Please respond to this question by the start of class on Friday.
In Heilburn's book, Writing a Woman's Life, she writes: "The true representation of power is not of a big man beating a smaller man or a woman. Power is the ability to take one's place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one's part matter." Thus, using Heilbrun's definition of power (and maybe it is LeGuinn's too) please discuss whether you feel Edna possess power. Please feel free to include why you think that her acquisition of power is a futile pursuit or how her society is the reason why she will remain infertile as human (void of life--in a personal, not reproductive, sense) and always lack power. You can take this response down a host of different paths, and you are free to follow one that sparks your interest; however, you must address how Edna supports or refutes Heilburn's assertion about power.
Good luck--and please let me know if you have any questions.
These responses should be:
-proof read, formated properly, and radiate depth of thought, clarity, directness, and sophistication of expression in their writing.
-A good response should be around 400 words and reference specific examples from The Awakening that highlight/support the argument you are not trying to make.
-Please feel free to use the I in these responses....they are not analytical pieces of writing, so you have a bit more freedom; however, you should make sure that you are aptly answering the question and putting forth a valiant effort that is reflective of deep consideration and bold thoughts.
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If powers true definition is one that includes the right to have one’s part matter than, Edna is powerless. Edna lives within a world where she is caged by the men around her and rarely let out to have her own thoughts and do her own things. Although she, at times, is free to do what she wants and have her own thoughts, she doesn’t know how to go about doing it. She has never led a life where she has not been caged by the men around her. Edna has grown up within a society that has been dominated by men thinking that women should not have a significant place or role in their society. She leads the life the men around her want and force her to lead, a life she hasn’t opposed until now. “She discovered that he interested her, though she realized that he might not interest her long; and for the first time in life she felt as if she were thoroughly acquainted with him. He kept her busy serving him and ministering to his wants”(115). Through the work that Edna does for her father she feels as if she’s connected to him for the first time, when she really is far from connected to him but just merely doing the work that he expects her to do. Societies push for women to cater to men has become normality for Edna, something that makes her feel as if she is wanted. Power is not something that Edna is allowed to have; therefore it is extremely hard for her to gain it. Although I do believe that Edna is trying to gain the power that she deserves I don’t believe she will be able to go about completely gaining it and putting it to use.
Society will forever continue to limit Edna unless she is able to break free of the cage that she has been trapped in her whole life. Her infertility as a human will continue to blossom because of the limits that society has incased women within. Edna’s husband enforces the limits that society has on her and allows for her infertility as a human to only continue. I believe that without societies limits Edna would be able to acquire the power that she deserves and be able to use it. The fences that hold Edna within society’s expectations force her to become what society wants and expects her to be allowing for the power that Edna deserves to be kept from her.
Though Edna has to live under the shadow of her male counterparts, she still has a power that is not able for anyone to take from her. As she has grown up she has come to realize the two worlds that she lives, the inner and outer existences. Though power does not exist fully in both of these lives, she is still able to find it in one of them.
Her ability to find power through her thoughts, which no other person can possess allows her to stay sane throughout all of her struggles with her husband and her life "in short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her." (33)Mrs. Pontellier begins to feel as not just a woman but as a human being in this moment because of her "power" to decide to go swimming with Robert. This may not be a big deal to anyone else, but it is to her because it gives her a sense of freedom.
Edna "could only realize that she herself-her present self-was in some way different than the other self." the difference between her and her "other self" is that when she is her present self she has the ability to do what she really wants too.
When Madame Reisz talks about the "Courageous, ma foi! The brave soul. The soul that dares and defies"(165) Edna realizes that she needs to possess the "courageous soul" because that means that she has power.
Edna even had "A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before." in this moment she is feeling an ammount of power that she can only express through trying something that no one else had done before.
Edna does have power even thought one might think that she doesn't. Mr. Pontellier controls her physically but is unable to control her mind, which if freed is more important than the body. Robert helps her maintain her inner existence but when he is gone, she finds it more difficult for her power to show through. Power is not just who you control, it is what you control. And if Edna is able to keep her inner extance alive, she will be able to find happiness
I don’t believe Edna has all the power she truly wants to have; however, she decides to search for this power, and break free from the shadow she lives in of males. In life, people will judge you, but it shouldn’t have any impact on your actions, or what you want to do. Edna realizes she shouldn’t care about others and decides to search for power for herself. This is my definition of power, a person who doesn’t make do with what they have, but instead, goes and searches for what they can get, even if it goes against what everyone thinks. I believe that there is no power truer than this. Although, Edna is physically confined in a life of what her husband wants, she soon comes to the realization that he can’t control her thoughts or desires. As a result of this she finds that what she wants to do will ultimately set her free, and this is where her true power comes from, within herself.
