The Awakening finale

Today in class we were discussing whether or not Edna's final end, her suicide, was an act of weakness or of courage. I unfortunately cannot decide which side I am on. I automatically view suicide as a weakness simply because of my personal beliefs. And in Edna's case I think that when Adele said "Think of the children" Edna didn't think of them or the people she would hurt, she thought of the child within her. She knew she'd gone too far against her normal life to go back to it, this is represented in the actual at of suicide. She'd swam too far out to go back. Her only choice was to end it there. The ambiguous part of her death is whether or not she did it intentionally. It leads the reader to believe that she knows what she's doing, but you have to wonder if she just got caught up in it all and swam so far she couldn't swim any more. Her weakness could also be seen in the possibility that she gave her life out of the grief of losing Robert, a tragic love story. However, this seems unlikely because it goes against the general theme of the novel. On the courageous side of the argument, it takes quite a bit of courage to take your own life. She may have seen that she was affecting her family and others negatively and it was simply the best solution to take herself out of the equation. I do not know for sure which side I am on, but I am leaning towards the side of weakness.

Victorian Women

As we learned about the stereotypical Victorian woman, or "Angel in the House", I realized one thing; I would personally go insane in this time period. The women had to be perfect and unselfish and quite honestly the worst part for me would be wearing the corset all the time. I have worn a corset before, and  the style itself is beautiful and amazing, but it does hurt after awhile. Feeling weak from lack of oxygen would not work out in my favor. Because I personally have such beliefs that are against Victorian ways, it is to be expected that throughout the novel The Awakening, I will be more inclined to agree with Edna Pontellier. She does not like the ways of society and she is unhappy with the lifestyle of being a mother-wife, this controversial belief makes Edna exactly what the people of her time do not want. She would be the equivalent of a black sheep amongst a flock of white sheep. There is something different about her. It seems really interesting to me that in our society  we praise individuality, and yet, Kate Chopin was chastised for her writings.