Theme of "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin: Women and Self Expression

Kate Chopin was born and raised in an environment that was abundant with many independent women. Never influenced by male role models, Chopin grew up to take on many controversial issues such as womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood. Although women were ridiculed for participating in such things, Chopin was never afraid to share her perspective. Chopin married a wealthy man and had a beautiful family. It was said that she loved her husband and family very much.

Her role as a wife and mother was much easier than the average mother and wife of her day. She was able to enjoy certain freedoms like walking in the park and strolling at the beach. However, her freedom met disaster when her husband died, leaving her devastated and shocked. While she took care of her children, she wrote short stories in her free time, and later went on to write novels. Her last novel, The Awakening received much criticism and was banned for some time. When it was rediscovered 50 years later, her work became praised for its highly realistic criticism of society and the woman.

The Awakening explores a young woman's desire to live fully within her true self. One summer season, Edna, her husband Léonce, and their two children go on a vacation to Grand Isle, an island just off the Louisiana shore. Robert the Creole is vacationing there too and like every other summer, he flirts with a different woman. This summer, Edna is at the top of his flirt list. The flirting soon turns to love, but Robert loves her too much to have Edna commit adultery, divorce, and endure the stigma for unholy women. After finding out that Robert leaves her, Edna travels alone to Grand Isle, announces that she is going swimming, and drowns herself the next morning. Edna's awakening is accompanied by her discovery of ways to express herself and her long repressed emotions. In her pursuit to be open as a woman, she learns three new languages which allow her to do so.

The first language that Edna learns is the language of free expression. After hanging out with the Creole women during her vacation, she discovers that the Creole culture is so much different from the one she carries. Creole women speak so openly about their emotions and sexual desires. At first, Edna is appalled and even surprised at such absurdity. But soon, she discovers that the Creole women have something so much greater than other women - the ability to speak freely.

"Mrs. Pontellier, though she had married a Creole, was not thoroughly at home in the society of Creoles; never before had she been thrown so intimately among them. There were only Creoles that summer at Lebrun's. They all knew each other, and felt like one large family, among whom existed the most amicable relations. A characteristic which distinguished them and which impressed Mrs. Pontellier most forcibly was their entire absence of prudery. Their freedom of expression was at first incomprehensible to her, though she had no difficulty in reconciling it with a lofty chastity which in the Creole woman seems to be inborn and unmistakable" (Chopin 4).

When Edna learns that she can speak openly about herself, her desires, and her sexuality, she wants to speak freely about all areas of her life. The language of free expression sets Edna's mouth free. The Creole culture gives her the ability to speak about her feelings, identify her emotions, name them, describe them, and articulate them. Her emotions are no longer a mystery to her or a mystery to other people. She sees that the language of free expression is something that a person is born with. It would only be a matter of time before Edna harnesses the language and is born again.

The author's tone exemplifies Edna's desire to learn the language of free expression. The narrator of the novel is thought to be Edna herself, for the tone is one of sympathy and understanding for Edna. The narrator is open to express whatever feelings he or she has for Edna's hardships.

"The pigeon house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to "feed upon opinion" when her own soul had invited her" (Chopin 32).

Although the tone is relatively objective, which tells the story in the plainest of ways, the narrator's sympathy and understanding for Edna reveals the author's awareness of Edna's hardship as a woman who desires to freely express herself. In this sense, the author herself is speaking the language of free expression, for she freely speaks about her emotions for Edna through the tone. This shows how open and broad this language really is. This is what is mystical about the language of free expression. It offers clarity, truth, and subjectivity. It is something all people can relate with and understand. It is a language that is known by everyone but spoken by few.

The second language that Edna learns is the language of art. When Edna is over at Mademoiselle Reiz's place, Robert asks Edna if she wants to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play the piano. Mademoiselle Reisz goes over to the piano, sits down, and starts to play a tune. The people and guests at the house party sit down, and Edna finishes her dance with her husband, Mr. Pontellier. However, despite all the people in the house, the sole focus of this chapter is on Edna, the piano, and the pianist, Mademoiselle Reisz. When Mademoiselle Reisz hits the last key of the song, tears stream down Edna's face.

"She waited for the material pictures which she thought would gather and blaze before her imagination. She waited in vain. She saw no pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair. But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her" (Chopin 9).

We don't know if the song is sad or happy, but it is clear that Mademoiselle Reisz is able to communicate something to Edna through music that nobody else understands. For in the same moment of Edna's tears, Mademoiselle Reisz's party guests shout out cheers, stand up, and give her a grand applause. Seeing that Edna is crying, Mademoiselle Reisz pats Edna on the shoulder and tells her that she is the only one worth playing for. After experiencing the moving of her spirit through music, Edna begins to paint like never before. Edna's eyes are opened through art, and painting is now her new form of expression. Other mothers may see it fit to knit socks for their children, but Edna sees it fit to paint for her life.

