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Thomas Bailey

Dr. Michael Hobbs

10-610: Intro. to Practical & Theoretical Criticism

October 11, 2010

In the Midst of Liberation, Things are Left Behind

Chopin’s The Awakening has the hallmarks of a novel interested in the liberation of

women. It relates the story of a woman who finds herself unable to conform to the expectations

of motherhood and wifedom. She finally escapes to a world of her own choosing and, when

even this is denied her, she makes one last choice that is entirely her own – suicide. A bare-bone

analysis takes the reader this far, but there is a subtle, parallel, and yet connected theme that is

missed if only the feminine mystique prevails.

Having come of age during the Civil War and being surround by Southern-culture, some

of those themes find their way into the narrative. It should not be a surprise then that the novel

takes place in New Orleans and its environs – the cultural capitol of the South – and that the

heroine’s father is a Confederate officer. Embedded into Chopin’s text are servant-characters

(no better than slaves), who are either African-American or Mulatto, and their treatment by Edna

Pontellier, the heroine, can be seen as a commentary on the struggle for feminine equality. She

too is trapped in the master-slave paradigm that keeps her femininity bound to her husband.

Equality that leaves anyone behind is not real; it merely readjusts the paradigm to allow the

continuation of oppression.

In this paper we will examine three characters: “the little black girl,” “the Quadroon,” and

Joe. On their own, they appear to be minor characters in the story. The young girl appears only

thrice – once working the treadle of Madame Lebrun’s sewing machine and the other two times
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as a messenger from Edna to Robert Lebrun and from Madame Lebrun to Edna. Joe’s three

appearances are: first, during the argument between Edna and Léonce Pontellier at the dining

table; second, working at Edna’s private residence; and third, in remembrance by the children.

The children’s nanny possess the biggest role of the servants, being mentioned throughout the

novel, generally in response to something she did not do correctly with the children. Each of

these characters however interacts with Edna at profound moments in the text.

Edna first encounters “the little negro girl” sweeping the galleries of the main house at

Grand Isle. It need be noted that she was specifically recalled as the girl who had been working

the sewing machine earlier (32). It calls one’s attention to the fact that she is a domestic, nothing

more, that her lot in life is merely to do that which she has been told and to do it

inconspicuously. She has been told to push the treadle with her hands (21), sweep the floors

(32), and carry messages (32 & 42). All of which she does obediently and swiftly and during

which conversations happen around in which she does not participate – one wonders if her life

would be any different if the story were set in the Antebellum South. However Edna in this

scene is making her first major push toward her own liberation. The narrator explains that “[s]he

had never sent for [Robert] before … never asked for him … never seemed to want him before”

and yet she was living purely in the moment of her own needs and desires (32). The young girl

is the catalyst; she bears the message, beckoning Robert to come with Edna on a pilgrimage to

the Isle of Cythera.

“The little negro girl” remains unnamed, Edna was unable to see beyond the predominant

master mentality; not seeing her as a woman who may desire her own freedom as well. Instead

she left her behind to continue to do only what she is told. The moment has passed and the next

and last time the girl is mentioned is to pull Edna back from her freedom. Madame Lebrun used
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the girl to summon Edna to sit with her until Robert leaves to go to Mexico (42). It is a return to

respectable womanhood, Robert and Edna chaperoned by the mature, proper madam. There is a

duty that comes with freedom and Edna recoiled to the only method she knew: the ordering of

people below her station, the same treatment that Léonce gives to Edna. Someone else took that

which she desired so greatly, her moment of freedom, away. Robert is therefore whisked away

like a mirage in the desert, to one who comes unprepared.

The other unnamed character, “the Quadroon”, is mentioned early in the text in

association with Edna’s children (4). Throughout the remainder of the novel, mention of the

children seems to go hand-in-hand with mentioning their nanny (4, 13, 42, 48, 51, and 69).

