De-evolution of Edna

At first my topic was Affirmative Action and did it really diminish racism in the work place. This topic although good was really turning into a report instead of an analysis. My next topic was then a comparative study of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. this however ran into problems into it did not really fit into any of the subject areas that the essay could be written about. Finally, I decided to do an essay in English because I know how to write an English essay and I think that I am fairly good at it. The problem that came next was what piece of work or works would I pick to analyze. The way that I got my idea was through a conversation in class on The Awakening. This conversation was on the devolution of Edna and on the motifs in the novel, this truly interested me. At first I was going to write about the motifs in the novel but it did not interest me as much as the devolution of Edna. The devolution of Edna is the reverse growth of the character. It is essentially the regression of the child from adulthood to childhood. How I intend to write this essay is I will start off with the Edna at the beginning of the novel and analyze her actions and as the frame story progresses I will analyze each regression in terms of her actions, other characters actions towards her, and her intercourse with the characters of the novel. In this way I will be able to trace the changing in her behavior and the changes in her relationship with the other characters. These changes in her behavior and her social interactions will present the regressive stages that Edna is going through as this novel progresses.

Upon first meeting the character Edna Pontellier she is described as a rather mature woman not so much as her actions but in her looks. "Her eyebrowa were a shade darker than her hair. They were thich and almost horizontal, emphasizing the depth of her eyes. She was rather handsome than beautiful. Her face was captivating by reason of a certain frankness of expression and a contradictory subtle play of features. Her manner was engaging. This description presents Edna Pontellier as an intelligent woman whom is quite reserved. Edna has a depth of soul for the eyes are said to be the windows to the soul. This shows that Edna is very mature and that she is very much reserved and very thoughtful. Next Edna is more handsome than beautiful. Women tend to be beautiful when they are young but when they grow older and more mature it is then that they become handsome, this is the stage that Edna has reached. Also Edna has a frankness in her matter. A younger woman would tend to be more coy and not as frank but Edna is much too reserved to be coy. Edna is also a good wife. She does not question her husband when he goes out or nags him. The only question that she ventures to ask him is "Coming back to dinner." Edna was to developed not to trust her husband and their relationship was open and understanding so that her husband did not question her about Rober Lebrun. However mature and reserved Edna is as the novel progresses her relationship with her husband and Robert Lebrun will change as she devolves.

The devolution of Edna begins in Chapter III when she is chastized by her husband. "Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after......Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all day." This seems strange coming from a mother of two children. It is suspected that the boys are fairly old maybe around eight or nine years old. This should have made Edna more aware that a fever can onset suddenly however Edna is not aware of this. The way that Edna acts it is as if she is a new mother. She acts as if Raoul is her first and only child and that he is and infant and that she has never seen a sick child before. This is a great contrast to the mature woman that was presented at the beginning of the story. Also when chastized by her husband she began to cry "The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontillier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir no longer served to dry them...She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life." This is very strange for Edna to be crying over something so trivial especially if such incidents had already happened to her before. The strangest thing was that she herself did not know why she was crying herself. This woman presented here seems to be not a woman who is secure in her marriage like Edna was in the beginning of the novel but she seems to be a newlywed who is crying over her and her husbands first argument. As can be seen not only in Edna's actions is she devolving but also in her relationship with others ie. her husband and her children.

The next step in the devolution of Edna can be seen in the conversation that she had with Madame Ratignolle. First of all "Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature." This description seems to fit nicely into the character description that was derived about Edna from the beginning of the novel. However Edna is found relating things about her past to Madame Ratignolle that she would have been hesitant to mention to others. In short she is found taking Madame Ratignolle into her confidence. Another thing that is found to be in character conflict is that Edna says "sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again, idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided." This statement is one that seems to be more at home coming from a younger woman who is unmarried and has no children. However this statement is coming from Edna, a woman who is married and has two children. Her life has a purpose maybe not the one she would want it to have but it has one. She has a husband and children to look after her life is together, their exists no uncertainty of what the future holds for her. Yet why would she say this. The only plausible excuse is that her relationship with her husband and children along with her character is devolving into something younger and more primitive from the presentation character state of Edna Pontellier.

