Swimming Towards Freedom

In the end of the awakening, Mrs. Pontelier commits suicide. It's ironic that she does this in the place where she was first awakened because this is where she saw everything with new eyes and now, she is shutting them forever. Her awakening brought her to this decision because she was able to open her eyes to the reality of the society she lived in.

Mrs. Pontelier goes back to Grand Isle and there she decides to go for a swim but she prematurely knew this would be her last swim. She begins by describing in page 213 how "the sea is sensuous, enclosing the body in its soft close embrace", and with this we can imply that the fear she had at the beginning of the sea is completely gone. In this case she is not afraid of the unknown and welcomes the sea as an escape of what she does know. The sea is where she first realizes that everything she does know is not letting her live life to the fullest and she embraces the freedom that death will bring her.

Her mind at this moment is not about coming back to the shore, since that is where everything that keeps her trapped is, she is swimming out to escape it. She realizes that while it was expected that her duties to her husband and her children should be her top priority, she doesn't want them to posses her. She feels these duties have possessed her “mind body and soul" and the only way she feels she can complexly escape this is by swimming out far enough to reach a point where she will be untouchable in any of these aspects.

In the last page of the novella, Mrs. Pontelier is already growing tiered of swimming and realizes that no one would have understood her. She recalls Roberts’s letter and she realizes that even though they loved each other he wouldn't understand the woman she had become. That’s why Robert went away and didn’t wait for her. He wanted to stick to what was right in the society Mrs. Pontelier had learned to defy and he wasn’t going to it with her. It's interesting that she thought the doctor might have understood and this is probably because he is the only one that saw she had changed. He seemed to think she might do something like this but her mind was already made up by then and anyway" the shore was far behind her and her strength was gone." By saying this she acknowledges that what is on the shore would have just tried to reel her back into whom she used to be before her awakening and she rather die than go back.

The last paragraph is about Edna returning to a time when she was free. She recalls the memories of her Childhood and the people in itand this seems like the idea that our life flashes before us before we die and we remember the good times. It's interesting that she recalls these things rather than her husband and children. This demonstrates once again that they really are what ties her and holds her back. She pictures her childhood because it was back before she had a husband and children that she felt happy. Instead of describing the drowning of Mrs. Pontelier, Chopin chooses to mix it with her memories to go back to a happier time when Mrs. Pontelier didn't belong to anyone. At the beginning of this paragraph the terror Mrs. Pontelier felt towards the water comes back for one second but it quickly goes away. There is a little bit of fear towards death but it is also what will make Mrs. Pontelier free and freedom is what she decides for herself. This was all her choice and for once she is not expected to consider others in her decision and that is why her death was in a sense imminent from the beginning, it is the last decision a person can make for themselves since we choose to either stay in the shore or swim out and face our fears.

Two Is Better Than One

Blogging In My Jamies (and My Cat)

It’s Just PMS (In Fancier Language)

How would anyone react if their husband or wife thought they were crazy? It’s understandable for anyone to think you are crazy if you are actually doing something really off but cancelling you Tuesday meetings and letting the “keeping go to the dickens”, is not really a mental disease in my book. Mr. Pontelier goes to visit the family physician in hope of an explanation for his wife’s weird attitude and off behavior. It’s kind of weird that someone would go to the doctor when their wife is just not catering to their every need and in modern times this would be an extreme, but in the times of The Awakening, I guess Mr. Ponteliers concern is understandable.

We can look at Mr. Pontelier in two ways; one is that he is a close minded fool who just cares for his home to be run smoothly or a man who is really concerned about his wife. His only arguments are that she is not acting like a woman of the time. The physician gets really concerned when Mr. Pontelier mentions that Mrs. Pontelier is mentioning the eternal rights of women and mentions a circle of pseudo-intellectual women. Nr. Pontelier dismisses the idea but it is still appalling that they would find it appalling that there is talk about this. The tone when the physician mentions these women makes them sound malicious. The idea of people coming together to talk about the rights of women scares these two characters and as a woman, it feels as if there is no way out. That really caught my attention in this part and in a sense, let me put myself in Mrs. Ponteliers shoes. The fact that it is so wrong for you to want more for yourself and always being shut down is aggravating to me.

