Great Awakening Essay, Research Paper

The story centers on the early part of the 20th century when women and men were to live by society’s strict standards. Our main character is Edna Pontellier who seems to live by these strict standards and values. She seems to many to be just another carbon copy of the day’s well-to-do class of woman. She even tries to be the women that she is expected to be. She slowly starts to realize that she needs to break away and go against society’s view of what a woman should be.

Edna Pontellier is a woman who wants to break away from the norm and be her own person. She knows what is expected of a woman and tries to live by that standard. Her husband, often referred only by Mr. Pontellier, is the model husband in society’s view of what a man should be. Edna fights inner battles with herself secretly striving to be free. She knows that she should be what is expected of her just like her husband, but she longs to be free and express herself her own way.

Her first emotional conflict is with a man named Robert whom she met at a summer retreat for the elite. Never seemed as nothing but a tag along by everyone including Edna and her husband, it later turns into infatuation. When Robert goes away to Mexico, Edna realizes her attraction and longing for Robert: “,the emotion which was troubling-tearing-her. Her eyes were brimming with tears.” This emotion starts a chain of events leading to a very distraught woman.

This unrealized attraction leads to a chain of events and emotions that are not becoming of a woman of her day, age and social standing. This leads us into small but noticeable changes in Edna. When she is expected to receive guests on Tuesdays, she will often leave without giving the caller her whereabouts. Here strange behavior and emotional outbursts start slowly showing themselves to her husband and best friend Madame Ratignolle, (who’s the prime example of what a woman should be).

The first twenty chapters of this book are very intriguing. Here is a woman longing to be free and live her life the way she wants. She knows that she should be and act in accordance with society’s view of a woman. Her inner emotions are eating away at her and she longs to be with a man other than her husband. Edna is a woman born too early and longing for individuality.