Edna starts the process of being who she wants to be, and gaining this power she wishes to have by “completely abandon[ing] her Tuesdays at home” (95). In society, Edna has continuously been living under the shadow of men, and if a woman is told to stay home on Tuesdays, she will have to. Edna, however, decides she doesn’t like the way Mr. Pontellier treats her, and therefore rebels. As “Mr. Pontellier became rude, Edna grew insolent” (95), which portrays that she will start rebelling as a means to gain her power. As a result of this, Mr. Pontellier feels necessary to consult the doctor on Edna’s “abnormal” actions of rebelling in order to justify his power. On the outside, Mr. Pontellier is the ideal husband, and as everyone says “the best husband in the world” (15), but when the situation is looked upon deeper he truly is not. The packages that he sends while he is away are a portrayal of the love that is lacking in their relationship, and merely a statement of the power he possess.
Edna “wishes to swim far out, where no woman has swum before” (47) which ultimately portrays her desire for the power she’s trying to find. I believe that Edna wanting to swim where no woman has swum before is a statement of self, that desire to gain the power she should have, but does not. She comes to that realization that although she is a woman living in the shadow of men, she can break free from this prison and ultimately gain her self power.
I see it going both ways where I agree that Edna should be allowed to embrace this newly found power/freedom that she seems to be confronted with but I also believe that it negatively affects everyone else around her because of a certain need and respect for her role as a mother/wife. Her approach to this seems almost as blind as when she first got married to Mr. Pontellier. She needs it but doesn’t know where it will lead her…other than away. Out to sea where the unknown unfolds into endless possibilities. The Ocean is her Freedom yet Captivity. Is it the unknown that draws her into such an idea? The abstract thought of the ocean being her freedom makes her set on the achievement of gaining such freedom, thus unknowingly she is giving herself up to something Unknown and losing that very freedom in the process. You can’t just give up being a mother and a wife…expecting it to vanish. Once it becomes a part of who you are, you can’t simply let it go. Yes, she is oppressed by the world of men, but it is not until Now that she feels it necessary to go against it. Because of the way she reacts it is only seen to me, as a form of disrespect and loss of civility. Now, what about Civility? Is there the idea of…to be Free is to give up being civilized? I believe it goes both ways again where…if she wants to feel, taste, and see that very freedom she thirsts for, she must give up something in order to reach her goal of being released from this cage of oppression. No matter how far she runs, she will never escape the life that has been shrouded in lies but told as a truth. I do enjoy seeing her progress through her transformation but I don’t believe that a person should have to give up everything, even their family in order to discover and fully reach their potential(finding the truth). Family is one of the most important influences in one’s life. The only difference in contrast to today...she became a part of what a family was expected to look like towards being accepted by societies standards. She became a part of the system when she was born into her family. “She could only realize that she herself--her present self--was in some way different from the other self. 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."(Ch.14) She had no choice but to conform to society, realizing that now is her only chance to create something of her own. It seems that throughout the story, she never really has a true identity until she wakes up from the dream she has been living. The sea is her Opportunity and she must swim until there is nothing left.
So if we’re going to use the Heilburn Definition of power, let’s first establish why there might be any uncertainties about Edna and power. If the question regarding whether Edna has power or not even needs to be asked – which the assignment, the book, and the reader clearly do ask – then the next step would be to ask a question of that question: Why ask this? What could possibly be the reason why this topic was chosen about Edna amongst any others? Why is the defining struggle of her character the difference between whether or not she has power? Is it because she’s a woman, residing in the shadows of men who don’t listen to her and who consider her a “valuable piece of property” (Ch 1)? She’s married to a man who is more concerned with his “financial integrity” and his “business prospects” (Ch 32) than his wife’s struggle to break free. She’s expected to abide by societal rules which would certainly diminish her human power, but does she choose to abide by them? Perhaps the reason her power is in question is because she is unable to balance her “outward existence which conforms (and) the inward life which questions” (Ch 7). She is unsure whether to follow her true desires for Robert or not, and even when she does, she is let down by him multiple times. It is difficult to call that power, but it is difficult to call it weakness as well, seeing as how she does choose for herself.