I give props to the physician for his advice of letting her be. He understands what a woman is like when he describes us as “a very peculiar and delicate organism” as well as saying that “most women are moody and whimsical”. Hell, I am both of those things. As a reader this just makes me think that what Mrs. Pontelier is going through is really just a phase, kind of like PMSing. And if her husband was being on top of her all the time maybe what she is trying to do is just show him that, just like he has his man space, she needs her woman space. Its unfair that when a guy does something its ok but when a woman does this, it isn’t. I think these are all the emotions Chopin wants to take out of her readers. That feminist feeling that makes us feel sick sometimes and makes others think we are crazy.

*Idiosyncrasies: a characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like, that is peculiar to an individual.

Ultimate Couple's Showdown

The ultímate couples showdown! Coming directly from New Orleans after a summer in Grand Isle we have our rivals. In this corner we have Mr. Leonce Pontelier and Mrs. Edna Pontelier, two opposites under the same roof that have been having trouble because of Mrs. Ponteliers recent behavior. On the other side of the ring we have Mr. Ratignolle and Mrs. Adele Ratignolle, the typical married couple of the times that wouldn’t want change and are content with the way things are. Who will make it and who will break it?

Our first round involves the two ladies. We have Mrs. Pontelier who after her summer at Grand Isle has changed the way she acts and has actually been thought crazy by her own husband. Brought up to be an excellent wife she begins to ignore her duties and is the opposite of her friend. Mrs. Ratignolle on the other hand is a woman who is completely devoted to being the perfect wife. She seems to take pleasure in housework and immensely appreciative of her husband. Instead of being out and about doing as she pleases like Mrs. Pontelier, Mrs. Ratignolle spends her days at home looking for lost handkerchiefs and spending time with her children. Both women have hobbies but Mrs. Pontelier sometimes pays more attention to her painting instead of her own children, while Mrs. Ratignolle always puts her other duties before her own. A point to Mrs. Ratignolle for being a good wife and two points to Mrs. Pontelier for actually wanting to change the typical standards of what woman should do. Those are the people that are remembered.

Time for round two! We are joined in the ring by the woman’s significant others. Since these two gentlemen have a lot in common we are going to skip their individual battle, things are more spicy when the relationships battle. Let us begin with the Ponteliers. Here is a couple that was fine before Mrs. Pontelier had her awakening. Now her husband questions the way she runs the household and she doesn’t have a care in the world what he thinks. Mrs. Pontelier doesn’t make it all about her husband she is trying to branch out as an individual and explore herself as a woman. This is hard to achieve when her husband is always bringing her down by making her seem weak. So couple’s dynamics are a big no no with this pair as well as it emphasizes Mr. Ponteliers close mind towards his wife being different to what society expects. The Ratignolles are a completely different story. They have perfect couple dynamics because they are the typical married couple of the time. There is one difference; they appreciate each other a lot. Sure, maybe Mrs. Ratignolle shows appreciation more since she is the woman but they get along. At the dinner table they enjoy each other’s company and can actually hold a conversation with each other. The Ratignolles get a point for being troopers and no points to the Ponteliers because of Mr. Ponteliers close minded expectations of his wife.

Coming to the end of this showdown, I believe we should award the best fighter, Mrs. Pontelier. She gets an award for the simple reason that rather than stick to this domestic sphere she has been enclosed in, she wants to branch out and truly be who she is. She is defying what has always been the same and in my book, these are the people that are remembered. Her view on the life of the Ratignolles explains it all:

“The little glimpse of domestic harmony which had been offered her, gave her no regret, no longing. It was not a condition of life which fitted her and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui. She was moved by a kind of commiseration for Madame Ratignolle, - a pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its processor, beyond the region of blind contentment, in which no moment of anguish ever visited her soul, in which she would never have the taste of life’s delirium.”(Chapter XVIII, PG 109)

This quote demonstrates how Mrs. Pontelier wants to actually live life to the fullest and not be brought down because of what is expected of her as a woman. By not wanting this life she is taking a huge step in her quest to become more than just a housewife. Many woman of the time probably envied this picturesque image of marriage showed by the Ratignolles but Mrs. Pontelier has a point, if everything is perfect, you won’t feel anything wether it be good or bad. You will just be going through life not really savoring life and that is why Mrs. Pontelier pities Mrs. Ratignolle, she is content with not feeling anything.

This is a close call. Let the public decide between the couple that is ok with not tasteing “lifes delirium” or the purely business type couple that is slowly crumbling because of a want to taste this delirium.

