Edna's Awakening

This week brought us some very interesting reading. Kate Chopin should be familiar to most people in the class, from “The Story of an Hour”, about an unhappy housewife who gets a glimpse of happiness when she hears of her husband’s “death”. In my high school in Louisiana, we read this story in 12th grade, although I have to admit I forgot just about everything but the ending. My preferred Chopin story is “Desiree’s Baby”, (HUM 122- Southern Culture), about an abandoned baby girl who was raised in a prominent family, who grows up and marries a wealthy plantation owner, and then has a baby who is obviously not 100% white. Her husband accuses her of being non-white, and in shame she kills herself and the baby. (remember the time period) The story goes on to a shocking ending, and it only compounds the avoidable tragedy.
I can see why “The Awakening” is both her best and the most controversial story. It delves into the subject of women who feel incomplete and stifled by the constraints of marriage, like the “The Story of an Hour”, while it also tapped into the psychological study of depression and inability to cope, and how they link to suicidal tendencies, like in “Desiree’s Baby”. I felt like Edna’s character had some flaws, but perhaps many of her problems could have been avoided by steering clear of marriage, at least marriage to someone she did not love. I realize our notions are not the same as those our ancestors had 110 years ago, but it would have solved at lot of her problems. She loved her children, but had she been childless, she would have been happy. She was a person who suddenly found herself incomplete- not happy with her marriage, her responsibilities or her lack of vocation. While I don’t necessarily agree with her method to rediscovery, I can sympathize with the lack of direction and choices given to women of the day. In her mind, death was the only way she could prevent her husband, her children, even her lovers from subjecting her to their will; not only is that sad, but to me, it speaks of a certain level of selfishness. Just my two cents.