Now that we know the reasons why we’re asking the question at hand, let’s go back to our definition. “Power is the ability to take one’s place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one’s part matter.” Moving out of her house against Mr. Pontellier’s wishes certainly makes herself matter. She is finally putting herself above her relationship and assuming the role of an individual woman. It was also clearly an action that she needed to take before her relationship, and her spirit, completely fell apart. She also chooses to pursue her desire to make art, a pursuit she could never make – or even dream of making – while she was living beneath her husband. So yes, she does have power. However, there is a difference between having the power and using the power to free herself. She leaves Mr. Pontellier but ends up falling for another man, Robert. She falls for a man that she clearly loves, who obviously cares for her and listens to her, and yet he still disappoints her. She cannot make a lasting connection with him, nor with Alcee, because she is still torn between the inner and outer self. She has awakened to her desires but not to the fact that she may never find the man for her. Yet she persists because she needs the relationship, and she has the power to forge one. But from that relationship she needs freedom, and it is difficult for her to find that with the relationships she attempts. She may be more of an individual, but she still relies on love, a love that she can never get. That is why she may have power, but she cannot have both power and freedom.
As James Brown once said, “It’s a man’s world”, and Edna Pontellier finds herself trapped in this world and it seems she cannot escape. In this book Kate Chopin is emphasizing the role that women have played throughout the centuries and the struggle they go through in order to break this form that has shaped the way they live. Edna is held down by her title as “Mrs. Pontellier”, the wife that has married Mr. Pontellier and has served and catered to him since the marriage, like any other housewife. Edna begins her pursuit towards enlightenment and freedom but finds herself restricted by the expectations of society and is realizing the choice she has to make.
Mrs. Pontellier has been living the life expected of her since she married Mr. Pontellier, using art as her only way to express herself. I believe in the years before meeting Robert and Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna has used her art and paintings as the only way to express herself. Edna grows closer to Robert and begins to liberate herself and give herself the freedom as the chords of Mademoiselle Reisz send “a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier’s spinal column.”(pg. 34) This music gave Edna a feeling of empowerment as she watched another woman play this beautiful music and receive a type of freedom that is rare for a woman to have. Hearing this song is only the beginning of Edna being awakened and realizing the power that she possess and change her life with.
As Edna continues to free herself she also begins to realize the risks she runs while obtaining this freedom. She sees Robert as her way to freedom for he is the one man that actually listens to what she has to say and gives her power in that way. While she is slowly gaining power over society’s ideal of the woman and “wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before”(pg. 37), there is danger in this life. She sees how easy it is to become lost and how the “water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome.”(pg.37) Edna finds herself in a struggle between independence and conformity, in which one she is lost in the vast openness of freedom, and the other she is lost among the others around her and becomes just “another empty smile”(K.H.M.)
Edna is on her way to gaining the power that she wants and needs, but she must realize the balance she must obtain in order to remain a part of the society while still making a difference.
I do not believe that Edna possesses power according to Heilburn’s definition of it. It cannot be said that Edna can never have power in the society she lives in, but in most cases she does not have power.
Edna’s awareness of her place in the social structure of her time and how constrictive it is gives her an internal source of power; however, she still does not have the sort of power that allows her to play a meaningful role when around others. Her husband recognizes her change in character, but her increasing independence does not make him consider the unequal gender roles in society. Instead, he only sees a doctor about her, saying that “’she’s got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women’.” (118) His skepticism displays the fact that Edna’s awakening does not awaken her husband to the same ideas; he perceives her behavior as childish. A similar situation happens with Edna’s father; when Edna will not attend her sister’s wedding, her father blames Mr. Pontellier. The colonel says that Mr. Pontellier must “’put [his] foot down good and hard; the only way to manage a wife’.” (125) Edna’s new assertion of personal will elicits an authoritative reaction from her father. Just like her husband, Edna’s father is not inclined to take her new behavior seriously.
