Kate Chopin is often considered the first literary voice of the feminist movement, writing years before the beginning of the movement in the United States. In the time period in which Chopin wrote, “feminine” was the only description of women yet to exist. Undoubtedly, “The Awakening” is a clear break, a rebellion from the feminine view. Living in the post-feminist era, we now have better ways of defining female writers. When criticized during the feminist phase, “feminist” was the best known description of Edna and her behavior. Now, as society has developed even further, Chopin’s ideas can be viewed as more than feminist, stretching into the 21^st century definition of woman as simply “female.” Though Edna is often hailed as the first voice of feminism, writing years before these constructs of woman’s place was accepted, Chopin was actually even more revolutionary: acting under the phase Elaine Showalter coined the “female” phase. Without question, “The Awakening” had a profound effect on feminist literature, but Chopin’s attitude of the “female” phase can be seen in Edna’s relationships with women, men, her children, and the controversial ending of the novel.

By looking first at the differences Showalter outlines about the phases of feminism, and then applying them to Edna in “The Awakening,” we begin to see Edna as more than a feminist revolutionary. “In her text A Literature of their Own Elaine Showalter chronicles three historical phases of female writing: the “feminine” phase (1840-1880), the “feminist” phase (1880-1970), and the “female” phase (1970-present). During the “feminine” phase writers accepted the prevailing social constructs that defined women. Men in the feminine phase were dominant while women were seen as child-like. It was during this phase that “The Awakening” was written and so highly controversial. Edna was not a woman who accepted her position is society. During the “feminist” phase, writers dramatize the plight of the “slighted” woman, depicting the harsh and often cruel treatment of “female” characters at the hands of the more powerful male. Edna was not a “slighted” woman. She did as she pleased. Chopin did not create this character to expose the treatment of women, but created Edna to dramatize an awakening to individuality. In the female phase, writers reject the concepts of the “feminine” and “feminist” phase. “Female” writers now concern themselves with developing peculiarly female understanding of the female position in art. As Kolodny explains, an exacting definition of feminist criticism has yet to be created. But, as Virginia Woolf suggests, “there is such thing as female consciousness and women writers must evolve a style appropriate to that consciousness.” That women experience the world differently from men is a point we no longer debate. Feminism seems more of a social movement than an actual theory though it seems to begin with the assumption that females are considered the unprivileged in the male/female binary. The “female” phase begins with the denial that this binary is legitimate and understanding the demand of equality. Since feminism came from a state of female inequality, it has a more negative view of women’s position than does the female phase. Chopin certainly did not portray Edna as feeling she is unprivileged in her mind, though society did not accept the place she demanded to be. Feminism is described by Gray as “a resistance to obstacles to female fulfillment. Self-ownership connoted a woman‘s right to have possession of her own fully realized identity.” Edna as an individual woman is gaining fulfillment without fighting the powers that be (the system, if you will) for such fulfillment. The second part, of self-ownership is an idea held in both the feminist and female phase, so Edna’s desire can be defined as both. Writing in the 1970s Kolodny describes the feminist character created during the movement: “character after character is depicted discovering herself or finding some part of herself in activities she has not planned or in situations she cannot fully comprehend.” (Kolodny, 79) Feminist writers used Edna’s character to shape their characters, making it easy to assume that Chopin was the first feminist writer. But looking at Edna’s behavior reveals a “female” creation of woman. Kolodny describes feminists as always feeling alien or outside the social construct. (76) Where feminists feel alienated, those working under the female phase feel a sense of belonging simply because they are human beings. To the “female,” a sense of belonging is not just based on sex. Kolodny also points out that as a society progresses, it alters what is considered appropriate. As society changes, so changes what is acceptable in art and literature. (77) The feminist movement was simply the change in society that brought this book into the spotlight. The change to the female phase gives “The Awakening” an even more fitting place. Kate Chopin is among the first of the “female” literary voices.

Upon closer examination, most of Edna’s behaviors on her journey may be viewed as “female” as opposed to “feminist.” Edna is greatly influenced by two women, Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. Both women highlight a feature of herself that Edna finds interesting, attractive and disgusting after her awakening to independence. Murihead and Gray, as well as Chopin in the text, describe Adele Ratignolle as a “mother-woman:”

“They were women who idealized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals.” (Chopin, 10) Ratignolle is completely devoted to her husband and her children, devoid of freedom or independence outside the social constraints of her wife/mother role. Edna is enchanted by Madame Ratignolle who is content and happy in her home. Madame Ratignolle is Edna’s reminder of her responsibilities as a wife and mother. According to Murihead, “these reminders contribute to Edna’s feeling trapped. Edna is at a point in her life where she begins to realize that the romantic mythology surrounding marriage and motherhood is an ideological device functioning to entrap women into accepting an unfulfilling and limited role in society.” (Murihead, 52) Though Edna is attracted to the idea of Madame Ratignolle, she does not see herself as a mother-woman. Edna longs for relationships outside her family and she has independent ideas and feelings:

“Edna had once told Madame Ratignolle that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one. Then had followed a rather heated argument; the two women did not appear to understand each other or to be talking the same language.