Also discovered in the disclosure to Madame Ratignolle is how far the devolution of Edna has progressed. Edna is speaking of when she was younger and was engaged in dreams of a handsome man coming and carrying her off until she met Leonce Pontellier. When she married him she decided that "As the devoted wife of a man who worshipped her, she felt she would take her place with a certain dignity in the would of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams." It is in this state that Edna is discovered first, a dignified wife. However as the novel progresses it can be seen that Edna is digressing back to when she was a young wife and dreaming of a gentleman to come and take her off. It can also be seen that at the beginning of the nover her intercourse with Robert was not at all serious. He was nothing more than merely a companion as can be seen when Leonce told Edna "Well, send him about his business when he bores you, Edna." Their was no thought of the relationship between the two becoming serious because Edna knew her place and she was much to reserved and mature to take the advances of Robert Lebrun serious for he flirted with a woman every summer and it was all in good fun. However with the devolution of Edna and the apparent dreaminess she is digressing into in looking for a gentleman to take her away Madame Ratignolle becomes concerned. This can be seen in the conversation that she has with Robert. In this conversation she tells Robert "she is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously." No longer is Edna a woman of good sense but she is younger woman with not as much experience.

Edna has also become rebellious towards her husband which she never was before. When Edna is out on the porch and her husband suggests that she come into the house so she will not become eaten by mosquitos she protests and becomes angry. "Leonce, go to bed, she said. I mean to stay out here, I don't wish to go in, and I don't inted to. Don't speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you." This seems rather odd. It almost seems like a tantrum thrown by a rebellious young adult. Edna admits herselt that at "another time she would have gone in at his request. She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire." The question is if normally she would have yielded to his desire why is this time different? The reason this time is different is because Edna is younger. It can be seen that when she first married Leonce Pontellier that she married him out of rebellion. "And to this the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the motive which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier for her husband. It can be seen that Edna has digressed to this stage of her early disobedience and rebellion. As this novel progresses it can be seen that the Edna that is presented at the beginning of the novel is greatly changing. The question however is what is she changing into? With the presentation of Edna in the early years it can be seen that the characteristics that she is presenting are not those of the older much maturer Edna that is presented at the beginning of the novel but those of the much younger and inexperienced Edna which is presented as a comparison.

It is made evidently clear what is happening to Edna when she awakes from her sleep at Madame Antoine's house. "How many years have I slept?" This one statement is very significant in that it signifies that the whole time in which she was married to Leonce Pontellier that she was asleep. This motif of sleeping for years can be seen in many fairy tales in which a princess is cast under a spell and she sleeps for many years. In these stories everything around them changes but they stay the same. This is important in that Edna awakens to be the young woman she was before she married Leonce, dreams and all. Also when Edna awakens everything seems different from she was used to seeing before she went to sleep. "That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect." With this devolution came the dreams of the tragedian of whom Robert became substituted for.

Before Edna's marriage to Leonce. "The picture of the tragedian stood enframed upon her desk. Any one may possess the portrait of a tragedian without exciting suspicion or comment.(This was a dinister reflection which she cherished.) In the presence of others she expressed admiration for his exalted gifts, as she handed the photograph around and dwelt upon the fidelity of the likeness. When alone she sometimes picked it up and kissed the cold glass passionately. This is how she begans to be towards Robert. When she learns that Robert was going to Mexico, privately she saddened. "He had been with her, reading to her all the morning, and had never even mentioned such a place as Mexico....Edna bit her handkerchief convulsively, striving to hold back and to hide, even from herself as she would have hidden from another, the emotion which was troubling-tearing-her. Her eyes were brimming with tears. For the first time she recgonized anew the symptoms of infatuation which she had felt incipiently as a child, as a girl in her earliest teens, and later as a young woman." It can be seen that Edna has devolved totally to the point in her life before her marriage to Leonce when she was obsessing over the tragedian. It was at this time that she had such feelings for a man. It can be seen that she holds Robert in high regard in public this correlates with the way she held the tragedian in high regards in public. For she says "The idea of Robert starting off in such a ridiculously sudden and dramatic way." This insinuates that she would never had expected such a thing to come from Robert. On this idea Madame Ratignolle whole heartedly agrees for she says "It wouldn't have surprised me in any of the others; those Lebruns are all given to heroics. But I must say I should never have expected such a thing from Robert." Edna like Madame Ratignolle regards Robert as being different, as holding characteristics befitting her earlier tragedian. All of this she does in public however in private she dreams about Robert. She even tells him "I've grown used to seeing you, to having you with me all the time, and your action seems unfriendly, even unkind. You don't even offer an excuse for it. Why, I was planning to be together, thinking of how pleasant it would be to see you in the city next winter." It is obvious that in private she is cherishihng these times that she spends with Robert as she admits to him here. She however would not dare to tell Madame ratignolle of these wishes just like she wouldn't tell the others in her office about her feelings for the tragedian for she knew that it would be thought strange. Her further digression is shown in that this news has greatly distressed her because she starts to cry and she can't understand how he could have been with her the whole day and not have told her that he was going away. This seems very childish, it is almost like a teenage girl about to enter into adulthood who is mad at a friend because she did not tell her a secret. In many of these instances upon Roberts departure there can be found many correlations between Edna Pontellier's relationship with Robert and the tragedian.

