The Awakening begins during a blissful vacation, interestingly not with the main protagonist’s voice or input. Edna is the main protagonist, but instead, Mr. Pontellier’s voice and character are the narrators at the beginning of the book. I think this is very telling as to Mr. Pontellier’s character both as a man and as Edna’s husband.
I find that Mr. Pontellier is a very controlling, selfish, and quite frankly boring character. The first time that I see evidence of his behavior is on pages seven through thirteen. He starts by waking her up in the middle of the night because he wants to talk with her for the first time all day. Then, when she is understandably tired and not willing to talk with him about his day, he gets angry that she isn’t giving him all her devotion and affection. After her inaction, he seeks to “punish her” for her inattentiveness and goes on to berate her about her ability as a mother and wife.
He even goes so far as to lie and pretend his child has a fever when he does not. “Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the bourbons and peanuts for the boys… Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.” (7-8) It also seems clear from this passage and others like it that he doesn’t seem to be a good father despite wanting Edna to be a perfect mother. Quite frankly, the fact that he would want to see Edna, whom he claims is “the sole object of his existence,” get upset is disturbing. (7) Even more so when you realize it is because he is not getting enough attention from her in his eyes.
In the beginning, Edna is controlled and guided by both her husband’s thoughts and his oftentimes abusive words towards her. “Mrs. Pontellier’s mind was quite at rest concerning the present material needs of her children, and she could not see the use of anticipating and making winter night garments… But she did not want to appear unamiable and uninterested so she had brought forth newspapers.” (13) Edna at this time finds herself trying to be the perfect mother like Adele Ratignolle, the image of the ideal woman at that time. As time progresses, she finds herself falling further and further from this picturesque image. In short, Edna becomes the antithesis of Adele Ratignolle.
Her time with Robert was the first taste of rebellion. Robert seems to be everything Mr. Pontellier is not; kind, exciting, and above all empathetic. He encourages her to jump into the sea, something she had not done before she met him. The first time she openly defies her husband was after the midnight party with Robert. She sits in a hammock and doesn’t allow her husband to force her to go to bed. Chopin cleverly uses an almost playful banter to describe Mr. Pontellier’s desperation at Edna’s defiance. “Edna, dear, are you not coming in soon?”… “No; I am going to stay out here.” “This is more than folly,” he blurted out, “I can’t permit you to stay out there all night”… With a writhing motion she settled herself more securely in the hammock.”(47)
Chapter 27 was a huge setting change. It almost threw me off because the book focused so much on their vacation. This chapter and the ones after show the Pontellier’s home life. In these next few chapters, we see the extent to which Mr. Pontellier attempts to control his wife and home. We see Edna truly start to rebel both against her husband’s wishes and also against society’s. The first true glimpse of this is on page 80. “Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it laying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture.” This passage comes after the fight with Mr. Pontellier about going outside the home. This is a striking example of both the fact that she is stuck in an unhappy marriage and that she is done with living as she had lived. On page 86, there is further evidence of her unhappiness within her marriage and society’s confines. We can see a mental shift in which she is challenging the status quo presented to her. “She could not see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui. She was moved by a kind of commiseration for Madame Ratignolle, a pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment.”
In the last part of the book, she is almost fully free of her husband’s controlling hands. Thanks to the doctor’s advice– sexist advice, but his help nonetheless — he stops being as controlling temporarily. He travels to New York to do business and she is left alone. Mademoiselle Reisz was a major player in Edna’s independence and growth. She was present for the ocean scene at the beginning of the book and it’s no mistake that she is with Edna in the latter half. She acts as encouragement for Edna’s “rebellion.” In this part of the book, she goes outside her home late, moves to another home, begins an affair, and visits whom she wants to. In short, she becomes her true self. Then a catalyst event happens. Robert comes back and visits her. He explains that the reason why he went away was that he wanted her to be his wife and because she was married they couldn’t marry. Edna felt the same way and love towards him and was devastated.
This is why I believe that the book ended the way it did. I think she felt that she couldn’t have any man she grew to love nor any of the other freedoms she had grown accustomed to. “Despondency had come upon her there in the wake-ful night, and had never lifted. There was no thing in the world that she desired. There was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert… But she knew a way to elude them.” (176) Her apparent suicide offers a disturbing and problematic glimpse into Chopin’s seeming solution to the problems faced by “Edna” and the 19th-century woman.