Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The Awakening - Kate Ferraro
The main character in The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, represents the "new woman." Married to a wealthy, business man, Edna frequently finds herself unhappy. She expressed that her marriage to Leonce six years ago was "purely an accident." Edna's transition from the beginning of chapter one, to the end of chapter twenty-two shows a clear change in her attitude towards being a married, mother. Edna, becoming rude and disrespectful, began to demonstrate a "newfound defiance toward her husband and the absolute disregard for her duties as a wife" (55). I thought one of the most powerful scenes took place in chapter seventeen when Edna "stopped, took off her wedding ring and flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it"(50). I also think it is extremely important to notice that Leonce is not only displeased with Edna's attitude, but he also visited a doctor, concerned that Edna is suffering from a mental disturbance. With the doctor's advice to be patient because it will pass, I am interested to see what happens in the chapters ahead.
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I found the wedding ring part also interesting. After discussing the significance of rings in American culture, it only shows the underlying issue of her unhappiness with her marriage and how little she thought of it. Being in the moment with a previous love interest driving her to marry Leonce is something I would have thought would lead to divorce as it seems to be proven "as she stomps on the ring" however in class when we discussed Edna's true love for Leonce because he won't leave her was a surprise to me. The idea that she's not in love with him, thus she stays with him is completely weird to me. It seems backward.
ReplyDeleteKate makes a good point in the end of her paragraph when she notes that Leonce goes to the doctor to confide about Edna's mental disturbance which seems to have overlap with the yellow wallpaper. Also the fact that women and their new ideas were looked at by doctors as a "mental disturbance" seems so wrong to me.