The Awakening

A detailed Summary of The Awakening

Women of the 19th-century America were very much under patriarchy control. They were under control of their father, brother, husband, or other male relative, for most or all of their lives. Edna Pontellier learned this first hand first from her father, then her husband then from her lovers.

The first hint you get of Edna's father controlling her is in her statement, "and I was running away from prayers, ...read in a spirit of gloom by my father that chills me yet to think of." She daydreamed a lot of a knight in shining armor taking her away from her father and life, as she knew it. Edna was very tired of her father's control, that when Leonce Pontellier came around and fell in love with her she married him. Edna's father disliked Leonce very much, "Add to this violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier..." Thus Edna married Leonce, because

Now Alcee Arobin liked to control women through sex. He needed that control weather the woman was married or single. I think he was dejected when she told him she did not want to see him anymore.

With Robert Lebrun the control is a little hard to see. But the story shows he wishes for control over her just by his reaction when she said "I give myself (body and soul) where I choose." His reaction tells it all. He was very shocked that she wanted the freedom to choose whom ever she wanted, and did not want the control of just one man. Robert showed that he could not handle that decision when he left her the note. "I love you. Good-by-because I love you" I think he wanted to keep that love, and not destroy it. So basically if he could not control her he could not have her.

In the end I do not think Edna could stand fighting the control of men, that is why she committed suicide. After all the men she had been with (and not just sexually) she seen that they all wanted to control her in so

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pontellier Edna, Alcee Arobin, Edna Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, Leonce Add, Awakening Women, Leonce Pontellier, edna's father, father husband, married leonce, control leonce,

Approximate Word count = 678
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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The Awakening

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