Wednesday, February 25, 2015
The Awakening: Comments and Questions
3. Willa Cather says that Edna Pontellier, like Emma Bovary, is one of those people who "really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need in life" and that she is a victim "of the over-idealization of love." Does the text of The Awakening justify that description of Edna Pontellier?
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3. The Awakening absolutely does not justify Cather’s description of Edna Pontellier as a victim “of the over-idealization of love” and someone who “really expects the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life.” While there is a strong presence of love and desire in the novel, that only scrapes the surface of the deeper meaning of Edna’s actions. She does not participate in her physical affair with Arobin or her emotional affair with Robert simply because of a whim. Her actions resulted from her desire for freedom, love and sex was merely a channel she used in order to attempt to accomplish that.
ReplyDeleteEryn, I completely agree with you that the thing Edna craved was freedom and that love and sex just happened to be a part of how she acted on that desire. I agree that Cather really only looked at the surface of Edna's actions rather than the deeper meaning behind them. I thought that was really evident in her review when she described Edna's suicide as "fanciful and romantic" because it was in a summer evening in the sea. That showed how Cather completely missed the symbolism of the sea as freedom and only saw Edna as an airy woman lost in love which backs your point that the review missed the deeper meaning regarding Edna's actions.
DeleteTo say that Edna "expects the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life" overgeneralizes what Edna wanted out of life. She did want love, and she found it through Robert, but even then, she cannot be a "victim of the over-idealization of love" because their situation was far from ideal because it was adultery and forbidden. Edna also seeks pleasure in many other forms that extend beyond passionate love, such as art, swimming, and even just listening to Mademoiselle Riesz play the piano.
ReplyDeleteNancy, I thought it was great that you included that Edna is able to experience love in other forms that differentiate from those of passion. When she hears Mademoiselle Riesz play for the first time, she seems to experience more love than she feels in any other aspect of the book whether from a man or her children.
DeleteWilla Cather's description of Edna is justified by The Awakening. She did over-idealize love by wanting and expecting so much. She was hard to please, constantly pulling Arobin in and then pushing him away. She did expect the passion of love to fill every need of life. Not even her children's love could fully satisfy the. She struggled with her love life because she expected it to be perfect. Although her love life wasn't necessarily the main focus it did play a huge part in her awakening. Her relationship with Robert is hat sparked it all.
ReplyDeleteThe text of The Awakening does not justify Willa Cather's description of Edna because Edna was not a victim of the over-idealization of love, but a victim of opression. Edna's love for Robert was simply a gateway to seek freedom. She didn't necessarily believe that loving Robert would gratify every need in life. She believed that freedom would gratify her wants and needs. Loving Robert is simply what sparked the Awkening in Edna.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that the text of The Awakening justifies Willa Cather's description of Edna. Although her love for Robert led her to her "awakening", her actions were not motivated solely by love. As Edna progressed as an individual, she realized the extent of her desire for freedom; freedom from her husband and to express her love for Robert. Love was only part of Edna's desire to be free, and so she doesn't fall a victim to this "over-idealization of love" that Cather describes. This description lacks any insightfulness in that it only describes the most basic nature of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel that Willa Cather's review was justified within The Awakening at any point. While love is definitely a main point in the novel because of Edna's feelings for Robert, Leonce, and Alcee, her frequently changing feelings and desires for each of them strengthen the idea that she is not someone who expects the passion of love to fulfill every need of her life. If anything, Edna wants as little to do as possible with love because of the pain it has caused her. Love put her in a cage in the form of her family, her husband, and her children therefore there would be no reason for her to seek total fulfillment and gratification from love as a whole.
ReplyDeleteEdna Pontellier was a victim "of the over-idealization of love," but she did not "really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life." Edna was deeply distraught from her failed attempt at being in love with Robert Lebrun. In fact, she was so distraught that it caused her to kill herself, but Edna's desire for love was not the only driving force for her. Edna Pontellier wanted the freedom that she could not have as a married women in Creole Victorian society. This is why she stopped having her "Tuesday reception days" each week at the Pontellier household. Edna also desired to focus on her artwork, which is independent of her love for Robert, and Chopin says that Edna received satisfaction from her painting.
ReplyDeleteThe text of The Awakening does not justify Cather's argument that Edna "really expects the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life" or that she is the "victim of the over-idealization of love". Although love is present throughout the novel, I felt almost like Edna craved the things the love represented rather than the love itself so dismissing her as a person blinded by love only scrapes the surface of Edna's situation. For Edna, I think love represented freedom and being herself. For instance, Edna's love of art represented her doing what made her happy, her love of swimming represented a love for feeling free, and her love of Robert, to her, represented the prospect of breaking free from Leonce and society. It also needs to be noted that this love of art and swimming show that Edna was able to "fill and gratify" her needs without the influence of men and passionate love. I think the biggest contributor to her heartbreak regarding Robert had much less to do with him hurting her feelings and more with him leaving her so society wouldn't judge them, proving that she would always be viewed as property no matter how loved she may be. Robert truly cared for Edna, but he simply wanted to transfer her ownership from Leonce to himself which I believe is why Edna was so distraught over him leaving because it showed her that there was no escape from being owned by men.
ReplyDeleteYes, the text justifies Cather's description of Edna because she bases her happiness off of the current status(es) of her love life. Because she is not happy in her marriage, Edna cannot find happiness anywhere else. She is not completely satisfied with her art, with moving out, or with visiting friends. When Edna realizes that she will never have the passionate love that she had always hoped to have, her only solution is suicide.
ReplyDeleteI believe the text justifies Cather's description only to a certain extent. Edna did constantly mourn over her love situations. In fact, every time she was alone, that is what she thought about. It is evident that Chopin did not want it to seem like Edna needed love to be happy, so she added other aspects, such as the search for freedom, wanting to do art, loving music, having her own home. All of these things that accumulate to Edna's longing for freedom in order to have happiness are not all about love, but love does weigh a lot in Edna's heart. This somewhat shows also a much more personal problem of Edna, that she herself has been molded by society to believe that she needs a male-figure in her life. Despite her feeling oppressed, she cannot help but have the same mentality that she was raised in.
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ReplyDeleteEdna Pontellier did fall victim to the "over-idealization of love", but that does not fully justify Cather's description of Edna. Edna didn't only crave freedom, but she craved freedom as well, which she thought would be with another man and away from her children. Edna's over-idealization of love is what ultimately was her downfall. Edna's happiness had become centered around some form of male figure, which she saw as a source of freedom. She sees her freedom in Leonce when they first marry because her parents didn't approve of her marriage, but then she finds happiness in Robert later in her marriage. Her freedom in finding a man may come from how society was structured, branding women's minds with the ideas of a man being the center of their life and happiness.
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