The Omniscient Narrator: Awakening
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows Edna Pontellier, a wealthy Creole product, becoming a beautiful, independent soul who disregards all boundaries. Edna takes the final step to unlock her beauty and fulfills the story’s full potential. As the story progresses, Edna experiences intensified epiphanies which reveal to her and the audience her limitations in her ability to reach her full potential. Edna’s awakening symbols are revealed through her own statements, the comments made by other characters, but most importantly, through an omniscient narrator. We learn most about Edna through her omniscient narration, which reveals her true spirit and fluctuating social standing, as well as her innermost desire to remove societal codes from the world. “Every step she took to relieve herself of obligations added to her strength, expansion and individuality” (Beaty 102). Chopin is abruptly introducing the reader to this principle in Mrs. Pontellier’s book. The reader can see how Edna feels freedom, rebellion and disinterest in society’s code without having to resort to symbolism. “She began looking with her eyes. To see and to grasp the deeper depths of life. She no longer accepted opinions from others. The text implies that Edna recognizes the essential urges within her soul and has made the decision to accept and satisfy them.
Edna moved to Pigeon House because she felt at home. She felt like she was falling down the social ladder, but rising up in the spiritual. Edna is able to understand how and why Creole society’s social structure works. Perhaps her comfort in Creole society is what led her to make the decision that she needed to be able to please her own internal needs. Chopin’s opening narration reveals this.
“Mrs. Pontellier, although she had married an Creole, did not feel at home in the Creole community. Never before was she so intimately thrown among them ….. They were like one large family. There was the greatest amount of amicable relationships.” (Beaty, 46).
Edna initially misunderstands the seemingly imprudent air of the elite society. But later, she realizes that such characteristics indicate a Creole-born girl with these characteristics.
“She remained in a state of solitude, almost like she was in a deep sleep. She lived each step of Robert’s time with her after he entered Mademoiselle Reisz’s house. She thought back to his words and his eyes. They were so sparse and insufficient for her hungry soul! The vision of a Mexican girl was all she saw. She groaned in jealousy. She wondered when it would be. He hadn’t promised to return. He had spoken to her, she had been there with him and had touched his hand. But he seemed closer to him off there in Mexico, somehow” (Beaty.108).
The story of Edna’s awakening is told in two ways. First, it shows her rejection from her society-restricted role, as illustrated by Mrs. Adele Ratignolle. Mrs. Ratignolle stands for the model wife. She is warm, affectionate, and submissive towards her husband. Chopin uses her to show Edna through this foil. Chopin uses Mrs. Ratignolle as a foil to show Edna’s awakening and differences. Robert Lebrun, Chopin’s agent for change, is Edna’s inner soul and soul’s true intentions. Edna will be ruled by Robert and Adele. Edna must decide whether she wants to become more Adele-like, and be immersed in Creole society.
Edna’s Awakening can also be described as the larger idea of white, male dominance within the Creole cultural landscape. The Story of an Hour shows Chopin’s struggle with the same issue, as well other feminist writers. Chopin has the unfortunate responsibility of showing the reader Edna’s need to be free from all imposed restrictions, including her death, throughout The Story of an Hour.
Work Cite
1. Beaty, Jerome. W.W. Norton & Company published a book in 1999 that was set in New York. 41-116.
