Essay Database

Mrs. Edna Pontellier was a literary figure on the edge when The Awakening was written. She evaded and questioned the normative roles of women in her upper-class new Orleans society. Edna’s character was slowly awakened to being pulled in four archetypical directions: these archetypes include the marriage of the work-orientated and “bread-winning” husband and the ideal mother, the outcast “quasi-intellectual” feminist, the high-class society, and the true love. This pulling from the various archetypical, …

…admit that condoning the way she acts is a little hard to do. However, Edna’s character is can really show us how to reject prescribed roles in society and become individuals. The catalyst of Edna’s awakening was the variety of characters that all fit their archetypical roles. She learned that she yearned to be herself, not the forms of a perfect mother, great wife, individual artist by observing and interacting with these characters.