The Strange Demise of Edna Pontellier
1991; University of North Carolina Press; Volume: 23; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1534-1461
Autores Tópico(s)Literature, Musicology, and Cultural Analysis
ResumoFor long time, critics have been puzzled by the self-inflicted death of Pontellier, the heroine of Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899). At the end of her process of awakening, which begins with summer infatuation and leads to breakaway from the family home and from the role of wife and mother, is not victorious New Woman, leading independent life of spiritual and sensual fulfillment. She is quite simply dead, to the relief of contemporary commentators such as the unnamed author of the Book Reviews column in Public Opinion of 22 June 1899, who presents himself as the representative of the general reading public when he asserts that we are well satisfied when Mrs. Pontellier deliberately swims out to her death in the waters of the gulf. (1) The reason given is that comes across as unpleasant person, (2) selfish, adulterous woman for whom the author has failed to secure the reader's sympathy. This is view based on moral judgement about Edna's actions than close reading of the novel. The fact that the heroine of the book is the one focal character whose thoughts and emotions are described at great length is proof enough of an undercurrent of sympathy for Edna, which the more perceptive, though still disapproving, reviewer of the New Orleans Times-Democrat of 18 June detects. (3) Besides, does Pontellier really kill herself deliberately? The narrator suggests possible reasons in the final chapter, describing the heroine's thoughts in one of the moments of gloom to which she has been prone; however, there is disclaimer following close upon the one phrase that definitely seems to hint at what is to follow. One would have expected new paragraph to begin, as the narrative moves from flashback to actuality, from the preceding night to Edna's last day: the lack of such caesura makes the juxtaposition all the more striking: Despondency had come upon her there in the wakeful night, and had never lifted. There was no one thing in the world that she desired. There was no human being whom she wanted near except Robert; and she even realised that the day would come when he, too, and the thought of him would melt out of her existence, leaving her alone. 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. But she knew way to elude them. She was not thinking of these things when she walked down to the beach. (4) From this point onwards, there is no indication that is acting with deliberate intent to end her life there and then. She puts on her swimming costume and leaves her clothes in the bath-house, just as if she were going for a little swim, before dinner, (5) as she declares she will. Previously she has announced that she is hungry and stated her preference for the evening meal. This is perceived as sign of undiminished healthy appetite by the same critic who plainly states two pages earlier that Edna resolves to commit suicide, failing to remark upon her paradoxical behavior. (6) Is she intentionally deluding her addressee? I would suggest another explanation for the contradiction. In the final chapter, Pontellier is described as acting rather mechanically. (7) The thinking is over and done, though after all the reflections of the previous night, is not consciously carrying out plan but, rather, absent-mindedly walking towards her death. She is like somnambulist, mesmerised by her ultimate seducer, the sea, of which she would have been more wary if she--like the reader--had been made aware of the satanic quality in its voice by the plethora of sharp s sounds in the description: The water of the gulf stretched before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. …
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