The Awakening

The story of Edna is a strange story in itself. I understand her awakening and her new desires but there are things about her new discoveries that bother me. I don’t like how selfish she has become. I can see how she is not happy in her marriage and the life she has, but to abandon your children like that? That doesn’t make sense to me. If she is really that cold and selfish to just let them run off to a family member then she deserves to be alone!
Her relationship with Robert is strange as well. He rekindles all of these feeling and desires within her, but they never act upon it. I honestly expected something to happen between then. Well something physical, rather than just emotional. I wouldn’t want to live the way she lived. To be in a relationship and be just who that person wants you to be is just not right for either person. Her independence is being irresponsible to me. You can still be independent in a relationship. Perhaps not at that time period but she still could have handled things a little better.
I think the end of the novel is suiting. After she moves out and gets her own place she slowly, but surely, comes to the realization that with extreme independence comes loneliness. Robert couldn’t break free from society norms long enough to embrace the feelings he had for Edna, and she him. She didn’t want the life with her family anymore, and she just was plain lonely. Her suicide is cowardly in my book. She could have dealt with everything and moved on. She chose the life she wanted; now she can deal with it. There is a bit of sadness for her though as well. To be stuck in a life that is completely null and void of what you