“I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” (Chopin, 62)

This is the major difference between Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontiller: attitudes toward the family. Whether Edna loves her children is never in question, what is in question is “the children, as the danger and the temptation of belonging to the procession of mothers.” (Parvulescu, 485) Her children represent the danger of losing her independence. Even Leonce “reproached his wife for her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. “ (Chopin, 7) As Gray explains, “Edna is married to Leone and bears his children but cannot give herself over to them completely. Chopin writes Edna is “not a mother woman and feels free in their absence.” (60) She is relieved when they go to stay with family and she can enjoy her independence completely, but she is happy to see them when she goes to visit. Edna does not feel she should sacrifice her independence for her children or her husband, nor does she feel she should be expected to, as was the social norm for women at the time. Madame Ratignolle’s limited existence exemplifies what a “mother-woman,” a woman operating under the influences of the “feminine” phase, completely content and happy to be submissive, and domestic.

Mademoiselle Reisz in being an artist chooses self-alienation. She is Edna’s “only access to feminist discourse.” (Murihead, 48) She is the binary opposition of the hegemonic ideal of female beauty: Madame Ratignolle. Mademoiselle Reisz is ugly, lonely, and described as a “disagreeable little woman.” (Chopin, 79) Though she is not the mother-woman, Reisz position is still socially accepted in society. Gray explains Mademoiselle Reisz’ position, “If a woman is outside of the traditionally feminine, and is not marked as sexual, she is not disruptive to the binary relationship of dominance and subordination. Rather, she is outside of the relationship, and if she chooses to advocate autonomous selfhood, she is not threatening to hegemonic ideology.” Though Edna is captivated by the self-assurance and independence that Mademoiselle Reisz possesses, she is not ready to give up. Edna is a sensual being. She enjoys her friends, her men and her beauty. Edna is attracted to aspects of each woman. She finds herself somewhere in the middle, part mother-woman and part artist-woman, needing parts and influences from both to be complete. Notice in Edna’s description of completeness is not a husband, but companionship and sex, independence and friendship. She wants the best of both.

Edna wishes to be a free-woman. The space she chooses allows her to be both freely sexual and an individual, which makes it dangerous to the binary of dominance and subordination. Gray points out that the free-woman and the artist-woman partially overlap because both reject the interpellation of females as objects. (62) Edna says: “I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘here Robert, take her and be happy, she is yours; I should laugh at you both.” (Chopin, 142) The social norm of her time is that she was a possession. She is now refusing to acknowledge this idea. This is a revolutionary idea but a feminist would say “I need no man.” Edna does need her men, well, at least their companionship. They make her feel good about herself and she enjoys the attention. She is simply refusing to belong to one. She is reversing the binary of her time assuming the role of having the choice. She also challenges marriage and the status of women.

In being a free woman, Edna attempts to use language to reposition herself socially, especially in relation to the men in her social circle but also in relation to female characters. Edna is a revolutionary thinker, and though she acts on her impulses, she never speaks of herself as feeling inferior to anyone. She does not behave as a feminist, she behaves as a female, equal to and independent from men and women, though her relationships are a bit confusing. Though she is in love with Robert Leburn, she is married to Leonce Pontiller and sexually involved with Alcee Arobin. She moves out of her husband’s house and refuses to attend her sister’s wedding, saying, “A wedding is one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth” (Chopin, 87). Her actions challenge assumptions her society held about marriage and the status of women. She is also learning to use her female voice. “She is not fully used to telling men what to do, and her voice indicates her uncertainty in a position of authority. Edna is afraid of not being taken seriously.” (Murihead, 47) For a woman of Edna’s social status to work would imply her husband’s inadequacies. Edna chooses to become an artist and sell her sketches. She feels that as a human being, she should be able to be self-sustaining, and do something she enjoys. A feminist would be expected to explain Edna’s actions as a statement; though her action did make a statement, she did not do it to make a statement. Edna’s husband also views Edna as his property, which makes it confusing and difficult for Leonce when Edna refuses him. While at Grand Isle, she refuses to go to bed with Leonce: “Her resistance signifies ownership of her sexuality through refusing to have sex with her husband. She again asserts self ownership by resisting the roles of wife and the refusal to wear her wedding ring.” (Gray, 61) Parvulescu has an interesting view of Edna’s denial of traditional marriage. “The dinner party she devotes to herself to organizing thus becomes a reversed wedding that marks her departure from the grotto as matrimonial pandemonium.” (Parvulescu, 479) This party is like the anti-wedding.

