The Awakening, by Kate Chopin - Applying Belenky's Model to Edna

A wise professor believed that combining a female bildungsroman with Mary Field Belenky's model can help the student develop as a learner, but more importantly, as a person. Belenky's study eventually developed into the Women's Way of Knowing model, which suggests that there are five stages of knowing: (1) Silence; (2) Received Knowledge; (3) Subjective Knowledge; (4) Procedural Knowledge (including both separate and connected knowledge); and (5) Constructed Knowledge. In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, we follow Edna and live through her as she paves the way to constructed knowing. The societal views of Victorian woman both restrain and encourage Edna to think and feel outside of the norm and thus, allow Edna to progress through the stages of Belenky's model and toward the stage where obtaining and communicating knowledge is one, what the model calls procedural knowing. Unfortunately, Edna commits suicide before becoming a constructed knower.

In The Awakening, women must live limited, conservative lifestyles. They are to remain loyal and devoted wives and mothers, centering their lives on caring for their family and performing domestic duties. Society's views of women are limited to possessions of their husbands. Though conventional, the book portrays the understanding that Creole women are allotted free style of discourse and expression. This can be seen in the "lady in black" and her demeanor. Her husband has died and she withdraws from life and passion out of respect for her late husband. This is something very much conventional in this setting; it emphasizes the social acceptability of women "belonging to" their husbands with little attention to their self-efficacy.

Edna cannot conform because she has discovered her own identity independent of her husband and children. Conforming to the early Creole society would require complete unselfishness, something that Edna is not willing to encompass. She is like a child in a state of rebellion and any parent knows that this "child" must grow and learn on their own. Edna's internal conflict is her selfishness and need for sexual expression that is accepted by society. Edna's external conflict is that of the people surrounding her in the novel. Edna has choices to make. When the external conflicts discord her intentions and newfound articulation, her internal conflict is subsided by her suicide.

In the beginning Edna can be found in the Silence stage. She is subjected to the power of others. Though she sometimes feels as though she wants to reach outside the norm, Edna remains passive and dependent. For example, in chapter three, Edna sits on the porch, in the midst of night as her husband sleeps, and weeps quietly as she listens to the sea. She may feel unhappy inside, but seems to be bound by her husband's kindness and devotion. Edna is from Kentucky, much different than how the Creole live. Being from such a limited world, she has not yet explored the power of her words. As with most in the silent stage, Edna feels that her life is a stagnant, but semi-conscious state. She is comfortable in her marriage to Leonce because he treats her with love and kindness, but he knows very little of Edna's true feelings and emotions, which hinders their relationship and sparks Edna's awakening. Edna is not dumb, but rather inexperienced. Her expressiveness has been so limited, due to the woman's nature, that she has not had the opportunity to develop self-thought. Edna speaks a language that nobody, not even her husband, friends, or lovers understand. This is best represented by Madame Lebrun's parrot who, not only speaks English, French and little Spanish, but a "language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door..." Furthermore, during her awakening, Edna learns three new languages: form of expression of the Creole women; how to express herself through art; and how to express the love and passion she has kept secret for so long.

As we go on, it is apparent that Edna enters the stage of Received Knowledge. Edna learns through listening to others. For example, she learns how to express her feelings by talking with the Creole women. She also learns to express herself through art with the help of Mademoiselle Reisz. And through lovers, she learns how to express herself sexually. She is like a child. She finds immediate truth in this received wisdom. Edna enters the received knowledge stage when learning of the Creole women's ways. She listens, finds truth in what is said, and learns from this, a new language. While intimately talking with Adele, Edna is reminded of her long-repressed passions and her awakening is initiated. She is beginning to realize her child-like state and that she longs for certain physical and emotional needs to be met. This is evidenced by Edna noting that "sometimes [she] feels this summer as if [she] were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided." It is here that she begins to shed her outer layers of reserve. One of Edna's most vital parts of awakening is the breakthrough of her emotions in regards to Mademoiselle Reisz's piano playing. This is also a grand part of the received knowledge stage. Edna feels emotions like never before and is reduced to trembling and crying. It is noted that Edna only saw pictures in her mind upon Adele's piano playing; images of varying emotions such as a dancing women, children at play, etc. She did not feel the emotions. This focuses on a big step of Edna's self-discovery. The simple mental images shows Edna's narrow-mindedness before her awakening takes charge, where as the external passion explosion symbolizes the magnitude of the awakening itself.

Edna has reached the point of Subjective Knowledge when she suddenly feels empowered to step into the water and swims alone, for the first time, feeling a sense of control over her body and soul. Edna's first swim is one of the most important steps in her transformation and where she enters into the subjective knowledge stage. At first, Edna is reluctant, but then chooses to listen to her inner voice. It symbolizes rebirth, sexual awakening and self-discovery. She becomes thoughtless and wants to swim far out into the ocean and then realizes that she has been "splashing around like a baby." Edna's actions are portrayed as a child who has just graduated infancy, but has not yet reached. Edna is still unsure of where this subjection is coming from and cannot seem to understand its purpose, but she is becoming freer. Soon after Edna's liberating swim, Robert and Edna collapse into Edna's porch hammock. The narrator comments, "No multitude of words could have been more significant that these moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire." It is noticeable that these events and feelings have instilled a new sexual awareness in Edna. She begins to recognize her emotions and then feels as if she owns them. Unlike Adele, Edna finally realizes that there is something more valuable than her own life, that there is something more intense and important than corporeal existence. Although the people around Edna feel that she is not like herself, the text tells us that Edna is "becoming herself" and "daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear to the world." Edna's affair with Alcee provides satisfaction for Edna's rebellious physical desires. After she confesses to Mademoiselle Reisz her love for Robert, she gives way to Alcee's seductions. For the first time, Edna has become aware and publicly acknowledges her sexual needs. Though whorish in a sense, both are part of Edna's passionate awakening. She wants to become more familiar with herself, but she recognizes that she cannot do so within the constraints of the social norms. Edna rebels and declares the she will never belong to another; that she only belongs to herself and she shows this in her relationship with Alcee. Edna's candid acknowledgement of her desire marks the completion of her sexual awakening.

It is not until Edna and Robert finally speak honestly of their feelings for one another that Edna begins to experience the final revelation of her awakening. Edna realizes that she will always be trapped and will never truly be happy, while independent. She further realizes that her needs may never be met and that she will always want more than what she has. Even her children cannot satisfy her life, though she does care enough to worry about their lives with her as their mother. We can see all of this as she says, "To-day it is Arobin; to-morrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me, it doesn't matter about Leonce Pontellier - but Raoul and Etienne!" Here, Edna has come to the stage of procedural knowledge, the voice of reason. Though Edna wants to listen to her inner voice, she also does not want to lose to societal views. Edna realizes that by avoiding conformity, her children would suffer.

Edna has failed to reach the constructed knowledge stage, for if she had, she would have found an alternative to suicide. Edna's way of knowing was detached, much unlike that of a constructivist. By drowning herself, she ensures that her last act is a self-determined one and she does not reach the point of integrating the voices.