Character Relations In The Awakening :: essays research papers

It would be easy to say that Edna Pontellier emulates both Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, however, throughout the novel, it is evident that Edna step out beyond this assumption and asserts herself as a nonher person altogether. This is obvious in the defining features of each of the women. Madame Ratignolle, for example, is always represented in a real flamboyant nature and is usually associated with clothes, whereas, Mademoiselle Reisz, in contrast, has no relation to clothes or anything of material nature. She instead is associated &8220passionately with music. Edna, on the other hand, has none of these qualities attributed to her. She is not described in terms of clothes. She is never attributed with being flamboyant. She is not musically inclined, with the exception of the fact that the music moves her toward the &8220awakening of her sensuality.When examining the first stirrings, &8220a certain light that was origin to dawn dimly within her, we see that Edna think s independently of outside interference. When she &8220was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to receipt her relations as an individual to the world within and about her she does just that&8212she realizes the world within her, not without her. That is to say, she does this entire &8220awakening on her own. She does not directly determine any outside influence. Edna Pontellier, as a whole, is a woman in all different from any other in the novel. She stands alone and thinks alone and speaks alone. Her ideas and thoughts are completely hers. It would be wrong to say that Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz are embodiments of two different Ednas. They are not. They contribute their thoughts and ideas to Edna but Edna interprets these thoughts and ideas and either incorporates them or disregards them. In the end, with one reprehensible swoop, she disregards everything ever suggested to her by these two other women. In the final chapter, she takes off all her clothes and walks into the water thereby ridding herself of both Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. She does this in that, as mentioned earlier, Madame Ratignolle is often represented by her clothes, thus, by taking off all her clothes and standing &8220naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the play that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her she rejects Madame Ratignolle&8217s self-righteous dedication to her husband and children.