The Liberation of Suicide
An analysis of Kate Chopin's The Awakening and how far someone would go to escape the injustices of gender inequality.
“She remembered the night she swam far out, and recalled the terror that seized her at the fear of being unable to regain the shore. She did not look back now.”
- Kate Chopin
When reading a story, most everyone wishes to see snippets of the “real world” reflected and interwoven within the text to help what is understood to be fiction appear realistic. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, this sense of realism comes from the period’s themes of gender inequality and sexism that the protagonist—Edna Pontellier—experiences.
These issues and the understanding of there being no way to escape such demands and remain relatively content in life drive her to suicide. Therefore, the societal pressures of being a woman in the nineteenth century are so intolerable that a woman would instead end her life than live through it, which expresses Chopin’s views on the injustices of gender inequality and sexism.
What is Realism?
To better grasp this idea, it is imperative to understand the concept of realism in literature. William Dean Howells best defines realism in his “Editor’s Study” columns from Harper’s Monthly. As he illustrates, realism is precisely what it sounds like—focusing on everyday things but with a sense of insight and clarity.
The story is depicted objectively, and the events that occur are relatable to the audience because they can realistically happen. Howells uses the analogy of a grasshopper to express this:
“We hope the time is coming when… the common, average man… will reject the ideal grasshopper wherever he finds it… because it is not ‘simple, natural, and honest,’ because it is not like a real grasshopper” (Howells 582).
By this he means that this “ideal grasshopper”—the unrealistically “heroic,” “impassioned,” “self-devoted” narratives—are incomparable to the “real grasshopper”—real-life events (Howells 582). He does not believe that you can fabricate life experiences and expect an audience to relate to them on a level that truly resonates.
Howells is pessimistic to these hopes, considering that to achieve this, the readers who were raised on the belief of these narratives needing to revolve idealistic elements would need to “die out” before this more naturalistic manner of storytelling can have a fair chance (Howells 583). As time progressed, more and more authors have adapted this approach of focusing on realism in their works, and the results have created stories worth remembering.
19th Century Hegemonic Institutions
In The Awakening, some of these realistic elements are gender inequality and sexism, and Edna feels as if she is trapped in these gender roles of the nineteenth century.
During this period, a woman has her whole life prearranged for her by the society that she is unwillingly brought into. Before she is even born, her trajectory is positioned along this predetermined path, sailing through a childhood of unfulfilling intellectual opportunities until her chaste, young adulthood ends at the doorstep of a man who calls her his wife. With this new title comes another, spoken as one of the first words from a small child who she is expected to look after and raise, thus acting as the beginning to the remainder of her dull life.
In her article, Jennifer B. Gray explains how “the hegemonic institutions of nineteenth-century society required women to be objects in marriage and in motherhood, existing as vessels of maternity and sexuality, with little opportunity for individuality” (53). In the novel, Edna desires to break free of these societal demands that chain her to these roles of being a wife and mother, and it is this reluctance to conform and the pressure to do so that lead to her unfortunate demise.
Through these patriarchal systems, Edna belongs to Léonce—her husband—and she is an object to be commodified. The first interaction between the two in the novel encapsulates this relationship:
“‘You are burnt beyond recognition,’ [Léonce] added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin, ch. 1).
Léonce falls perfectly in place with these societal norms, taking on his role without a fuss; therefore, his gaze on Edna is disproving because the “valuable” object that he owns has suffered some “damage” in the form of a light sunburn.
Also, from this scene, Edna is quick to survey her hands, only to remember then how she had handed her rings to Léonce before her walk along the beach. At this moment in the novel, Edna’s hands are not her property; however, in the grand scheme, she does have ownership over them in that she can place her rings back on herself. “She is capable of self-ownership, but is at least temporarily subjected by hegemonic patriarchal ideology” (Gray 60).
Edna can gain control over her hands and, consequently, herself, but the society in which she is being brought up and its ideals prevent her from doing so any earlier.
Marriage and Motherhood
Edna’s views on marriage are skewed when compared to the period’s standards. “Her marriage to Léonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate” (Chopin, ch. 7). The relationship between the two is cordial, not born of passion or romance, but of convenience and necessity. Edna desires to delve into her sexuality; however, she cannot do so under Léonce’s rule.
She also opposes the responsibilities of motherhood. If Edna feels secure in that the well-being of her children is guaranteed, she does not long for them in their absence and—in some rare cases—may even completely forget about their existence. This “seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed,” and it is evident that, though she does care for them in an “uneven, impulsive way,” she does not wish to bear the responsibilities of raising them as her own children (Chopin, ch. 7).
Edna also believes that their existence alone is holding her back from being her authentic self:
“The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days” (Chopin, ch. 39).
She compares these maternal responsibilities to that of “slavery,” and she wants no part of it. Through this, it is clear that Edna has no desire to conform to these roles that the nineteenth century preaches and that she would much rather explore deeper inside herself in terms of her independence, sexuality, and self-expression.
Edna Pontellier’s “Awakening”
As the novel’s title suggests, Edna eventually experiences the “awakening” that allows her to do just that. In this, she gains the courage to make her own path—disobeying Léonce, dropping her children off at their grandmother’s, holding relationships with other men, owning property—and these are just a taste of what powers she can obtain.
In other words, “the lessening of Edna's sexual repression is inextricably linked to her realization of the power she possesses in her own body,” and it is this control that she fears losing (Gray 69).
Unfortunately, the inevitability of Edna having to return to the “mother-woman” role in this male-dominated society and to lose that fraction of individuality and self-expression that she has gained troubles her deeply, and so she subconsciously makes the decision to free herself the only way that she can—by committing suicide. She swims out to sea, not exactly with the intention of ending her life; however, she does not express any sense of fear or concern for her not making it back to shore.
“She went on and on. She remembered the night she swam far out, and recalled the terror that seized her at the fear of being unable to regain the shore. She did not look back now” (Chopin, ch. 39).
Instead, Edna feels at peace—she hears her father’s and sister’s voices, a dog barking from the past, the humming of bees—and it is this knowledge of escaping from the harsh pressures of society that bring her this all-encompassing sensation of pure bliss.
Final Thoughts…
In The Awakening, Chopin expresses the problematic nature of nineteenth-century societal roles of women through the tragic tale of Edna Pontellier, who took her own life to escape such injustices.
Edna feels constrained to these strict rules, and in her attempts to stray away from these restrictions, she unknowingly alienates herself even farther from the society that perpetuates these ideas. Her questioning and defiance of conformity allow her the briefest moments of pleasure as she navigates her new sense of independence; however, it is the grim understanding that there is no way to secure this control over oneself while still living within this society that leads to her self-destruction.
From a more positive perspective, committing suicide is Edna’s last defense against this demanding society. It is her way of gaining back control over her life and following the path that she wants to, not what was predetermined for her by way of tradition. Edna taking her own life is her choice—not her husband’s, not the patriarchy’s, but hers—and this final act of defiance shows just how far she is willing to prove them wrong.
Though it is still these nineteenth-century societal roles that lead to her suicide, this perspective offers a less gloomy way to view this tragedy and portray Edna as the ultimate victor.
Chopin, Kate. “The Awakening and Selected Short Stories.” The Project Gutenberg, August 1994, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/160/160-h/160-h.htm.
Gray, Jennifer B. “The Escape of the ‘Sea’: Ideology and The Awakening.” The University of North Carolina Press, vol. 37, no. 1, Fall 2004, pp. 53-73. Project MUSE, https://muse-jhu-edu.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/article/176913.
Howells, William Dean. “Editor’s Study.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 580-583.