Edna Pontellier Essay, Research Paper

Edna Pontellier

People shape the way they live their lives around the society they live in. It gives you walls that you can either shape your life with, or you can breakdown to make a mold of your own. The society Edna comes from pushes her to rebel against her life, try to live her own way inside the walls and then finally break free of the walls, wich leads to the termination of her character.

Being born in a time that is not right for her, Edna tries to push the things that her society accepts. In her world it is normal for a husband to control the life of the life of his wife. It is not normal for a woman to leave her husband and keep a good name. Trapped by the standards set up for her, she knows that there is no easy way out.

As much as she gives to her society she still has to live by their rules, there is no compromising inside the walls or her world. She tries to move out of her house and into one that fits her better. She tries to live her life from there but the pressures of her world follow her and trouble her. Robert comes back to see her for one final time but when she has to leave he knows what he has to do. He knows that the world can be cruel so he leaves a not saying in his own words that they can’t escape the world they live in.

When Edna gets the note she realizes what Robert is saying and see’s that she has to break down the walls that confine her. She won’t live in a world that steals her right to be happy. She leaves her whole life behind her, her kids, her husband and anything else that she knew or owned. She can’t run from her past, it will only catch up to her and put her in a worse situation than she is in now. She swims out as far as she can go and then lays herself to rest in the ocean tearing apart the walls as she swims.

Edna made a sacrifice that is necessary to change the times that she lived in. She was trapped with no way out and would not give in to what was holding her in. It’s ironic that the thing that made her breakout in the first place is what punished her for doing it. The story is tragic, but it happens everyday in every society we have lived in. What Edna did will continue to be done as long as we are here and will never stop. We will always hold some sort of standards and there will always be someone that is suited by them.