Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: an exploration of Edna Pontellier’s transition during her Mid-Life Crisis

Abstract

In the context of 1890s hegemonic ideology of fin-de-siecle, America has witnessed the emergence of a new breed of women writers who dared to challenge and dismantle the rigid system of normative ethics and disregard the propriety code of society imposed by patriarchal doctrines. Among these forerunners was Kate Chopin, whose controversial texts broke new thematic ground at that time. Feminist critics have explored the portrayal of The Awakening’s protagonist as an icon of nineteenth-century women who struggled for autonomy and sexual freedom in an inhospitable Victorian society, but Edna Pontellier’s desires and actions appear to be more of manifestation of her psychology than of any need to change society’s attitudes towards women. This study intends to explore the psychological transitions of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening heroine in her middle age and to trace the stages in which Edna Pontellier experiences the feelings of Mid-Life Crisis through the eyes of Jung, Erikson and Myers Briggs model of human personality development.