*Ennui: Boredom, Tediousness

*Commiseration: Pity, Sympathy

Sucky Goodbyes

It takes someone to leave, for a person to really see what they meant to them. It’s not that they were ungrateful to the person while they were with them, but it weighs heavily on them when the person is truly gone. It’s as if everything that person did for you were highlighted further because they won’t be there to continue doing this for you. People become dependent on others for simple things, like carrying their books, or really complicated ones like actually making the person feel more than what they are used to, without noticing. Such is the case in The Awakening between Robert and Mrs. Pontelier, she became really close to Robert and with his departure she saw what he really meant to her.

In a normal dinner, Mrs. Pontelier gets news that Robert is to leave to Mexico that same evening. She had just spent the whole day with Robert and he never mentioned anything of this sort. The news come as a shock and her only reaction is to seem busy with housework and her children. Already knowing that Mrs.Pontelier isn’t that devoted to her “womanly duties”, the reader can infer that she in only doing this to keep her mind off the fact that her confidant is leaving. Robert is not just a friend to Mrs. Pontelier, he treats her in a way that no other man has ever treated her and she acknowledges this. One could compare their relationship to that of two teenagers falling in love since the chemistry between these two characters is undeniable.

Mrs. Pontelier seems to want to avoid dealing with this issue as long as possible. When asked to sit with Mrs. Lebrun until Robert leaves she fakes being sick and when Mrs. Ratignolle comes by to check on her, she does not accompany her back to be with the others. The news are a shock to Mrs. Pontelier and she does not really confront the issue until Robert himself comes to bid her goodbye. They have a very superficial conversation about the heat and when he would be back but you can tell that Robert is holding back what he really wants to say in page 89 when he stops himself and abruptly begins to tell her goodbye. Not only is this goodbye distant and as Mrs. Pontelier describes it “unlike Robert”, it is quick and one could say it is the worst goodbye a person could give.

What is really interesting about this goodbye is Mrs. Ponteliers thoughts after Robert departs:

“The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.” (Chapter XV, page 90)

With this, Chopin is implying that her present is more significant than both her past and future because, while she can’t change the past, her present might change the future. She rather not worry about the future but think about the present because it is torturing her in a way that only understandable to her because what just happened is meaningful to her. This person who had been making her feel so much even if she didn’t notice it, abruptly leaves and it is now that she understands what it is that is making her come alive or “awakened”.

This ties back to the idea that we don’t really appreciate something until it is gone. She describes herself as having “symptoms of infatuation” which she had felt in her youth and hadn’t felt them since. To put it in a seemingly cliché form, she is feeling butterflies. Mrs. Pontelier doesn’t question her past, doesn’t want to question her future and like she said in the line above, it is the present that is making her notice that which she had not seen. Robert and her are obviously attracted to each other but she had to hold all of this in and that is what ultimately makes her want to be with him, that infatuating feeling that she doesn’t feel with any other man, and losing that feeling, is one of the hardest things anyone could go through.

Close Reading

“There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested.

There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,--when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation. She could not work on such a day, nor weave fancies to stir her pulses and warm her blood.” (Chapter XIX, page 112)

Mrs. Pontelier describes what makes her happy first. She seems to be happy when her mood matches what surrounds her and when she is at peace with herself. It is important to notice that these moments of happiness were generally alone and with no one that could ruin her mood. From this we can infer that Mrs. Pontelier only feels happy when she gets to “wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places” meaning that a sense of independence lets her be at peace with herself. The use of imagery in this part with the sun and dreams, adds a tone of hope that things won’t always remain how she has been living them. These moments of happiness described by Mrs. Pontelier use natural elements like the sun to go with the mood she is trying to express. It gives the reader an idea of the happiness she feels but then like the sun, it lasts a little while before she begins to feel unhappy.