Through the internal dialogue at the beginning of chapter 4, it becomes apparent that the

nursemaid is the mother to Edna’s children that she herself is not. The narrator explains that

“[t]he mother-women seemed to prevail that summer … [i]t was easy to know them, fluttering

about with extend, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious

brood. They were women who idolized their children … and esteemed it a holy privilege to

efface themselves as individuals (9)” – in scene-after-scene that is what the au pair is doing. She

is caring for the Pontellier children as if they were her own.

In a strange twist of irony, it is “the Quadroon’s” presence that allows Edna the freedom

to pursue her own freedom. The nanny’s motherly-qualities creates within Edna a certain

jealousy of her for she is present to the children; they are maturing well, and yet the nursemaid is

also able to find time for herself – “The quadroon had vanished (39).” Two events mark this

emotive response by Edna in The Awakening. The first is shortly after Robert had informed

Edna that he was leaving for Mexico presently. “She went directly to her room. … She began

to set the toilet-stand to rights, grumbling at the negligence of the quadroon, who was in the
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adjoining room putting the children to bed (42).” The object of Edna’s perceived freedom,

Robert, was slipping from her grasp. The nanny, having decided to focus her priorities toward

the children at that moment, had neglected the periphery of a well-organized toilet – “the

Quadroon” had made a choice. Edna, consumed with her personal freedom and its loss, was

unable to recognize in her servant a kindred spirit longing for freedom. Instead she grumbles at

her lack of duty and “Edna sent the Quadroon away to her supper and told her not to return (42).”

The “patriarchal system” has been so ingrained into all the characters that Edna cannot be free to

appreciate the freedom and responsibility that “the Quadroon” has found. A duplicate event

occurs in the following chapter, only the particulars change. Edna had lost Robert, evidenced by

only the passing reference to her by Robert in Madame Lebrun’s letter, and the nursemaid

allowed the children to play in the sun. Edna scolds the governess “for not being more attentive

(45).”

The final character is the African-American steward named Joe. It gives pause for

speculation as to why this individual is one of the few servants who are named in the story. We

are only going to focus on Joe’s primary scene, though he is mentioned in two additional scenes,

which is at the dinner table, shortly after the Pontellier’s return from Grand Isle. He is first

referenced as “the boy in waiting” and later revealed as Joe (48-49). Joe is the exact opposite in

symbolism of “the little black girl” mentioned earlier. Instead of being the catalyst to an

opportunity for freedom, he is the symbol of the ancien régime. He is the one that answers the

door for the Tuesday callers and he collect their cards. When Léonce desired to know whom did

Edna not properly receive, Edna asked Joe to bring the cards. To show her disdain for the

activity of waiting on callers, she ordered, not requested, Joe to give it to her husband. She feels
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that she has found her freedom from the expectations that Léonce has placed upon her. Yet her

freedom came at a price, she is free because Joe must remain in bondage.

The male servant is never given the opportunity to be a free person in the text; he is

obedient, industrious (81), never in error, and dear to the children (90). In a way he is the

perfection of the womanhood from which Edna rebels. He is named because he is perfectly

controlled by the master. It is similar to the way Adam names those creatures of which he

controls in the book of Genesis (Genesis 2:19-20), naming his wife Eve only after the expulsion

from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:20). Edna is unable to take notice of Joe as an individual,

only as a person to serve someone else’s will. The cycle of repression remains and her freedom

is now at risk. The following morning Léonce makes his first observations about Edna’s health

(51) that will lead him to consider doing something about her – “she doesn't act well … [s]he's

odd, she's not like herself (62).”

Edna’s inability to see her own struggles for freedom as linked with the freedom of her

“slaves” is what makes a life of liberation impossible for her. Her greatest moments of freedom,

doing what she desires or wills in the end always comes to nothing. Even when she achieves her

greatest desire, Robert, all has been tainted by his belief that he can possess her in the same way

Léonce owned her (102). In a subtle way, The Awakening is not a novel solely about the sought

for liberation of women but the means too. To be free is never possible when others remain in

bondage or hidden; it only shifts the object to be imprisoned.

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Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. Print