With a stroke here, a dab there, and a touch of color in the middle, Edna not only produces paintings worth selling, but paints a picture for the future of her life, something nobody can price. It is no wonder that Edna enjoys painting so much. With every stroke of the brush, Edna's being and self is expressed through the language of art. However, the language of art and Edna's tears reveal a deep pain inside of Edna that cannot be relieved by paints and musical tones. The language of art simply draws out this pain and makes it open to Edna. In the same way, the sea draws out her soul. When Edna first learns how to swim she discovers how hard it can be, but when she masters the ability, she finds a new sense of independence. However, Edna's first swims are like that of a child.

"But that night she was like the little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with over-confidence. She could have shouted for joy. She did shout for joy, as with a sweeping stroke or two she lifted her body to the surface of the water" (Chopin 10).

This moment foreshadows Edna's death. Edna's rebellious swim in the sea gives readers a moment to applause for Edna's new found independence, but nonetheless she splashes around like a child. A child may swim for a short period of time, but no child could ever survive in the middle of the sea. The waves will crash too hard. The midnight rain will pour. The sea winds will sway back and forth. No child can endure such conditions. This foreshadows that Edna's independence and freedom will only be enjoyed for a short period of time. For on that day when she chooses to swim out to sea, the sea will only make the pain deep inside of her a reality. This is why Edna's tears pour out so evenly to the sound of Mademoiselle Reisz's music. The pain will always be there and her tears will never cease to stop. Her sadness may pour out into her sea of pain, but it will engulf her body and soul, swallow her up to the depths of her awakening.

The third language that Edna learns is the language of passion. Edna's affair with Alcee Arobin helps to fuel her awakening. During this affair of mere passion, Edna finds out how free it feels to be able to express oneself through sexuality and romance. However, Edna's fling with Alcee lacks what Edna's affair with Robert gives her - love. When it comes to learning the language of passion, Robert is Edna's stepping stone throughout all types of terrain along Edna's journey. Through Robert, Edna masters the language of passion, finding joy, happiness, and even completion, something she does not have in her marriage with Leonce. When Edna and Robert are at the beach late at night, they only sit next to each other. Robert attempts to talk to Edna, but she is silent and all else is silent too. Edna may not produce audible words, but her passion for Robert is intense.

"He seated himself again and rolled a cigarette, which he smoked in silence. Neither did Mrs. Pontellier speak. No multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire" (Chopin 10).

At this point, we begin to see a pattern that emerges whenever Edna learns a new language. She becomes more fluent than the one who teaches her the language. For example, when Adele tells Edna that they can talk and be open with each other, Edna soon wants to be open about everything in her life to everyone in her life. With Robert, Edna learns how to be passionate for a person that is passionate for her. When Edna learns how to speak the language of passion, she wants to shout it out loudly to Robert. However, Robert only wants to whisper back. Society's customs and traditions hold Robert's voice back. Edna realizes that not all of Creole culture is liberating.

And so, Edna stares out into the vast sea on Grand Isle, wondering, thinking, pondering her fate in this world. Surprisingly, the sea speaks back to her, reminding her of her place of solitude within the blue.

"The water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight" (Chopin 29).

The sea in itself speaks a separate language of its own, only known by nature. Here, Chopin uses personification to give the sea human like qualities: the ability to speak, seduce, whisper, clamor, murmur and invite. This personification shows the power of the language of passion. It is not a language spoken only by affairs, sex flings, and romantic getaways. The language of passion is spoken not by the body, but by the abysses of the soul, a place so mysterious and sacred. So when the sea speaks to Edna, her soul is speaking to her, seducing her, whispering to her, and inviting her to be awakened.

These three languages, the language of free expression, the language of art, and the language of passion are the foundations on which Edna finds the freedom to freely express herself. With each language, Edna becomes so fluent that the people that use to understand the language, no longer comprehend what Edna is expressing. Mademoiselle Reisz teaches Edna the language of art and Robert teaches Edna the language of passion, but when Edna finds herself in the pigeon house, Robert leaves her and Mademoiselle Reisz does not want to be seen with her.

With this, the words from the bird at the beginning of the novel mean more than just the foreshadowing of Edna's break from society. For Edna may understand the bird's French accent, but the mockingbird near her does not. It only knows how to make little tweets with the fluctuations of its beautiful voice. The mocking bird symbolizes the friends that help Edna reach her awakening. At first, they understand the language of free expression, art, and love, but when Edna is awakened, they cease to communicate. They no longer understand her. So then, to be awakened is to know a language and to live in a world where there is no understanding except the understanding of one's self. That is, to be awakened is to speak freely about your soul, paint the future of your life, and embrace passion with all you've got.