The next paragraph is opposite to the first. By showing these two very different paragraphs, Chopin makes the reader feel the mood change that Mrs. Pontelier goes through. Every woman knows these mood changes, one moment you are super happy and the next you are mad for a very stupid reason. Yet there is something deeper to Mrs. Ponteliers mood change. As if the realization of her life outweighs the good. The line about life being a “grotesque pandemonium” and humanity being like worms is really interesting. Even though her life doesn’t seem to be that active she describes it as a racket that makes unhappy. What is considered pandemonium to others to her is nothing. Then she chooses worms to describe humanity. Worms are blind normally and even though they move and squiggle a lot, they usually end up dyeing and not changing anything. No matter how much they struggle, their death will be inevitable and what is worse, they are blind to what they are struggling against. I believe the worms to her represent the society she lives in that works and works but never really reaching anything in the end. Somehow the idea of Mrs. Ponteliers deep mood swings makes me think that if she is so unhappy with the way things are at times, she will go to drastic measures not to feel this way and this sort of foreshadows any negative behaviors from her part.

Just Keep Swimming

In chapter 10, the reader finds out that Mrs. Pontelier has trouble swimming. Despite everybody’s efforts and help, she continues struggling and having a fear of the ocean. Dory the fish should have met Mrs. Pontelier and fixed this problem ASAP because it’s not really about the fact that Mrs. Pontelier can’t swim, and it’s not really that the ocean is the ocean and she is fearful of it. This particular idea of a woman not being able to swim and the description of her needing constant reassurance towards it, is a metaphor for the constraints she has. In this particular part of the novel she is empowered when she learns to swim and I believe this is when her awakening begins, When she sees she can be dependent on just herself, and when the unknown seems conquerable.

This part of the book really got my attention because of the way Chopin describes Mrs. Ponteliers newly found swimming abilities. She begins by describing Mrs. Pontelier as a child who discovers something amazing and new. The idea of finally understanding something or even simply understanding empowers anyone. In this particular case, Mrs Pontelier had been trying to learn to swim during the whole summer, and has depended on others to teach her but ultimately it was up to her to take the first stroke.

After achieving something like this, her attitude becomes different. As soon as she gets a taste of what it is like to achieve this on her own she wants to swim out further and she became “daring and reckless”. This is not just towards the water. The descriptions given by Chopin make it pretty obvious that it is not about the water and swimming.

“She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.” (Chapte X, PAGE 60)

Ms. Pontelier, comes face to face with an idea that even if the ocean seems like a lonely path, it still excited her to think of what limits there could be in something that seems never ending, these limits that she could reach by going out further. The last line of this quote shows how the character herself associated the idea of her swimming with reaching something that won’t hold her back and becoming lost. Maybe by becoming lost in something that doesn’t hold her back but keeps making her want to “swim more”, Mrs. Pontelier can finally find that piece she is missing that held her back before, that piece that made her cry for no apparent reason. This whole part foreshadows the idea of Mrs. Pontelier completely changing her perspective on things. In this same page, when Mrs. Pontelier looks towards the shore and sees the people she left, she describes the water as having “the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome”. She has not swum out a great distance and is more intimidated by the distance to swim back than that of the rest of the ocean. This is the distance that holds her back, her husband, her children, and society in general. This is what prevents this character to be able to “swim” out and test the waters. She is bound by the chains of what is expected of her versus what she wants for herself.

There is another part that seems to foreshadow something negative. While still far from the shore “a quick vision of death smote her soul, and for a second of time appalled and enfeebled her senses”. It seems that while there is all this that Mrs. Pontelier can achieve, there might be a negative effect to it. As if her want to push her limits might take her to an extreme limit and that might be the other things that hold her back from getting there.

Play Me a Melody, I’ll Evoke an Image

Music and images have always walked hand in hand. Even when we were little, music has a part of shaping our imagination. To put it a bit simply: our parents probably wanted to get rid of that one toy that played that one song over and over, but now grown up. we remember that toy and that song as one thing. In this modern world we live in, the media combines music and images to either add more emotion to a captivating scene in a movie, or make us remember that product we don’t really need but their background music is just so good, you feel the urge to buy whatever crap they were selling.

Maybe I’m weird but I enjoy listening to music and really focusing on how it makes me feel. Yes. I am one of those creeps that stares out the window while on the bus and looks directly at something in the street, but I am actually picturing herself being good at math, dancing like Britney Spears, or even daydreaming about that one guy. It all really depends on the music I am listening to. Music can give hope in so many aspects (like me and math) in its own unique way because while there are songs that might bring you down, there are those few “eye of tiger exceptions” that make you feel on top of the world.

