Edna Pontellier's Suicide In The Awakening

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The Awakening by Kate Chopin details the struggles of a woman in New Orleans in the late 19th century, fighting societal norms to defend her individual values. The societal ideals of the time were not tailored to the individual, so those who did not conform essentially drowned, their individuality choked out by expectations of how they believe they should be. Edna searches for her own identity, branching away from what society expects of her, which makes her happy but ends up causing complications. When she realizes she cannot live happily by either conforming to society or living the way she wants, Edna Pontellier commits suicide by drowning herself in the ocean, sacrificing her life because she values her own identity and the for good of …show more content…
Edna conforms to the mother woman stereotype through her suicide, looking out for her children’s futures despite her own despair--she sacrifices her life so her children have a chance at having a better future, heeding Madame Ratignolle’s advice from the previous day to “‘think of the children’” (133). Even though she wants to adopt a more bohemian lifestyle, she is aware of the shame it would bring to her children if she chose to live as she wanted. She wouldn’t be able to be the person her children needed if she either chose her own path or conformed to society’s conventions. Her suicide itself is an act of conforming to the society she so despises, sacrificing the very essence of her beliefs, even making it appear to be an accident so her death is more palatable to those around her, compared to if her desire to kill herself had been more apparent. This prevents her children from becoming pariahs, as if their own mother didn’t want them. Edna’s final act is one she believed herself unfit for, the highest degree of “mother woman” behavior, which is sacrificing her life for her children. This also confirms her claim of “never sacrificing herself for her children, or for any one” (56), because while she gave her life, she preserved her spirit by committing suicide, so she
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