The Demise of Edna Pontillier

       The character of Edna Pontillier, from the classic novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, is a woman with great conflictions of the heart. She continually makes a series of bad choices throughout the novel, but her own stupidity is not the only cause for blame. By marrying Leonce, she has been adopted into the Creole society and is forced to obey by society's demands of her. Edna is not expected to live for herself, but rather as a domestic wife and mother. She's not allowed to make major choices - she must obide by what her husband says and thinks and can not doubt those actions. Edna had not grown up with these ideals, though society throughout the country was not extremely different; women were thought of as housewifes everywhere. But Edna's character is not one to hold tightly to these expectations. On page eighteen, it is revealed that Edna's feelings towards her children were as follows:
     "She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them...Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her."
     Other characters in The Awakening, like Adele, would perfectly resemble the idealistic Creole woman. Throughout the novel, Adele is described as being beautiful whereas Edna is merely "handsome". This difference is made to distinguish how easily Creole's adore Adele, but they are more weary of Edna. Edna does not feel like she has been accepted because "the Creole woman seems to be inborn and unmistakable. (pg.9)"
      Because of these hardships, Edna makes the choice to befriend Robert Lebrun. Adele, as well as the other women in the society know of Robert's history; he is a ladies man and finds a new woman to chase every summer. Nevertheless, Edna begins to spend most days in Robert's company. She grows fond of him without even realizing her true attachment until he proclaims he is leaving for Mexico. Edna is devistated by this news and becomes a shell of herself when he leaves. And although she begs him to write her, she never recieves a letter from him.
      Days become longer for her and her husband becomes convinced that she has a mental illness. Sadly, the only evident illness is her sickness of the heart. When her husband unwisely leaves her to go on a business trip, Edna seems to search for someone to fill the void in her heart. Her search drags up Alcee Arobin, another ladies man and one with a worse reputation. Alcee seduces her in a way, and is the first person she cheats on her husband with. After her kiss with Alcee, Edna thinks through her situation and decides that "among the conflicting sensations which assailed her, there was neither shame nor remorse. (pg 84)"
     Obviously at this point, she doesn't care what her husband or any townspeople think of her; she doesn't feel like her fling with Alcee should really matter. But her husband should deserve more loyalty, and her love for Robert is not being reflected in what she feels for Alcee. Alcee is simply there because selfish Edna acts like she deserves the male attention of every single man in the city. She is not thinking of her children when they are away, she only focuses on how alone she would be without Alcee around.
    When Robert returns from Mexico, Edna makes more of an emotional bound away from her husband. By this time she has moved out of her home with Leonce and into a smaller home a block away. She had also acted self-indulgently when she served her guests at her "moving" party and claimed that expence was no predicament because Leonce could just pay for it later. Her children are still staying with a relative and she rarely wastes a thought with them. And now, finally, when her love Robert returns, he tries to keep his distance from her.
      The time finally comes when Robert and Edna express their love for eachother, and there is a sense of hope in the novel. Edna is finally happy and she is ready to throw all the rule books out the window just to run away with Robert. Edna doesn't think about how her children could perceive her relationshipm with Robert or what the rest of the town would think. Robert obviously understood his relationship with Edna better than Edna understood it. She became so caught up in the passion of love, she forgot her place in society. And while Robert may not be completely agreeable with everything the society believes in, he knows that if Edna's marriage were to end in a scandal, the society may never forgive them. Robert would basically have to give up everything to be with Edna. And even after he gave up everything that he was born into, he would have to face Leonce, who does not want to give Edna away.
     When Robert makes the decision that he would rather be miserable for the rest of his life without Edna than to risk her unhappiness for the rest of her life because everything in her life would change, Robert dissappears, leaving only a note in his wake. The note that he left said: "I love you. Good-by--because I love you. (pg. 112)" Nowhere in that note gives Edna any sort of explaination of his actions. She doesn't realize that he may have had her best interests in mind, and even if she did, she acted like a rebellious teenager ready to leap off a cliff with the man or die trying.
      Edna died trying. Her death is truly sad because if Robert would have given her more of an explaination before he abandoned her, she wouldn't of felt so miserable. If Edna had understood that what he was doing was going to be the best thing, maybe one day she would come to accept it. Robert  must have felt too weak to refuse her; to Edna's face, he couldn't deny his love for her. He would've had to say that he loved her too much, and because of it, he had to set her free. While Edna may have realized somewhere in her conscience that she was in a warped fantasy that could have never come true, she doesn't seem to think that her life could be livable without him. She doesn't consider that her children would need her. She only feels that her children and her husband could no longer "possess her, body and soul. (pg. 116)" The sea is where had felt the most free in her entire life, so she felt that drowning would be her escape to true freedom.
     I can understand how trapped and tired Edna must have felt. It would be terrible waking up every day to something that makes you feel weighed down. I truly think that Edna could have been dealing with depression because she was so unhappy about the way her life had played out. Obviously, Edna had a great deal of regrets in her life - her husband being towards the top of the list. But I am a firm believer that suicide is never the answer. She should had taken an opportunity to speak to a doctor about the way she was feeling. And never once did she talk to Leonce about how miserable she was; he only sensed that she was mentally ill, he couldn't of known that it was him that was causing her unhappiness unless she admitted it to him! Situations don't get better until you can accept where you are in your life and try every possible solution to reach happiness again. Edna could have gotten divorced someday. She could have stepped up to the plate and been a major factor in her children's lives. She could have found a way to take her mind off men in general and focused on herself, but she felt trapped and she didn't believe that there was anything society would have allowed her to do for her to dig herself out of her rut.