A butterfly to come out of its cocoon it has to fully grown and finally be free from it. Freedom is the key to the door, once the key goes into the keyhole the door opens and sets one to be open to everything. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is seen as a woman who is trapped and can’t get out of her comfort zone. Two women, Adele Ratignolle and Madame Reisz, came into her life and influenced her to become more open about herself and express who she really is. They inspire her to break free from the old Edna to the new, and not let anyone or anything break that. Edna expresses and discovers who she really wants to be and what she wants for herself.
A perfect mother and wife are seen as a women who will always be there for their children and husband. It doesn’t have to be that way, everyone’s life is different and others have to live with that. Adele Ratignolle is the perfect mother-woman, kind, and thoughtful but Edna as a result she isn’t the kind to be a mother-woman. For example, it states “ They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels… Her name was Adele Ratignolle.”(Chopin 8) everyone sees her as a woman who is quintessential and does what she needs to do for her family unlike Edna who doesn’t act the same way. She wants to remote herself from Adele because of the kind of woman society wants Edna to be, “Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself ”(Chopin 13), she still has yet to experience of Guardado 2 what the world has for her. Edna doesn’t want to be treated as an object, she wants to be treated as every other human being. An independent woman is someone who can take care of themselves and doesn’t need anyone or anything to interfere in her life and change that. For a woman to be courageous it takes limits. Madame Reisz is seen as a single, fat, ugly, rude, and outspoken person but deep inside she’s disparate, she is an independent and courageous women who doesn’t care what other people think of her. For example, it states “ She was a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost every one, owing to a temper which was self-assertive and a disposition to trample upon the rights of others.” (Chopin 25), she is seen as a woman who is incensed and who criticizes others. Although Edna is seen as a woman who cares of what others think of her. Madame Reisz is an artist who plays piano and expresses her emotions through her music, and she inspired Edna to express her emotions through painting, “She isn’t a musician, and I’m not a painter. It isn’t on account of painting that I let things go.”(Chopin 57), it …show more content…
It helped her express herself the way that she has never done before. Edna’s suicide relates to the ways that she conveyed herself with the influence of Adele and Madame Reisz. They helped her come out of her comfort zone by expressing her emotions with who she can call “friends”. But the thought of expressing too much is frightening to her because it makes her feel to pressured in society and this lead to her suicide. For example, “ Exhaustion was pressing upon and over-powering her ” (Chopin 116), as she was inside the ocean it made her feel calm and didn’t think about the responsibilities that she had and at that moment death was the answer. Her death was lead to all these emotions that she was experiencing and couldn’t contain them. Even though she would try to get rid of the societal desires, they would always come back. But death was the answer to her, and that’s what she did to get rid of all the pressure she felt when she was alive. Too much was accumulating upon her, she didn’t want that anymore, and she did what she wanted to do to end all of societal