Contradictory Impulses in Chopin’s The Awakening Essay -- Chopin Awake

Contradictory Impulses in Chopins The AwakeningEdna Pontellier could not have told why, deficiency to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two impertinent impulses that impelled her.A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,--the light which, showing the way, forbids it, (Chopin 34). The possibility of a life beyond the setting of motherhood, social custom, standards of femininity, and wifedom characterize Kate Chopins vision of her heroines awakening, but Ednas personal growth remains stifled by her inability to reconcile the unlike impulses pulling her in different directions. Edna clearly envisions herself somewhere between mother-goddess figure Adele Ratignolle and the artist-spinster Mademoiselle Reisz, yet can not seem to negotiate a piazza that affords the luxury of love unspoiled by self-sacrifice and obligation. Ednas soul surfaces when she allows herself t o act on impulse over duty, but as Chopins linguistic process reveal, Mrs. Pontellier blindly fol...