Besides equality, the one thing that Edna realizes she wants as a result of her consciousness is to be with Robert. However, even in her newly awakened state, she is unable to do so. She says that “there was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert.” (175) Robert was aware of this, but her opinion ultimately did not matter because he left her anyway. Her family was the reason he left her, as “the children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days.” (175) Since the decisions she made when following society’s expectations with a submissive character still remained with her, they still figuratively enslaved her. She did not achieve her greatest desire through her newfound personal power, therefore she cannot have power according to Heilburn’s definition of it.
If Edna did have Heilburn’s definition of power, she would feel more accomplished since her opinions would be taken into consideration. However, Edna does not display this feeling. Sometimes, Edna felt “as if life were passing by, leaving its promise broken and unfulfilled.” (127) Her life does not feel fulfilled even though she is acting on her impulses and personal wishes. Her life would be more completely fulfilled if her thoughts mattered to others. Edna’s unsuccessful attempt at equality with men eventually leads to her drowning literally and figuratively. Her previous unheard of ideas put her in a compromising position with society, and society wins the battle. “The shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone” (176), so she could do nothing but drown. Edna never acquired Heilburn’s definition of power, but she kept fighting against society’s rules until she herself could do no more.
I think Edna possesses the power that is necessary to make her life matter. Even though her husband and the other men in her life exercise control over Edna, she still finds she can give her life meaning and color. During her stay on Grand Isle she discovers that she has the ability to defy her husband and take control of her own life. Edna “[realizes] her position in the universe as a human being” (17), takes that knowledge, and begins to act on it and improve it. After leaving the island “she [begins] to do as she [likes] and feel as she [likes]” (74), first by dropping her Tuesday obligations and then by starting to paint and become an artist. While creating her art she is “happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color” (76). Her paintings enable her to feel free and give her life the happiness that gives it meaning. When Mr. Pontellier leaves for New York her power expands. She is still able to do whatever she pleases, but no one attempts to limit or control her. She separates herself even more from her husband and his power over her by moving into her own house, which she pays for on her own. Edna promises that she will “never again to belong to another than herself” (106). She knows that if she is ever to be and remain happy, she has to take complete command over her life. Everything she does to make herself independent and increase her power over her life “[adds] to her strength and expansion as an individual” (124). The strength of her character and her being adds to the power she possesses. By being an individual, instead of a piece of Mr. Pontellier’s property, she shows others that she has power over herself and her life. Edna even declares to Robert that she is “no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose” (143). Edna makes her own decisions. She has the power to improve her life and to take control over her being.
I think Edna recognizes her value as both human being and a woman, and gains her power by defying her husband, and defying Robert to some extent, and taking control of her own life as an autonomous member of society, and finally taking the “essential action” to preserve her power, when she became too weakened to carry her own burdens and thus would rather submit to exhaustion in the ocean than return to land once she has tasted her own salted reality. During her stay at Grand Isle, Edna is in no way exempt or sheltered from the intense societal pattern forming amongst her fellow islanders, evidenced by Mr. Pontellier’s disregard for her internal and emotional needs, because she is a woman and his wife; by the “mother-women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (19); by Victor who chafes the women’s respect at Grand Isle with his open superiority; even by Robert himself who has to abide by the unspoken laws of the social structure even though his internal laws go against them. What Edna faces is a wall of obstacles, coming from all different directions, yet she slowly realizes how ill-fitting her life is now, how she had mistaken freedom for aptitude in the life of a married mother. Edna derives power from first separating her internal life and external survival, and then bringing the internal life into expression across her exterior by means of creation. She produces sketches and paintings, but also produces her own freedom through actions defying her husband and other sources of societal presence. She is able to recognize the tragedy and entrapment of the “dual life—that outward existence with conforms, and then inward life which questions” (26) and finally awakens to her own desires, physical and emotional, driving until then her subconscious, and finally expressed overtly in her art and societal defiance. She makes the distinction between freedom and aptitude: freedom, as a woman, lover, artist, and distant member of society, is the true form of power originating in the head and heart and spreading outwards based on one’s internal law. Aptitude, she recognizes, is not freedom, but just a way of manipulating the powers of others for one’s own means, deriving true power neither from the existing institutions nor a personal source.
In the time period that Edna is living within the world is not geared towards female freedom and power, I’m not even sure if that is what the world is like no a days. It seems to be overrun with men. You asked us to think about the amount of power and control that Edna has in her life. It isn’t very much. She is living in a very tight and structured lifestyle where her entire life she has been living in a house with a male figure. She grew up in her father’s household, the colonel, and she lived under the roof of Mr. Pontellier.
