The Awakening: Suicide is a Plot Cop-out Kaitlin Barr What awakens in The Awakening? I began this book with optimistic projections of perhaps a protagonist�s discovery of knowledge and the arousal of an intellect. Or, I thought, possibly it chronicled a main character�s journey to new endeavors, with maybe the development of an artistic aptitude or a musical ability. But no. The Awakening was a detailed chronology of burgeoning sexuality in a late-19th-century woman. The story follows her from a summer at the seashore, through an autumn and winter in the city. Edna Pontillier vacations with her family at the seaside. While there, she meets a young man, Robert, whose subtle flirting awakens in her a desire for something more than what she finds in her husband. At the end of the summer, Edna goes home, and Robert heads to Mexico. All throughout the fall and winter, she begins to disregard social conventions and throw off all sense of propriety in her life. She goes gallivanting through the city, neglects her husband and children, ignores callers, and spends hours drawing and painting. Soon, her husband is called away to business out of town. Her mother-in-law requests the presence of the children at her home in the country. Edna finds herself alone. Gleefully, she whiles away days in unconventional company. Before long, she is accompanying a single man regularly. One day, on a whim, she decides to rent a small house at the end of her street. She moves in, abandoning her husband�s mansion for a cottage provided by her own money. During a night at her cottage, she impulsively, and passionately, kisses the single man, shedding any decency she had left. Robert, the young man from the seashore, suddenly returns to the city. His love for her, that has been festering all along, is made apparent, as is her love for him. On a night, alone in her cottage, they come incredibly close to actually having an affair. She is unexpectedly called away at the last minute. Despite her entreaties to Robert to wait up for her, her return home reveals an empty parlor. A note, �Good-by, because I love you� is all that she finds. Despondent, she returns to that same seashore that she had visited months before. Entering the seawater, her reflections reveal the futility of her forays into immorality. Realizing the instability of her infatuations and the ultimately unfulfilling ends they would bring, she drowns herself. Edna is an enigma. She has a devoted husband who dotes on her and gives her free range to follow any pursuits she wishes. She has two adorable children. She has a mansion and servants. She vacations regularly and has no monetary responsibilities. And yet, she is not happy. Edna breaks social barriers, rebelling, and roaming. She tries to divorce herself from her husband financially. She conducts rendezvous with other men. And yet, she is still not happy. So she commits suicide. How many literary characters have done the exact same thing? Not to mention the ridiculousness of it. How is death going to make you any happier? The end was a pathetic attempt of the author's to avoid any profoundly significant conclusions. Frankly, the entire novel was a waste of time. The last chapter was the only even slightly insightful portion. Edna considers the position her actions have brought her to. She knows that even if she were able to divorce her husband and run away with her would-be lover, she would not be satisfied. She knows that eventually she would desire something, or someone else. She would want a new challenge. Where does that leave her? In a state of hopelessness, obviously. The intelligent, rational person, would examine themselves, and the world around them, more thoroughly, and would most definitely come to the conclusion that there is a way to be satisfied. It is merely hinted at within the novel, though not accurately, in a pathetic scene of church-skipping. It, of course, is God. Literature, and life, is filled with people who are seeking something. They break social barriers, they rebel, they roam, and yet they don�t seem to find what they are looking for. But experience (and scientific studies) has found that devout people are often the most satisfied. When people realize that they have been created for a purpose, when they realize that there are guidelines set down for them that guarantee joy and satisfaction, they will have found what they are looking for. But not until then. |
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