The Awakening – Psychological Views
Robert Ceneskie
South University Online

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is a novel that takes place during the nineteenth century and focuses on the point of view of Edna Pontellier, the protagonist and wife elite to an affluent Creole. The story begins at the Grand Isle resort, which is a popular vacationing stop for the wealthy from New Orleans. While at Grand Isle, Edna comes to the realization that she is longing for self-actualization and empowerment. The novel then moves to the city of New Orleans where Edna is determined to break society’s mold of women of what is expected of the time period. While in New Orleans, she pursues her desire to paint in order to achieve a sense of personal freedom. Ultimately, the story leads us back to Grand Isle where Edna has reached her lowest point in life and decides to commit suicide to end all of her pain. The novel is written with a feminist perspective in which psychoanalytical ideations plays a significant role. When one sees or hears the word psychology, the first thing that comes to mind is Sigmund Freud. His research on psychoanalysis focuses on the “repression and unconscious forces and includes the concepts of infantile sexuality, resistance, transference, and division of the psyche into the id, ego, and superego” (Farlex, 2009). Edna Pontellier is a character who exhibits the psychoanalytical concepts of Freudianism. Throughout the novel, Edna’s id plays a drastic role in her infantile sexuality. As the novel progresses she seems to demonstrate affection for several of the characters. Interestingly the reader is drawn to Edna’s sexuality in the sense that an inference of bisexuality is evident. Two of the main characters that Edna starts to show affection for early in the novel are Madame Ratignolle and Robert Lebrun, both of whom are inappropriate lovers thus showing her immaturity. On occasion, Edna would take walks along the beach and sit holding hands with Madame Raignolle, “Seeing that the hand was not withdrawn, she clasped it firmly and warmly. She even stroked it a little, fondly, with the other hand” (Chopin, 1899, VII, para. 21). Edna’s affection continues when she “had put her head down on Madame Ratignolle's shoulder” (1899, VII, para. 31). While at Grand Isle, Edna psychologically manipulates Robert Lebrun who she later realizes that she feels affections for. The intensity of the relationship is understandable since Robert follows Edna around like a little puppy until he finally has to flee from his feelings. She has manipulated him to the point that he would do anything for her. She even goes as far as to ask him, “assisted her into the hammock which swung from the post” (Chopin, 1899, X, para. 32) and “returned with the shawl she took it and kept it in her hand” (1899, X, para. 46). Her manipulation causes Robert to struggle psychologically with feelings towards her and later causes him to run away: “I love you. Good-by--because I love you” (1899, XXXVIII, para. 17) as he knew he couldn’t have her considering she was already taken. Edna’s marriage to Leonce Pontellier is a perfect example of transference. It is obvious that she is not fond of her husband. A psychoanalysis transference is characterized by “the shift of emotions, especially those experienced in childhood, from one person or object to another, especially the transfer of feelings about a parent” (Houghton Miffilin, 2012). Marriage to Leonce was out of spite and described by the narrator as: Add to this the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier. for her husband. (Chopin, 1899, VII, para. 27).

