. We are led to believe that Edna may have not had the type of affection or attention she desperately needed as a child. She has a sense of anger towards her family. We know by her fatal decision that she has a deep pain within that she does not feel she can handle. This deep pain can very well be related to a traumatic experience that she keeps to herself. When she is still living at her husband's home, she is visited by her father, who is described as a stern man. Another source says, "Edna's father then tells her husband that she is merely lacking discipline, and that all she needs is some authority" (Seyersted 135). We know that Edna's father by this statement alone is accustomed to controlling Edna. To what degree he has controlled her is unclear, but he does disregard her unusual behavior, and he shows a lack of concern. Edna Pontellier feels she is not in control of her life or her decisions. She is only able to minimize her depressive thoughts when she is in total control of her body and the men in her life, whether it be her father, her husband, her sons, or Robert and Alcee:
The thoughts of not being in control of one's own body or choices would be frightening for anyone, but for someone who has been physically violated, the fear of losing such control could be devastating, even life-threatening. (Platizky 100)Her life is indeed threatened by her own actions. She feels she has nowhere to go, that she is constricted in her life as she was in the house she shared with her husband. She is definitely having problems identifying with the immediate things around her. Her continual entrapment leaves her with a constant feeling that there is incongruity between her real self and her present circumstances. Platizky also says, "One might argue that a person who had been violated or 'invaded' would be especially susceptible to boundary problems and the kinds of narcissistic love attachments Edna is having" (100). When people have experienced some type of abuse in their lives, it is not unusual for a change in their attitude about their sexual behavior to occur. Edna Pontellier has abruptly changed her behavior by entertaining addictive adulterous relationships: "To-day it is Arobin; tomorrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me" implies that Edna is being driven to these men more by compulsion than by desire (Platizky 100). We cannot assume that her death is brought on by an unattainable love. She does not care for these men because she is not capable of caring properly for them; she has never been taught about affection (Seyersted 134). We know that Edna is depressed with continual mood swings, we know that some type of event has brought on her inability to cope with life, and we know that she is engaging in a life of strictly self gratifying things. We are not clearly told what has happened to Edna in her childhood, but we do know that perhaps this has contributed to her rebellion.
Edna's extreme mood swings-from elation to despondency-are another sign that she may be suffering form a post-traumatic event. Edna's problems with boundary-setting and addictive infatuations also suggest a post-traumatic conflict. (Platizky 101)We sense that no matter what changes Edna makes in her life--her sexual behavior, her companion, her place of residence--she is still experiencing depression. We see Edna is trying to block out something stronger than her unhappy marriage, maybe a specific event, or a particular person, or perhaps a lifetime of abuse (Platizky 100).
Edna Pontellier also feels a lack of belonging in the church. Whether or not she is aware that she has willfully chosen to defy Christianity is untold:
Edna Pontellier is thus a perfect foil for the "mother-woman," a species defined again with a Biblical ring--as the "women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels." (Seyersted 140)She becomes unholy by making the decision to have affairs and ignore the examples she is expected to set. If she were a strong Christian and involved in the church, she could pray for the wisdom she needs. Edna is not confident in her Christianity because she fails to wait for guidance. She becomes completely selfish and goes against what being a Christian means. The church weighs her down and she feels uncomfortable just being there:
Edna is shown as not belonging to the realm of Christianity. Her knowledge is described as "perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost vouchsafe to grant to any woman." Finally, the church oppresses her with its "stifling atmosphere." (Seyersted 144)With the wisdom of a Christian woman, she could understand that wisdom and knowledge are two separate things. Wisdom is granted from the Lord. We cannot clearly speak of her knowledge and wisdom as the same concept, for choosing the path she has clearly displays her lack of wisdom and challenges the church and everything it stands for. There is no place in Christianity for a woman to take her own life, abandon her family, have affairs, and give into complete selfish temptations. Edna displays much contradiction in the actions. She says she would die for her children but not give up "anything essential" for them. A Christian mother cannot put her own selfish needs before her children's well being. Edna feels neither shame nor remorse for her actions. She seems to have little concern for anyone but herself: "She has abandoned herself to fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference" (Franklin 524). In the end it is evident that Edna does not care. She has lost faith and is prepared to make her final thoughts of suicide reality.
Edna Pontellier does not stand a chance.
With a complete disregard for the feelings that matter in her life, she
becomes dragged down by depression. She experiences the final low point
of her manic depressive state which leads her to her suicide. She no longer
has a will to repress any untold secrets from the past or perhaps the past.
Since she has strayed far from her Christian beliefs, she has given in
to the evil that has worked to overcome her. She believes she is finally
achieving her freedom when she is only confining herself to one single
choice, death. In taking her own life, she for the last time falls into
an extremely low mood, disregards anyone but herself, and disobeys the
church.
Works Cited
Franklin, R. F. "The Awakening and the Failure of Psyche" American Literature 56 (Summer 1984): 510-526.
Platizky, R. "Chopin's The Awakening." Explicator 53 (Winter 1995): 99-102.
Seyersted, P. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969.
Skaggs, P. Kate Chopin. Boston:
Twayne Publishers, 1985.
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