Edna Pontellier's Sexual Awareness - Awakening Can Mean Arousal

In Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening (1899), Edna discovers that she has only been living part of a life. Parts of her being awaken during the novel, and these awakenings can be described using the specific images, experiences, and relationships that form her story. Edna's relationship with Alcée Arobin, for example, informs readers of Edna's sexual awakening. Becoming aware of her desire to be sexually aroused is just part of Edna's awakening, however. She also becomes aware of her desires to be creative, independent, and emotionally in love with a man. Edna finds separate outlets for each of her desires, but when she finds she cannot reconcile or combine these outlets, she feels defeated and hopeless. Edna's relationship with Alcée Arobin describes how Edna initially realizes her deficiency in sexual passion, how she seeks to fulfill her sexual desire and integrate it into the rest of her being, and how she eventually finds that the fulfillment and integration of her complex desires is impossible.

Alcée Arobin's first appearance in the novel boasts a brief description of him that hints at why Edna might be attracted to him: "He possessed a good figure, a pleasing face . . . and his dress was that of the conventional man of fashion" (420). Most women find athletic, handsome, well-dressed men to be physically attractive. Obviously, nothing is wanting in Arobin's physical appearance. His personality also shines through a description of his exterior. He is charming because of "a perpetual smile in his eyes" and cheerful because of his "good-humored voice" (420). Although Arobin's pleasing physical attributes obviously play a part in Edna's attraction to him, all these would be for naught if he did not show some reciprocal interest in Edna. Being the perfect temptation, he offers this as well: "he admire[s] Edna extravagantly" and insists on spending time with her (420). As their friendship blooms, Edna examines a scar on Arobin's wrist and is overcome with "a quick impulse that was somewhat spasmodic [that] impelled her fingers to close in a sort of clutch upon his hand" (422). Although she quickly dismisses the action, Arobin acts upon it and kisses her hand warmly before he leaves for the evening. After this encounter, Edna becomes aware that "his presence, his manners, the warmth of his glances, and above all the touch of his lips upon her hand had acted like a narcotic upon her," and she is aware of "her awakening sensuousness"-a sensuousness that had been absent far too long in her marriage (423, 422).

When Edna notices the deficiency of physical passion in her life, she pursues it in a relationship with Arobin. Margaret Culley's article "Edna Pontellier: 'A Solitary Soul'" describes the different kinds of awakenings that Edna experiences and explains that Edna's "sexual awakening now leads her to seek the deliverance of the flesh" through her relationship with Arobin (224). After finding Arobin physically attractive and discovering that he reciprocates her longings for intimate contact, Edna lets down her barriers and allows herself to share in physical expressions of her sexuality with Arobin. Their first kiss is "the first kiss of her life to which her nature had really responded. It was a flaming torch that kindled desire" (428). She finds in Arobin all the sexual passion that she had been missing in her marriage. Their flirtations finally lead to the ultimate act; after a feeble objection, "she . . . become[s] supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties" (435). After she finds this outlet for her passion, however, she realizes that she does not love Arobin the way that she loves Robert, and she knows that she could never carry out a life with Arobin the way that she can with her husband. Her passions and desires are strained between three men, and she is limited into choosing either just one or none at all.

Edna realizes too late that her marriage will never be able to satisfy anything but society's expectations. Her reasons for marrying her husband in the first place-"He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which fancy she was mistaken"-are less than romantic (377). Because she and her husband have little in common other than a last name and two children, her desire for emotional and sexual bonding leads her to seek fulfillment in other men. She finds the emotional bond she seeks in Robert. When they discover their mutual affection, Edna tells him, "We shall love each other, my Robert. We shall be everything to each other. Nothing else in the world is of any consequence" (448). When Robert leaves her, Edna's heart breaks because Robert is not willing to risk social disgrace by loving her sexually. She finds sexual fulfillment in her passionate romance with Arobin, but the emotional bond is lacking because "Alcée Arobin [is] absolutely nothing to her" (423). Her relationship with Arobin also lacks in permissibility by society's standards, even if it makes up for a lack of emotional depth with burning sexuality.

These three men embody the separate qualities that Edna desires in a relationship, but she cannot choose all three men. Her relationship with Arobin turns out to be just as dissatisfying as her relationships with her husband and Robert. As she explores what each man has to offer, she seeks deliverance from her solitude, a deliverance that can only be achieved if all aspects of a meaningful relationship can be met in a single man. Through her relationship with Arobin, Edna realizes "the insatiety of fleshly desire," which, as Culley explains, "foretells the impossibility of such deliverance for Edna" (228).

Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. (1899) The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume C. Ed. by Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton, 2006. 363-453.
Culley, Margaret. "Edna Pontellier: Solitary Soul." Found in The Awakening. Ed. by Margaret Culley. New York: Norton,