Critical Thinking Blog #1

The first time I read The Awakening I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, mainly because of the many dimensions of the story and its characters. What I found absolutely fascinating about Edna is the individuality she has and her ability to respond to her urges and passions, which I do not think we necessarily even possess today. Self-indulgence is a topic I’m absolutely fascinated with and the various consequences and winnings one has due to their self-indulgence. One passage that depicts her journey into independence states, “Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.” After reading The Awakening, I decided to try out such a lifestyle during my short time at USF, since I knew relatively no one and was not surrounded by family members, but sans marriage/children and still found it incredibly difficult. With a possible significant other and/or children, it seems highly implausible. Living with very little concern for others or not expressing that concern is extremely taxing. Edna does deal with a bit of guilt, but her friendship with Mademoiselle Reisz influences her to maintain her lifestyle.

The feminist undertones are blatantly obvious and certainly fitting due to the time period, but the situations within the text really apply to any gender. Men and women alike crave to indulge their intimate desires and passions, but cannot always do so due to societal, personal, and other limitations. I think we all are constantly being limited due to our various attributes and other ones that have been imposed on us. I'm not entirely sure how we are able to breakout fo this limitation in any other way than through our actions, but that makes one an outcast and, just as Mademoiselle Reisz warns Edna, it takes an extremely strong and brave person to due so without remorse. Therefore, I tend to think of Edna’s fate as extremely freeing—not just for herself to rid her of gender and societal limitations, but to also free everyone else of her (i.e. her husband from shame from other members of society, her children from her seclusion, Robert from the implausibility of their love) without having to cause more pain. We touched briefly upon this in class, but that is why I mainly think of her death as a fairly happy one and not as selfish as one might perceive. Something that I’ve always pondered, hypothetically, about The Awakening is if the “world” or “society” was better with or without Edna in it. I’m not entirely sure the answer to that, though.