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Madeline Salem
12 AP LC
Ms. Smit
11/3/14
Analysis of Edna through a Feminist Lens
The year 1920 is an important date in history. This is the year that women suffrage finally
happened. Women worked hard to get this right that they felt they deserved. Only men could
vote up until this point and women felt they could display their political views by being included
in voting. Women want to have the same rights as men and a feminist would agree. SociologicalFeminists would greatly be in favor of women working hard to achieve right that would make
them equal to men. Some people interoperate this wrong and feel that Feminists hate males but
this is not true. Feminists dont render hating males. Their views on certain things can be based
off their four tenets. These tenets include; Western Civilization is centered and controlled by
man in such a manner that women are subordinated, male biases of our civilization, literature
that is considered "great" has consisted of writing by men for men and literary works are infused
with the masculine way of thought. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna, a young
twenty-eight year old, lives in the 1890s. In this time women were treated different than they are
now. Edna has a husband, Leonce, and two friends named Robert and Adele. Through the novel
Edna finds that she misses Robert, whom she meet over the summer. Through which Edna
exposes a need for freedom.

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Edna is argumentlly a young lady who is independent. She enjoys doing what she wants
and in her own time. This causes her to have a greater need for freedom. Her husband does not
allow her to have this. There is an instance when this happens in the novel. Leonce, her husband,
is trying to get Edna to come inside after he comes home and finds her outside. He tells her that
it is more than folly for her to want to stay outside and that he permits her to stay out there all
night. She replies with "I mean to stay out here. I dont wish to go in, and I dont intend to. Dont
speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you" (Chopin 53). She realizes that many times
she has listened to her husband even when she didnt want too. But this time she felt was
somehow different from the other times because she stood up for herself. A feminist would
commend what Edna did, because she didnt allow her husband to push her around; she stood up
for herself. Edna almost breaks Lecone's dominance over her. Robert, takes Edna home before
this scene happens. Edna sits down on a hammock that is outside and tells Robert that she is
going to wait for Lecone to arrive and that he can stay if he wishes. Robert leaves after a while,
with Edna still outside. When Lecone arrives home Edna's mind changes and she doesnt want to
come inside. By this point in the novel Edna has started to grow more fond of Robert and may
have started to not feel her need for her husband. She doesn't want him to hold her back from
anything. This is why she stands up for herself when he wants her to come inside.
Edna's husband holds her back from achieving freedom. This is revealed when she
decides to go for a swim. Edna doesn't know how to swim, but that evening when she goes out
she finds that she can swim and goes out farther than she ever has. She then realizes the time she
has lost by not trying to go out further. She swims alone and feels that she can swim where no
women has swam before. She gets this feeling of ambition even though she feels physically tired.
But when she returns to shore she realizes that her husband has been watching. He comments,

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"You were not so very far, my dear; I was watching you" (Chopin 48). Metaphorically, when
Edna is out swimming she realizes that she has this freedom but realizes this is unattainable
when she returns to shore and her husband has been watching. Even at the end of the novel when
she commits suicide it is to escape all the pressures of people. Feminist could make an argument
relating to the tenets. In one of the tenets, it makes that point that civilization is centered and
controlled by man in such a way that women are subordinated. Edna tries to be free and go
swimming but her husband thinks that she needs to be watched so she can't be left alone.
Because Edna's husband is holding her back from freedom, it makes her mad. "Taking off her
wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it,
striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture" Edna had gotten so upset
that her husband was holding her back that she wishes that she wasnt married to him anymore.
Although she puts the ring back on, Edna wishes that her husband didnt hold her back.
In Robert's absence, Edna finds freedom unobtainable. After Robert tells Edna, the day
of, he is leaving for Mexico, she is very upset. Edna doesnt want Robert to go and finds it
selfish that he would leave without reason and to not consider Edna in the making of his
decision. Edna, some days is not happy and she doesnt know why. "When it did not seem
worthwhile 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."
(Chopin 97). A feminist would argue that she has a desire for Robert, which causes her to feel
unhappy because of his absence. Even at the end of the novel when Robert comes back, she is
happy to see him and they express their love for each other. But Robert says that he didnt mean
to mess with Edna's relationship with her husband so he returns to Mexico.

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Edna strives for freedom, but is held back by Robert and her husband. A feminist would argue
that in the novel the men dont respect Edna and treat her maturely. They also dominate over her.
Robert leaves without telling her far enough in advance. Lecone thinks that Edna should do what
he says. He also thinks that she should always be watched, even when she is out swimming.