I would like to say that I agree with the points that were mentioned in your article about the character Edna, from the book The Awakening. Part of the article states “At the very outset of the story one feels that the heroine should pray for deliverance from temptation…” as quoted from “Notes from Bookland” (13 May 1899). I completely agree with that quote. What Edna did by sleeping with both Robert, and Alcee was both morally and ethically wrong. It wasn’t just ethically wrong back then, and only in that culture, but it is ethically wrong today all around the world. In my opinion the greatest evil that besets her is one of lust. She finds she must fulfill her sexual desires, and she eventually does that.
That just shows that she is overcome by the evils that drive her. Her “evils” are of her own creating. Edna is the one who makes all the decisions she has full control over the actions she takes. She even says to herself, “Today it is Arobin; tomorrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me..” (123). That just shows that she knows what she is doing, and she has full control to stop herself, but she doesn’t.
Another quote from the article states, “…one thinks that her very suicide is in itself a prayer for deliverance from the evils that beset her, all of her own creating.” I don’t agree with this point. In my opinion, I think when Edna went into the water because she wanted to die, and she wanted to get rid of all her problems. That is why she drowned herself. It wasn’t just in the heat of the moment. As mentioned before she was fully aware of what she was doing, before she went into the water.
It is also stated in the book that right before she goes into the water she thinks to herself, “The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude them.” (123) That quote proves that her suicide wasn’t a prayer of deliverance. It just shows that she didn’t want forgiveness, instead she wanted to get away from her own children. She wanted to go as far as killing herself, just so she wouldn’t have to take care of her kids. That just shows how selfish Edna is. If one doesn’t sacrifice for their own children, than who else should they sacrifice for? In my opinion Edna didn’t want to sacrifice anything for anybody, that is why she decided to suicide, so she would have nothing left to sacrifice.
