Edna’s Revolt through the Homosexual Disposition: The Awakening
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The Awakening is a transversive and controversial literary work that challenges male-centered ideology regarding femininity, where women are considered to be wives and mothers whose duties and responsibilities revolve around everyone but themselves. Children and husbands are placed above self, and as a result personal pursuits and happiness are sacrificed. Edna, through the homosexual disposition, rejects these limiting roles through the nurturing relationships of her female friends, Adèle and Reisz. Adèle, who is passive and self-sacrificing, and Reisz, who is self-reliant, raise sexual consciousness in Edna, through which she becomes an active agent in her pursuit for sexual independence. Dissatisfied with her husband emotionally and sexually, Edna rejects Léonce in pursuit of her own physical pleasures, while also satisfying herself emotionally with her bonds and love among her female friends. Edna’s rejection of the idealized woman creates a dilemma which Edna eventually chooses suicide as a response to the sexual prejudice and limitations she faced among both men and women of her time. But what is of importance is that her self-destruction is not an act of weakness, but a powerful resolution not to negotiate with the patriarchal hegemony. Through her self-destruction, Edna seeks a third world where sexual prejudice is non-existent.
Abstract
The Awakening is a transversive and controversial literary work that challenges male-centered ideology regarding femininity, where women are considered to be wives and mothers whose duties and responsibilities revolve around everyone but themselves. Children and husbands are placed above self, and as a result personal pursuits and happiness are sacrificed. Edna, through the homosexual disposition, rejects these limiting roles through the nurturing relationships of her female friends, Adèle and Reisz. Adèle, who is passive and self-sacrificing, and Reisz, who is self-reliant, raise sexual consciousness in Edna, through which she becomes an active agent in her pursuit for sexual independence. Dissatisfied with her husband emotionally and sexually, Edna rejects Léonce in pursuit of her own physical pleasures, while also satisfying herself emotionally with her bonds and love among her female friends. Edna’s rejection of the idealized woman creates a dilemma which Edna eventually chooses suicide as a response to the sexual prejudice and limitations she faced among both men and women of her time. But what is of importance is that her self-destruction is not an act of weakness, but a powerful resolution not to negotiate with the patriarchal hegemony. Through her self-destruction, Edna seeks a third world where sexual prejudice is non-existent.
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