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

Contradictory Impulses in Chopins The AwakeningEdna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the set down with Robert, she should in the first smudge have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses that compulsive her.A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly inside her,--the light which, showing the way, forbids it, (Chopin 34). The possibility of a life beyond the backdrop of motherhood, social custom, standards of femininity, and wifedom characterize Kate Chopins vision of her heroines awakening, exactly Ednas personal growth remains stifled by her inability to admit the contradictory impulses pulling her in different directions. Edna clearly envisions herself somewhere surrounded by mother-goddess figure Adele Ratignolle and the artist-spinster Mademoiselle Reisz, yet can not seem to transact a space that affords the luxury of love unspoiled by altruism and obligation. Ednas soul surfaces when she al lows herself to act on impulse over duty, but as Chopins words reveal, Mrs. Pontellier blindly fol...