Edna: A Solitary New Woman

The Awakening, Kate Chopin's greatest literary achievement, was published in 1899. The immediate response to the novel was overwhelmingly negative because it traced the awakening of psychological and sexual consciousness of a young woman. However, after 50 years, the critical world began to reexamine her writing from the point of feminism and thought that she was entitled to an honorable position in the American literature. This paper will try to reveal that Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in the novel, is a solitary soul from the beginning to the end.1, Edna is a solitary woman among the Creole people in St. Louis. In nation she is an offspring of English people, while the Creole people are the posterity of French peopJe. In religion, her paternal family belongs to the Presbyterian while the Creole people believe in Catholicism. In disposition, Edna is a bit reserved and good at containing herself in certain situations for the sake of politeness and civility while the ordinary Creole people are rather frank, direct and emotional.2, Edna's relation with her friends is not very close to some degree. Edna has many friends. She needs friends because she feels lonely even when her husband keeps her company. Madame Ratignolle is one of her close friends. Edna likes her but she examines her in her mind's eye as a man. As to Mademoiselle Reisz, the mutual spiritual understanding is the cornerstone of their friendship. But in the end, Edna comes to realize that Mademoiselle is nothing but a coward. Doctor Mandelet is Edna's only male friend and male witness of her solitary life. The Doctor offers his help to Edna, but she refuses to accept.3, Edna's solitude is efficiently illustrated by the relation with her husband, her lovers, her parents, her sisters and her children. She is like a certain foreign body among these people, and fails to get harmoniously along with them. She seems a born solitary soul, who tries to seek her own position and understand the significance of her existence in the boundless universe.Chopin creates a solitary woman not only by her relation with other peopleXIaround her but also by her relationship with the objective things and specific actions as symbols. The symbols in The Awakening intensify the solitary atmosphere in which the protagonist lives. For the convenience of argumentation, we may classify the symbols in the novel into three categories: 1. natural things as symbols; 2. man-made things as symbols; 3. different actions as symbols.1. In The Awakening, birds, moon, sea, gulf and ocean are natural things as symbols. These natural symbols suggest the author's intention to combine the heroine with nature in her particular way. Readers could sense the beauty and indifference of nature at the same time. Readers can also sense Edna's solitude by means of these symbols.2. Clothes and houses are man-made symbols. These man-made symbols show that the male world try to cover the female's selfhood consciously or unconsciously by clothes and houses and they become the makers of women's solitude. If women want to realize the value of themselves and relieve their solitude, they should remove the outside wrappings imposed by men, supply themselves^with the clothes at their own expanse and build or rent houses with their own purses.3. Learning to swim, drawing pictures, playing the piano, eating and sleeping are symbols of actions. All these action symbols inspire women to find their own ways to express themselves. All the traditional rules can be doubted or rejected if they are of inequality to the female. Everyone is created equal before the natural law. If they have enough .ways to express themselves, they will not feel solitary any more. If women obtain enough freedom and equality they will have no ways to sense the solitude.Edna often remains in solitude in her relationship both with people and with objective things around her, but her solitude is not endowed with much sentimental elements. She senses her existence in her solitude; she contemplates about...