The Awakening...LITERARY CRITICISM #4

The article, "Kate Chopin's Motherless Heroine" by Virginia Ross, further explores Edna Pontellier in The Awakening. The thesis that Ross illustrates to the readers is that Edna's character is shaped primarily by her true desire for a mother or mother figure in her life.
To support her claim, Ross shows that the symbol of the sea is related to Edna's longing for a mother because water is where all life comes from. In the novel, Chopin writes that Edna hears the water "like a mournful lullaby on the night" (7). The sea acts as a replacement for a mother in Edna's life. Edna feels detached from this part, therefore she feels an overwhelming attraction to the sea. Another example of Edna's true character and want for a mother is the fact that she, herself, does not nurture her children often. This is because she has never learned how to mother children since she never felt a mother's comfort or had a maternal role model to look up to and imitate. Therefore, she could never truly be the "mother-woman" her husband wanted her to be. However, she did have her friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, who is the epitome of a "mother-woman" because of her current pregnancy and the care for her children. Despite Mrs. Ratignolle's ideal personality as a mother figure for Edna, she is distracted and obligated to care for her children. Edna could also be feeling left out of the Ratignolle family because of their domestic bliss, and her lack there of. This feeling isn't a romantic longing, but more of a child's exclusion from her parents' intimacy. The final example Ross explains the desire of Edna for a mother is Edna's suicide. Edna's experience shows a feeling of abandonment, loss, and fear, which she most likely felt when she lost her mother. In Civilization and its Discontents, Freud writes about the possibility of a relationship when a mother is gone or inadequate, an individual may try to recreate an "inclusive, all-embracing bond with the universe." This proves that Edna felt hopeless and a desire to be comforted because she had no connections with anyone on the shore that she occasionally looked back to when out in the Gulf. Her lack of a mother's love causes her character traits and her eventual death.
I believe that the thesis was very well put forth because there were many examples that supported her claim. She had a variety of symbols, events, and people that helped the thesis come across clearly. I was pretty skeptical about her argument, but I do agree with the argument presented because the examples she gave really made sense. This was also a very interesting way of looking at this work of literature. I would've never thought about the lack of a maternal figure effecting Edna's personality. I think that it would be really interesting to further explore other possible examples that would prove this thesis that were only mentioned once in the article. For example the people that "abandoned" Edna, like Robert and Dr. Mandelet, seemed very concerned for Edna, but I wonder why they didn't try to really help her or why they never asked about her true feelings since she seemed guarded throughout her life.