Blog #5 Erin Walker

Question: How does Edna reject the ideal family structure and values of the 1900’s?

 

The family structure that reigned during the 1900s focused on the distinct roles of the mother and the father.  The father was supposed to be the provider.  He was to work and bring in an income to support his family.  The wives and mothers in the family had the sole responsibility to care for the home and their children.  The mother’s power in the household would be secondary to the father’s authoritative status.  In many families of the 1900s, the wife/mother was seen as an object of the father’s, which would further place the wife/mother in a powerless position.  Throughout the novel The Awakening, Edna rejects the objectification of most women in family structures.  Not only does Edna refuse to be identified as the mother of her children (she loves her children very much, but would not give up herself for your children), but Edna also moves out of the home to further challenge the “ideal” physical familial structure.  Edna seeks to find her own identity through her self-discovery rather than following the trend of letting her other family members define who she is.  Although the other characters of the book deem Leonce, Edna’s husband, to be the best husband in the world, Edna disagrees.  Perhaps most women find him to be the best husband because he adheres to the definition of husband/father of the 1900’s.  However, as Edna seeks autonomy and independence as a woman (rather than the notion of the “mother-woman”), she is repelled by Leonce’s behavior and contribution to the objectification of women.  Chopin also includes the fact that Edna married out of obligation, which sets the stage for Edna’s rejection of the presiding norms revolving around familial structure and relationships.  Through her actions, Edna clearly rejects the subservient, passive nature of the woman-mother figure that is idolized in the early 1900s.