Upon Roberts departure further regression in Edna can be discovered. "It did not strike her as in the least gsrotesque that she should be making of Robert the object of conversation and leading her husband to speak of him." This is strangely odd and it seems quite out of character from the first character impression that is received about Edna Pontellier. This seems like something a teenage girl would do prompting her friends to talk about a boy whom she likes or getting one of her friends to talk to the boy about her. It also seems very juvenile for her to be talking about this man whom she has fallen in love with her husband. These actions of hers are not only inappropriate but they are also childish and uncalled for. Also it seems very childish of her to make her feelings so apparent. When looking at the Edna before this point she was one who thought that "their freedom of expression was at first incomprehensible to her, though she had no difficulty in reconciling it with a lofty chastity which in the Creole woman seems to be inborn and unmistakable." This is why it seems so out of character for Edna to be so apparent in her feelings towards Robert. She is so apparent that even Mademoiselle Reisz sees it as she asks her "Do you miss your friend greatly?" She seems like a high school girl who has a crush on a boy and is unable to hide it. This character is nothing like the character presented before who was reserved and would never make such feelings so obvious.

Also she seems very adolescent in that she "..experienced a pang of jealousy because he had written to his mother rather that to her." This is rather strange and quite juvenile. This is like when she was in love with the young gentleman and he becomes engaged. "...the realization that she was nothing, nothing, nothing to the engaged young man was a bitter affliction to her.

Edna is also seen throwing a tantrum which is totally unlike the character that is seen at the beginning of the novel. "Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying thre, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small goot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet. In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth. She wanted to destroy something. The crash and clatter were what she wanted to hear." This passage not only shows Edna acting childish and throwing a tentrum tantrum but it also signifies that Edna wants to regress back to the time before she was married to Leonce Pontellier. It can be seen that by her taking off the wedding ring that she is no longer happy in the marriage but by her stamping on it with her heel it can be seen that she not only wants out of the marriage but that she wants to crush it. Here it can be seen that Edna wants to digress back to the point where she was a young woman who was totally free. She wants to be that young woman who was not married and who could dream about her tragedian. It can be seen that this digression of Edna is something that she too wants. She wants to go back to when she was young because it is only during this time that her love for Robert will even have a chance. Although she is in love with him now and is expressing those feelings she can never be his. She knows that she can not get a divorce because her husband is Catholic and she can not run off with him because they both would be shunned. The only plausible answer to her dillema would be if she was not married and this would cause her to digress into the days before her marriage to Leonce. "Edna could not help but think, that it was very foolish, very childish, to have stamped upon her wedding ring and smashed the crystal vase upon the tiles."

Edna's relationship with her husband is also seen to continue to digress. Although he is still the same sophisticated and mature Leonce Edna is different. "She began to do as she liked and feel as she liked." It is at this time that she becomes rather irresponsible and begins to shun the duties of a Creole wife. During this time she is not to be found at home on Tuesdays. Tuesdays in Creole society was very important. It was a social gathering at a certain womans house and she was expected to entertain. These Tuesdays were important not only because they were social outings but they were good for the business of ones husband. These meetings put one on good terms with an influential mans wife and with this he might favor your husband with his business. These meetings were very important and Edna becomes so irresponsible that she is conveniently out when the time comes for them to have a Tuesday social outing. Not only is Edna irresponsible but she is also self centered. She is not thinking of the disadvantage that shes putting her husband through she is only thinking of herself. This conduct can also be seen in the younger Edna who is not only rebellious but also very self centered. She marries a man that her family does not approve of. Not only is she being rebellious but she is also being very self centered for she is not thinking of the effect that it will have on her family the only person that Edna is thinking of is herself. Also it can be seen that she is becoming more rebellious towards her husband also. "When Mr. Pontellier became rude, Edna grew insolent." This is very strange for Edna because all before she just naturally did what her husband said there was really no conflict there but now she makes such remarks as "....Let me alon; you bother me." It can be seen that this is the exact type of attitude that Edna had towards her father and her sister when they did not want her to marry Leonce. This attitude is one of defiance. She is much like a teenager who has been told no that they can not do something or a teenager that has been chastized so they become real testy; this strikes me as Edna. She becomes real testy with Leonce because he chastizes her for being out for the Tuesday meeting exactly like when she was a teenager and was told that she could not marry Leonce.