This idea of connecting images to music appears in The Awakening with Mrs. Pontellier. The guests at the cottages were being entertained in a very casual get together. Everyone was dancing and having a good time but Mrs. Pontellier separated from the group and while she was admiring the view, Robert asked if she wanted to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play. This woman is only described as “a disagreeable little woman, who had quarreled with almost everyone, owing to a temper which was self assertive and a disposition to trample upon the rights of others.” Basically lady was a bitchbut despite this she sure knew how to play the piano.

Mrs. Pontellier seems to escape into another world when listening to music. Each different song brings different images into her head from a naked man standing on a rock in the sea shore to a simple woman petting a cat. Being these the times that they were, a woman’s head was the only place she could express what was really going on. The images Mrs. Ponellier evokes seem to show her desire for happiness and a want to be individual. As a reader I could really connect to this part of the novel and found it really interesting how a character could escape from her day to day troubles through music and images. This part shows that Mrs. Pontellier is not fully content with the society she lives or she would have never separated from the rest of the people in the party environment. The reason she wanted Mademoiselle Reisz to play was because she wanted an escape in that particular moment.

She had heard Mademoiselle Reisz play before but most of the time, it was from a far. The impact the live performance had on Mrs. Pontellier, was clear because instead of images “the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her.” (Chapter 9, pg 56) She did not just feel the superficial idea of the music but completely absorbed it as if she was in the ocean and the music was her ocean. Mrs. Pontellier goes through her day to day life being neutral towards those things that should make her happy and completely absorb her happiness, but instead she only feels what she should feel, when surrounded by something else, like music.

Mrs. Pontellier uses the music as an escape and to find happiness in a place no one really took into consideration during these times: a woman’s mind.

Understanding A Different Time

The Awakening by Kate Chopin takes place in an island near New Orleans. Based on what has been read, the setting of this novel is for wealthy inhabitants, most of them describes as Creole. The creoles talked about in this novel are people that were born from French descent in New Orleans and are very connected to French colonial culture. This basically translates into old money that married other older money to keep all that money in the family. These Creoles can be thought of as the elite of where they live and the idea described previously explains a bit more about the characters in this book.

The character of Robert Lebrun is very intriguing. He is not like the other men who leave the vacation spot and work in some business that takes up all their time. He prefers to spend his days with the married women that are staying in his mothers cottages. He seems particularly attached to Mrs. Pontellier but is nagged at for this by Mrs. Ratignolle, a close friend of Mrs. Pontellier. It seems as if Robert makes it a habit of his to attach himself to a particular woman and offer his services in any way to her, even if she is married. At this present time in the novel, he enjoys conversing with both ladies and is very helpful to them. In a modern context I would call him a player. His motives aren’t really clear but he seems to have an interest in Mrs. Pontellier and this is bound to have some sort of climax in the novel.

Mrs. Pontellier is married and came with her husband and kids to this island. Right from the beginning you can tell she is not happy in her marriage. There is one particular moment in which she leaves her bed and cries:

“Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, and her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life.”(Ch III, pg 22)

There is no explanation to why she does this but you have to admit this is cliché. A typical story of a woman that probably didn’t marry the man she wanted to and now she is stuck in a marriage that despite being “good” wasn’t really her decision. In the exterior it everything seems to be fine but in reality it isn’t and it might be fine for her husband, but for Mrs. Pontellier it isn’t. The only moments she seems to be content with what is happening around her is when she is with Robert and Mrs. Ratignolle. Especially Robert who seems to calm her and actually listen to her, something her husband does not do.

A seemingly opposite to Mrs. Pontellier is her friend Mrs. Ratignolle. This is a woman who exemplifies what was expected of a 19^th century woman. She is very devoted to her husband as well as her children. She runs her household very well and seems to be happy with her life. The only issue with Mrs. Ratignolle is her “condition” which the narrator describes as “no way apparent “. There is another mention of this when she picks up one of her children but despite being told not to pick up anything heavy, she picks up her child with no care. Mrs. Ratignolle shows more affection towards her children and in a sense is opposite in behavior to Mrs. Pontellier. She never seems to be sad about her way of life and is ok with being just a woman of the house.

The characters of this novel give different ideas of the time. Mrs. Pontellier seems to be defy her role in her household while Mrs. Ratignolle is happy with it, Robert rather chase after married women than go out and find one that is single, and the seemingly innocent interactions between Robert and Mrs. Pontellier are bound to create some sort of problem in the novel.