In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the character Edna is by far the most enigmatic, despite being the main character we follow throughout the story. While we do understand most of her intentions, her reasoning is clouded, as many of the things she does in the novel are quite perplexing, the biggest of which being her suicide in the end, something many did not meet eye-to-eye with (including the critic George M. Spangler). While Edna’s true intentions lie in ambiguity, there is much to argue for whether or not her suicide was truly justified or merely some phoned-in ending, as well as her constant change of character later on in the story.
Edna’s suicide is believed to be because of her rejection by Robert. While Robert does admit to loving her in the note he left, he simply cannot be with her for reasons undisclosed. Edna, who now realizes that she cannot be with the man she truly fell in love with, appears to loose all meaning in life and becomes completely absent-minded for the rest of the story, eventually walking herself into the ocean. It is true that devoted love can have this effect on people, such as in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in which Juliet, after realizing Romeo poisoned himself and seeing that she no longer can be with him, decides to poison herself too. Juliet saw her life as meaningless without him, therefore what is the point in living? It is a clever plot device to show characters’ unrivaled devotion to one another, by making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their lover. This isn’t the case for Edna however, as her “undying” devotion can certainly be question (or at least the reasoning behind it).
Edna met Robert as she was at a vacation resort with her family. They immediately had an attraction for one another, making Robert decide to fixate his attention mostly on her, as he usually does with one particular woman every summer: “Since the age of fifteen…Robert each summer at Grand Isle had constituted himself the devoted attendant of some fair dame or damsel.” (Chopin, 11) As the story progresses, the attraction Edna has for Robert becomes more and more intense, with her heightened level of arousal (and her apparent readiness to have an affair, as seen with Alcée Arobin) peaking when Robert leaves for Mexico. Upon his arrival back at New Orleans, the attraction shared before isn’t the same for Robert, which prompts him to leave and for Edna to become suicidal.
Edna’s sudden suicide brings up several questions, such as “Why hasn’t she done this before?” She admits to her friend Adèle Ratignolle that throughout her childhood and teenage years she’s had several intense crushes and infatuations with young men. How is her sudden love for Robert any different from her previous infatuations? How come she wasn’t suicidal when all those previous encounters suddenly ended? During the story, she also starts an affair with a gentleman famous in New Orleans as a bit of a swinger (Alcée), who she also manages to have no infatuating or suicidal attachment for. Also, to accept her husband Léonce’s initial advances (before marriage), one would assume that at one point she would have an intense infatuation with him also, or else Edna probably wouldn’t have become involved with him. How come after realizing how distant her marriage was starting to become, due to all the trips her husband would go on, she wasn’t at all upset, but the thought of Robert leaving left her in a depressed rage? What unexplained quality did Robert have which triggered this psychotic emotion that all the other men, including her own husband simply could not give?
Critic George M. Spangler describes Edna as having “inconsistent characterization, which asks the reader to accept a different and diminished Edna from the one developed so impressively before.” (Spangler, 209) The errors made by Chopin while crafting Edna’s character can certainly be an explanation for all of her loose intentions, however the problem may lie in Edna herself. Edna’s constant changing of attitudes which becomes more apparent as the story progresses suggests a developing case of bipolar disorder. Bipolar is defined as “a major affective disorder that is characterized by episodes of mania and depression.” It is a disorder with a wide range of effects, many of which can be related back to Edna. Her sudden fixation with sketching and piano music (which led her often to tears, minutes after she had a normal conversation with Mademoiselle Reisz) hints she’s bipolar as many people who have it become deeply involved with the arts. Her constant attitude changes toward the end fulfill the requirements for having it, as seen when she’s happy while with Robert and extremely depressed when she’s with her family or around the house or even alone. Several studies also show that people who are bipolar are more prone to suicide, which would explain her abrupt death at the end. This could also explain why she finds Robert more appealing and more worth her devotion than the other men in her life, since Robert is the one which causes her to become happy. Without him, she’s depressed. Without him, there are fewer positive mood swings and more moping around the house. While Chopin could have made errors in making Edna, bipolar disorder seems to fill in whatever she left open.
Several things in Chopin’s story seem to occur without reason or a satisfactory explanation. Normally this would leave room for critics and readers to argue what some characters’ true intentions are, but this sadly isn’t the case for Edna. Her lack of intention and reasoning leaves much for the reader to decide, leaving a sturdy argument for Edna to have a developing case of bipolar disorder throughout the story. Although this remains as a possible explanation for Edna’s problems, there are simply too many loose ends surrounding her actions and intentions, making Edna a true flawed character.
Sources:
Brandt, Lena. “Excess Mortality in Bipolar and Unipolar Disorder in Sweden.” Archives of General Psychiatry. 09 2001. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 15 Apr 2008 .
-In reference to Bipolar and suicide.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Second. New York: Norton & Company, 1994, 1976.
-Main text
Spangler, M. George. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: A Partial Dissent. Novel 3 (Spring 1970): 245-55.
-Original print of Spangler’s essay.
