Kate Chopin: Part 2

Francis Espiritu

ENGL 48B
March 2, 2011

Chopin Journal

Author Quote: "'Good by, because, I love you.' He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand. Perhaps Doctor Mandeler would have understood if she had seen him, bit it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone" (Chopin 625).

Internet Quote: "Edna is devastated. She goes immediately back to Grand Isle, where she first met Robert Lebrun. It is also where she learned to swim earlier in the novel, an episode that was both exhilarating and terrifying, and an episode that perfectly encapsulated the conflicting emotions she wrestled with during the course of the novel. The novel ends with Edna allowing herself to be overtaken by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico" (Wikipedia; The Awakening)

Summary: Edna swims out into the ocean thinking about everything from her marriage to Leonce Pontellier and her children, to her father. Yet ultimately the final thing she thinks of is Robert and the note he left her inside the Pigeon House. She pretty much feels that Robert would never understand her, and with that she eventually grows tired and is washed away by the ocean tides.

Personal Opinion: I believe that Edna shouldn't have gone into the water. If she could have seen Robert's view on their relationship, then hopefully she would have understood what he was trying to do. I don't think that he was being selfish or playing hard to get with her. If anything, I think that he was showing her that he loved her to the point that he was doing what was best for the both of them. I was once told that "True love is being able to let go of that person" and with that I think that he was showing her true love. Yet I believe that with their "cultural differences", Edna being a "Conservative" Southern Belle, and Robert being a Creole, I think that they tried to act the way the other assumed they would act. Robert tried to be the Conservative, and Edna tried to be like other Creole women, yet ultimately it was that misunderstanding that brought Edna to her death.