After Edna moves out of her husband’s house and sends her children away, she has an affair with Alcee Arobin. “Autonomy is at stake when Edna resists Arobin’s attempts to be with her too often, for she fears losing her new-found independence from her husband to another man. Edna decides to have sex with Arobin, not because she loves him, but to fulfill a physical sexual desire. Edna “disassociates the two intoxicants usually brought together by tradition: love and sex. She tries them separately, as if to increase their power.” (Murihead, 46) Edna’s desire is to shift the balance of power. Her relationship with Arobin, as well as her relationship with her husband gives incredible examples of her desired power shift.

After working so hard to position herself with the upper hand to the men in her life, it does not seem reasonable for her to commit suicide. “Edna is closer to the experience of awakening at the beginning of the novel, before the series of intoxicants.” (Parvulescu, 485) When the revolutionary ideas first come to Edna, she is closer to understanding them than she is after she is tempted, and alone, and intoxicated by emotions and acting on her impulses. Still, she has had an awakening that can be described as her overcoming her fear of death, or the unknown. She realizes that at the beginning of her journey, she was afraid of herself, her feelings, her ideas, and death because it is a symbol of what is uncontrollable. Still, she seems to have worked too hard to give it up so easily. According to Higonnet, suicide is considered feminine, though suicide is “nowhere predominately a female problem. Women commit suicide roughly half as often as men.” (104) Chopin herself answered a question in a magazine about women in her society committing suicide. She wrote:

“The tendency to self-destruction is no more pronounced among society women than it ever was, according to my observation. The desire seems to come in waves, without warning, and soon passes away. The mere reading of a peculiar case of suicide may cause a highly nervous woman to take her own life in a similar manner, through morbid sympathy. But do not men do the same thing every day? Why all this talk about women?” (Toth, 120)

Edna was not depicted as a “highly nervous woman” or particularly “morbid.” Suicide seems as a way out that a hopeless woman may take, not a woman who is unafraid to go against societal norms to do what feels right. Parvulescu agrees that “suicide marks here a strong statement: woman is trapped, there is no way out. It does not make sense in the context of “struggle” carried throughout the book…She has come a long way; why stop here?” (487) Edna has struggled for her position, not given up on herself or her ability to rise above the oppression of her society. Edna has too much to live for to kill herself. Instead, she pushes herself to her limits in her final swim to illustrate how much stronger she has become.

Kate Chopin was a revolutionary writer, whose ideas were years ahead of those of her contemporaries. Her notebook title for “The Awakening” was “A Solitary Soul.” According to Parvulescu, “Edna’s experience has often been understood as an expression of individualism, either masculine or feminine.” (491) Edna’s idea of individualism does not entertain any differences between the sexes concerning their right to be free. This equality, and rejection of the male/female binary, is “female” rather than “feminist.” Notice Chopin choose the word “soul,” which is neither masculine nor feminine. A feminist would be expected to choose a female-favored word; maybe their title would’ve been “A Solitary Woman.” This argument is one Chopin must have foreseen, and changed the name to be more ambiguous. “The Awakening,” is an awakening to individuality, to freedom and to social definitions, whether respected or denied. Through Edna’s relationships with women, her children, and men, a “female” phase character has come from the feminine era.

Works Cited

Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice . Ed. Leah Jewell. New Jersey: Printice Hall, 2007.

Gray, Jennifer B. “The Escape of the “Sea”: Ideology and The Awakening.” Southern Literary Journal 37.1 (2004) : 53-73. Wilson Web . 11 Nov 2007 <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com>

Higonnet, Margaret. “Suicide: Representations of the Feminine in the Nineteenth Century.”Poetics Today 6.½ (1985) : 103-118. JSTOR . 11 Nov 2007 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=03335372%281985%296%3A1%2F2%3C1O3%3 ASROTF1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J>

Kolodny, Annette. “Some Notes on Defining a “Feminist Literary Criticism”.” Critical Inquiry 2.1 (1975) : 75-92. JSTOR . 11 Nov 2007 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00931896%28197523%292%3A1%3C75%3ASN ODA%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X>

Muirhead, Marion. “Articulation and Artistry: A Conversational Analysis of The Awakening.”Southern Literary Journal . Project MUSE . 11 Nov 2007.

Parvulescu, Anca. “To Die Laughing and the Laugh at Dying: Revisiting The Awakening.” New Literary History 36 (2005) : 477-495. Project MUSE . 11 Nov 2007.

Pontuale, Francesco. “The Awakening: Struggles Toward l’ecriture feminine.” The Mississippi Quarterly 50 (Winter 96-97) : 1-8. Wilson Web . 11 Nov 2007 <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/results_single_ftPES.jhtml>

Showalter, Elaine. “Women’s Time, Women’s Space: Writing the History of Feminist Criticism.”Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 3.½ (1984) : 29-43. JSTOR . 11 Nov 2007 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=07327730%28198421%2F23%293%3A1%2F2%3 C29%3AWTWSWT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G>

Toth, Emily. “Kate Chopin on Divine Love and Suicide: Two Rediscovered Articles.” American Literature 63.1 (1991) : 115-121. JSTOR . 11 Nov 2007 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00029831%28199103%2963%3A1%3C115%3A KCODLA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0>