It is debatable for me to say weather or not that Edna possesses power. I think that in her life there isn’t much power. The one place she is free to have power is in her mind and with her children. Mr. Pontellier doesn’t expect for Edna or any other woman to have power. He takes badly to Edna leaving the house on Tuesdays, thinking that she should stay in and answer her calls.
The world that the Pontellier’s live in, it is not expected for females to have any power. They are looked down upon if they do. Edna is trapped in a powerless world. She is bent over and suffering from living in this way.
Heilburn’s definition of power saying that: “Power is the ability to take one’s place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one’s part matter,” does not fit Edna’s life style. Edna is completely caged compared to this. She even has recurring thoughts about birds, and starts to compare herself to them.
Edna wants freedom. She wants to be powerful and have some say in her life. She “wishes to swim far out, where no woman has swum before “ (47). This shows that she is looking to have some hold on her life. Until Edna finds that, she is lost. Will she find some way to escape and grab some hold of self-respect and freedom. She can’t be run over by Mr. Pontellier and the other men in her life who she allows to break her down so easily. Edna has realized how she is incapable of gaining power and goes out to search for it.
Whitney Pasternack
Edna does awaken, but awakening brings her no joy. Each truth she awakens to, while bestowing her with a new freedom, leaves her also with the pain of realization, bringing the tragedy of her own life into higher clarity. She pays a high price for the truth. She cannot live truly in her old life, but once she becomes aware of what she really wants, she must also learn that she can’t really have it. It’s like Oedipus Rex, or Malcolm X. The examined life is painful. The unexamined life is not worth living. The long process of Edna’s awakening, while seemingly hopeful, is in fact destined to only bring her pain. She couldn’t have survived at the end of this book.
Edna awakens in stages, so there isn’t precisely a single moment when she awakens, but many. Her first realization is about her own imprisonment. Mr. Pontellier and the responsibility he lays on her towards her children form the bars of her cage. She literally rises from bed and at the same times becomes aware of “an indescribable oppression” (179) which “filled her whole being with vague anguish.” At this moment, the illusion of her perfect marriage is broken. She loses the ability to reconcile what she thinks she should be- a wife, a mother- with who she truly is. Another moment of awakening comes listening to Mademoiselle Reisz play piano. In this moment, “the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it” (210). She feels true emotion for what might be the first time. Edna’s awareness is dawning. When she returns to New Orleans, she has her first “taste of life’s delirium” (258). She gains several important degrees of freedom, from society, her children, and her husband, by removing herself from her house. She has been alive, but not truly living since her childhood. She is honest with herself. At this point in her awakening, has already accomplished more than her husband can hope to understand: she feels, she sees, she acts. She does not understand.
Understanding for Edna comes later in her awakening. She knows what she wants: her independence, to do as she pleases with whom she pleases, and to share something real- sex, life, love- with Robert. This vision of herself at some later point in life with Robert drives her, but at some level, but she begins to feel a “sense of the unattainable” (310) regarding “the beloved one” (309), Robert. The things which she thought she had escaped by moving to the pigeon house have a far deeper hold on her than she originally realized. Edna is no longer a child, able to run free in a sea of opportunity. She has made her choices. Unlike the two lovers she sees on Grand Isle in the children’s building, or Robert, who lives with his mother and pursues his interests as he pleases, Edna has responsibilities. She has been webbed into a net of obligations, some of which she can’t even bring herself to desire to be rid of, such as her two small boys. They are inescapable. When Robert leaves her, she comes to an even worse conclusion: she will forever be at the mercy of decisions made about her life without her input. Robert left her because he loved her. It is her sexuality that became her vulnerability. Ultimately, it’s her own femaleness which shatters her dreams. This is the day she truly awakes, and she “[is] still awake in the morning” (346), unable to return to the “illusions” (344) her inner, childish nature provided. The dream she is awakening from, then, is not merely imposed on her by society, like the sleepy vestiges of conformity she shook off herself in Grand Isle, but an unrealistic ideal of her own creation. Hopefulness is lost to her, and the sense f the unattainable finally cements. She has no reason left to live. She cannot return to her old life, nor can she press forward into a new one. For Edna, there is no life at all. She is already dead when the sea closes over her head.
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