During the nineteenth century, it was expected that women would marry according to their father’s religious beliefs. Her lack of feelings for Leonce and the children is what allows her to later seek relations with the man she pushes away. All she ever thought about was Robert after he left Grand Isle, “she was thinking of Robert Lebrun. Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse” (Chopin, 1899, XXV, para. 34). Getting married out of spite to her family will cause her to miss out on true love. If Edna wanted to spite her family, she should have not married until she found someone she truly loved, regardless of her family’s wishes. The children are the ones who really fall prey to the circumstances of this oppositional marriage. It is without reason that Edna does not truly love or desire to be with Leonce as “Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages” (Chopin, 1899, VII, para. 27); she really doesn’t want anything to do with the children. Leonce makes his disdain clear when one of the children becomes ill. Edna’s lack of nurturing is an example of her break from feminist duties: He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. (Chopin, 1899, III, para. 6)
It was her responsibility to take care of the children while her husband was earning the money to provide for the family. This is what was expected of her. She even makes a comment that she is happier without the children, “Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her” (Chopin, 1899, VII, para. 30). It is no wonder that the children always went to the father whenever they were injured or wanted something like bonbons or peanuts. In addition to her reproach towards motherly duties, Edna shows strong resistance when it comes to feminist societal expectations during the nineteenth century. Women during the time were expected to be “kept busy running the household and organizing the servants” (Lambert, 2009). This becomes tangible in the later chapters of the novel, “Tuesday being Mrs. Pontellier's reception day--there was a constant stream of callers” (Chopin, 1899, XVII, para. 3). She would not conform to dressing in the standard “handsome reception gown” (1899, XVII, para. 3) and entertain her callers. Instead, she would dress in “ordinary house dress” (1899, XVII, para. 6) and leave the house when she “simply felt like going out, and … went out” (1899, XVII, para. 10). Although Edna wanted to be free of her responsibilities to her husband and society, she would happily preform the task of organizing the servants: “she had gone into the kitchen to administer a tardy rebuke to the cook” (1899, XVII, para. 29). Edna was determined to do as she pleased and not what was expected. Edna’s ego was supercharged the day that she learned to swim on her own “as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” (Chopin, 1899, X, para. 7). From this point onward, she seems to do whatever she wants no matter of time, place or who was around. It is a shame that she has become empowered so late in her life. If she would have come to her realization of empowerment earlier, she probably wouldn’t have married Leonce and instead would have married someone like Robert, whom she truly had feelings toward. The more appropriate marriage would have possibly stopped her depression from escalating to committing suicide “but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone” (1899, XXXIX, para. 32). Leonce realized something was going on with Edina and even tried to get her the help she needed, “but she doesn't act well. She's odd, she's not like herself. I can't make her out, and I thought perhaps you'd help me” (1899, XXII, para. 5). Unfortunately, Leonce efforts are fruitless because depression is a powerful psychological state of mind that causes people to perform irrational thoughts which may cause them to inflict harm onto themselves. During the nineteenth century, the role of women consisted of being a devoted wife and mother. When Edna became empowered by taking control over her body and soul, she sought to break the fragile societal mold. It causes her to no longer want to keep her “desires and urges for music, sexual satisfaction, art, and freedom” ("Sparknotes : the Awakening", 2012) hidden. Her longing desires for Robert, strive to paint: “Perhaps I shall be able to paint your picture some day” (Chopin, 1899, XVIII, para. 14), and need for freedom “I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence” (1899, XXVI, para. 16). It is apparent that Edna wants nothing to do with society’s roles of the time period. “Psychoanalysis is the confession without absolution” (Thomas Sowell, 2012) and for Edna this could not have been more true. In her situation, the appropriate release of her obligations would have been to obtain a divorce. Instead of seeking a divorce from Leonce to be with Robert, she selfishly decides to take her life with little regard to whom it will impact. By the end of the novel, Edna’s superego begins to weigh on her so much that she ultimately commits suicide. All stories must come to an end at some point, but unfortunately for Edna, the ending was not pleasant. She was ready to break the mold by moving out of her spousal home, pursue lessons in various fields of art and take on multiple lovers. Edna learned the hard way, that when you play with fire you typically get burned. She did this by trying to break with conformity, or the lack there of, which cost the only thing she had to give, her life.
References:
Chopin, K. (1899). The awakening. Bibliolis Books.
Farlex. (2009, February 22). Medical dictionary. Retrieved from http://medical- dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Psychoanalytic perspective
Houghton Miffilin, C. (2012). Reference.com. In Dictionary.com LLC. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/
SparkNotes: The Awakening: Analysis of Major Characters. (2012). SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/awakening/canalysis.html
Thomas Sowell. (2012). Searchquotes. Retrieved from http://www.searchquotes.com