The regression in Edna can also be noted in her conversation with Victor. When Edna goes to visit Madame Lebrun in search of Mademoiselle Reisz's address she encounters Victor. Upon their meeting Victor relates to her the story of him and this good looking girl. This story although not revealed fully is suggested to be quite inappropriate. Not only is this story not inppropriate for the reader to know but it is also inappropriate because Victor does not want his mother to find out about it. "Despite herself, the youngster amused her." This is very strange coming from a woman who earlier colored at such stories. It is also strange that Victor a youth of nineteen would seek companionship with a woman that was much older than him and who was married. The story that Victor is about to relay seems a little bit scandalous and it is something that he would most likely tell to someone of his age group. Someone who could find the humor in the situation, this is hardly befitting a married woman and a mother of two boys herself. However Victor does begin to tell his story to Edna but he is interrupted by his mother. He too notices the change in Edna. He can not quite figure out what it is about her that is different but in "some way she doesn't seem like the same woman." Victor has also noticed the regression in Edna this is probably what prompts him to begin to tell her his story because now that she has regressed she can understand now and she being within the same age as he can take pleasure in his story and find it amusing. No longer does she blush like earlier when she was the civilized Edna Pontellier, wife of Leonce Pontellier and mother of two children.

Victor however is not the only person that notices the change that has occured in Edna but Leonce notices it also. He even goes to see that physician about it to see what he has to say about Edna's condition. He says "....she doesn't act well. She's odd, she's not like herself." Here Leonce realizes that Edna has changed. What he does not realize is that Edna is pretty much like herself only a younger self. A younger self that by degrees she is progressing back to.

The major regression in Edna is the appearance of her father. At this point in time Edna has regressed back into a child most likely in her early teens and she needs a father figure. It is expressed that "she was not very warmly or deeply attached to him, but they had certain tastes in common, and when together they were companionable." This seems to be a strange ones relationship with ones father but this is how their relationship is described. However during the time that Edna's father is there she goes through a lot to try to please him and to make him in essence proud of her. It is like when a child makes their parents breakfast in bed. "She would not permit a servant or one of the children to do anything for him which she might do herself. Her husband noticek, and thought it was the wxpression of a deep filial attachment which he had never suspected." As can be seen she went through great strides to try to please her father and to make his stay at her home as pleasant as possible. This would not be so strikingly childlike if Edna and her father had a very loving relationship but this is not the case. Even Leonce finds it strikingly odd that Edna should treat her father this way. It is not said but obviously Edna's father rarely visits them and when he does Edna is not very loving as to go to great extremes to secure her fathers happiness in his stay at her home.

It can also be seen that Edna has regessed to a schoolgirl also. It is during this time that "...Edna sat in the library and read Emerson until she grew sleepy. Sher realized that she had neglected her reading, and determined to start anew upon a couse of improving studies." It is during these periods that Edna's regression into childhood become most noticeable.

Another most noticeable scene in which Edna has regressed into childhood is when she throws the dinner party before she moves into the pigeon house. It is at this time that Victor starts to sing the song that Robert sang to her when they were on the boat coming back from the island. At this time she throws a tentum tantrum and like a child she has no control whatsoever over her emotions. "Stop! she cried, don't sing that. I don't want you to sing it, and she laid her glass so impetuously and blindly upon the table a to shatter it against a carafe." This is very strange that the singing of the song disturbed her so. It is perfectly understood that it is the very same song that Robert sang to her but the uncontrollable emotions that she displays is most shocking. It is like she is a little girl who has no control over her feelings. The picture of Edna here is a little girl with her arms folded and her lips pertruded out saying "me don't want to."