As soon as I opened The Awakening by Kate Chopin it was evident that the main character, Edna, sees motherhood and marriage as more of a task than something she did out of love.
An example of her distaste towards being a parent is found on page two-- the first mention of the children: “Mr. Pontellier’s” two children were there…” (Chopin 2). So far, the reader has only been introduced to Mr. Pontellier, not Edna, leaving them to think he is a single father. I believe this was done by Chopin to foreshadow the fact Edna never wanted to be a mother in the first place.
A bit after we are introduced to Edna finally, we see a drunken Mr. Pontellier telling her how to be a wife/mother/woman (those appear to be all synonyms to him), as he thinks it is her, “...duty…” (Chopin 10). After his rant he goes to bed, leaving his wife crying, which apparently, “..was not uncommon in her married life” (Chopin 8). Chopin puts it right out in the open that Edna was not very happy in her marriage, and that it wasn’t what she wanted for her life.
Honestly if I had a kid with some jerk I wouldn't exactly want to take care of them either. All she really was to Mr. Pontellier was a baby factory like talk about loving something that was basically forced by marriage.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Edna's neglect of her children is completely wrong and I agree she sees it as a duty. She obviously did not want children or this life so still being there with her children and husband is pretty good.
ReplyDeleteConsidering their marriage was most likely planned, I feel that it's quite obvious on why she's nearly neglecting her children. She doesn't love the man she married nor did want to have kids with him, so the fact that she was forced to makes her feel like she's owned. Her kids are a constant reminder of that.
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