The Mother-Woman in The Awakening, Essay Example

Before the modernistic era, a woman’s job criteria, might, would read – to uphold traditional values, take care of household duties and care for the children. A woman was supposed to be a docile and domestic creature whose main concerns in life were to take care of household duties, be submissive to her husband and take the role of motherhood seriously.  In the Victorian era, true womanhood was considered to be the main interest in life, for a woman. But, in Kate Chopin’s book, The Awakening, her character, Edna Pontelier depicted the New Woman of the nineteenth century or a non-mother woman while, Madame Ragtinolle was portrayed as a mother-woman and was “delicious in the role” (Chopin 9).  According to Victorian traditions, Madame Ragtinolle was the ideal mother and “true woman.”

Kate Chopin was ostracized from society when The Awakening was first published, in 1899.  Set in New Orleans, LA., and centered on the character Edna, who was a drastic change from the “normal” female characters of earlier nineteenth-century novels, the book shocked and appalled the Victorian society. “While this plot is common by today’s standards, it caused a huge commotion when Herbert S. Stone and Company published The Awakening in 1899. The book was removed from library shelves in Kate Chopin’s hometown of St. Louis, and the St. Louis Fine Arts Club expelled Chopin from its membership” (enotes). Society felt as if Edna was not condemned enough for her actions.

Edna certainly bucked the system when it came to the term mother-woman.  She was not considered to be a good mother, for, according to Mr. Pontelier, she had a “habitual neglect of the children…it was…a mother’s place to look after her children” (Chopin 7).  Mr. Pontelier did not think of Edna as a good mother and motherhood was very important to Mr. Pontelier.  In fact, Mr. Pontelier wished that Edna could be more like Madame Ratignolle and other mother- women.  Mr. Pontelier felt that maternal women “were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals…” (Chopin 9).  Mrs. Pontelier did not want to give up her individuality just to be all the things that society or her husband thought she should be. She wanted more than to be a mother and a wife. “Edna thinks about herself as separate from her family and society”(enotes). Edna wanted to be an individual so, “She challenges the role society has forced upon her and courageously turns her back on it,” by moving out of her husband’s house and into her own house (enotes).

Because of the portrayal of Edna as a non-mother-woman, many people assumed that Chopin was attacking the foundation of motherhood, but in reality, Chopin was a mother-woman. In Dr. Linda Byrd’s article on maternal influence, she begins her article with, “Kate Chopin’s genuine feelings about motherhood and children are best illuminated in her comments about her own six children.  Loving her children immensely, she never wanted to shun them or turn them away even when she was very busy” (Byrd).  This passage confirms that Chopin loved her children and was deeply devoted to them, planning her work schedule around them.  Despite her own maternal feelings, Chopin was aware that not all women had the motherly instinct as naturally as others. Byrd goes on to say about Chopin’s thoughts on children, “Often they restrict and impose, but even when they are mischievous, good often results…Motherhood and children often serve to emphasize a woman’s self-deprivation, but there are also cases where a woman can achieve self-actualization through motherhood and caring for her children” (Byrd).  Chopin had great respect for the mother-woman and gave her the praise she deserved when she said Madame Ragtinolle was “the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm” (Chopin 9).  For some women, being the center of the household, by nurturing children and taking care of her husband, is her individuality and she enjoys it. Chopin also proved, by her lifestyle, that a woman can be an individual and have a life outside motherly duties and still be a good mother.

Chopin used a bit of light sarcasm, in The Awakening, as she addressed the issue of women that had the idea that there was nothing else to do all day but run after their children.  “It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protective wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood” (Chopin 9). According to Sprinkle’s article, these women were committed “to grow wings as ministering angels” to protect their children (Sprinkle). By using the word imaginary, Chopin was making fun of these women who thought that running after children was the way to prove their womanhood or their motherly nature. The idea of a woman doing anything other than seeing after the house and children would not be the ideal mother-woman. Chopin goes even further when she uses sarcasm again to speak of Madame Ratignolle’s “condition” and states that, “Madame Ratignolle had been married seven years. About every two years she had a baby” (Chopin 10). Even though Chopin had six children, she also had a “life” other than husband, house, and children. She took time for herself, as a writer, which greatly influenced her role as mother and wife. Because Chopin was a writer and a mother it helped her to understand that some women need more out of life than to reproduce and be a wife, thus her character Edna.

Even though Edna was not the portrait of the ideal mother-woman, Edna loved her children. But she felt as if there had to be more to life than just motherhood and marriage. She felt constrained by the duties required of her by her family. “In short, Mrs. Pontelier was not a mother-woman” (Chopin 9).  Maybe Edna felt so constrained by her duties that she was forced to feel a shirking of her responsibilities. After all, marriage and motherhood is not for every woman and Edna feels as if she should not have to give her complete “self” for the sake of her family. “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin).

Even though, Mrs. Pontelier is quite distant from the two little boys she gave birth to, she really does love and see that her children have everything they need. When Madame Ratignolle comes over to visit and sew, “Mrs. Pontelier’s mind was quite at rest concerning the present material needs of her children…” (Chopin 10).  Mrs. Pontelier had already seen to it that her children’s winter clothes were taken care of because she did not want to make “making winter night garments the subject of her summer meditations” (Chopin 10).  In the prior sentence, Chopin makes it a point to state, “material needs.” In other words, Mrs. Pontelier never found it a problem to provide materially for her children, after all her husband was a very good provider, but she found it hard to provide nourishment of the soul for her children.  Edna’s children were lacking for heartfelt love from their mother, but Mrs. Pontelier “was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way…she would sometimes forget them.” In other words, if the time was convenient and Mrs. Pontelier wanted to take it upon herself to give them extra attention then she would.

So that she could be with Robert all day, Mrs. Pontelier left both of her children with the pregnant Madame Ratignolle.  On her arrival home, she found that Etienne, the youngest boy, had not been on his best behavior.  He had missed his mother. Mrs. Pontelier “took him in her arms…began to coddle and caress him…soothing him to sleep” (Chopin 38). Again, Edna has decided to give her son attention at a time that is convenient for her and maybe even out of guilt.  She knows that she has done her boys wrong by leaving them with Madame Ratignolle all day and she has done Madame wrong by pushing her boys off on her, while she is in her “condition”.

Edna would also, send her boys off to stay for extended periods of time with their grandmother for “every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual” (Chopin 89). Edna needed time away from family responsibilities in order to try to realize her own place in life. Her maternal obligations were weighing her down and, “Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this…It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her” (19). Life had thrown Edna into a role that she did not feel comfortable with and did not want.

Even though Edna was not a woman with deep maternal feelings, she did have a love for her children.  While visiting with the children at Madame Ponteliers, “She wept for very pleasure when she felt their little arms clasping her. She looked into their faces with hungry eyes that could not be satisfied with looking” (Chopin 89). This passage proves that Edna did love her children in her own way but she did not feel the necessity to sacrifice her needs for her children. In other words, Edna did not know how to have true maternal feelings for her children. Edna did not want to play the role as wife and mother, if she had to sacrifice her “self.”

Even though, Edna does not have true maternal feelings, it does not make her a bad person. Not every woman has a deep maternal instinct. Not every woman wants to give up her individuality to become a wife and mother. Being a good mother requires sacrifice, not just of time and of material things, but of self. The self is not something that Edna was willing to forfeit.

Works Cited

Byrd, Linda. “Maternal Influence and Children in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction,” 1999. Women  Writers. <http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/Byrd.htm>  23 April 2008

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 2^nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994.

Sprinkle, Russ. “Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: A Critical Reception,” Women  Writers.