Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 3 - Edna Pontellier Battles The Forces Without Only To Meet The Forces Within!
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Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 3 - Edna Pontellier Battles The Forces Without Only To Meet The Forces Within!
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Hi, I\\u2019m Christy Shriver and we\\u2019re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.\\xa0
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I\\u2019m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.\\xa0 This is our third episode discussing Kate Chopin\\u2019s controversial novella, The Awakening.\\xa0 Week 1 we introduced Chopin, her life and the book itself.\\xa0 We talked about what a stir it made during her lifetime ultimately resulting in it being forgotten and then rediscovered midway through the 20th century.\\xa0 Last week, we spent all of our time on the vacation resort island of Grand Isle.\\xa0 We met Mr. ad Mrs. Pontellier, as well as the two women who represent got Edna, our protagonist, two alternating lifestyles.\\xa0 Edna Pontellier, we were quick to learn, is not a happily married woman.\\xa0 Her husband is outwardly kind to her, but readers are told outright that love and mutual respect was never part of the arrangement between these two.\\xa0 Edna is indulged by Mr. Pontellier, for sure.\\xa0 He gives her anything she wants in terms of money or material, but in exchange, she is his ornament, an expensive hobby, a pet even- something to be prized- or as Ibsen would describe it- a beautiful doll for his doll house.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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The story starts in the summer at the vacation resort town of Grand Isle, Louisiana.\\xa0 While vacationing on the island, Edna Pontellier experiences what Chopin terms \\u201cthe awakening\\u201d.\\xa0 She awakens to the understanding that she is not a pet or a doll in the doll house, and just like Nora in the The Doll\\u2019s House, she decides she really doesn\\u2019t want to be one anymore.\\xa0\\xa0
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No, I guess if that were the only thing to this story, we\\u2019d have to say, Sorry Kate, Ibsen beat you by about 20 years.\\xa0 In Ibsen\\u2019s story, Nora awakens when her husband, Torvald, turns on her over money.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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That\\u2019s a good point, what awakens Edna in this book is not a marital crisis over money.\\xa0 It is a crisis that awakens her, and it totally informs how she views her marriage, but it is a crisis concerning her husband at all that is the catalyst.\\xa0\\xa0 She is awakened to her own humanity by discovering her own sensuality.\\xa0 I want to highlight that this awakening isn\\u2019t overtly sexually provoked.\\xa0 No man comes in and seduces Edna; she does not go off with a wild vacation crew.\\xa0 She is left vulnerable, if you want to think about it that way, because of loveless marriage, but she is sensually and emotionally provoked through three\\xa0 very different relationships- all of which affect her physically as well as emotionally.\\xa0 The first is with a Creole woman, Adele Ratigntole, one with a younger Creole man, Robert LeBrun, and the third with the provocative music of Madame Reisz.\\xa0 Experiences with these three awaken something in Edna that encourages maybe even forces her to rebel- rebel against her husband, against the culture, against the person she has always been, against the roles she has played, against everything that she has ever known.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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The problem is- rebellion only takes you so far.\\xa0 You may know what you DON\\u2019T want, but does that help you understand what you DO?\\xa0 And this is Edna\\u2019s problem.\\xa0 Where do we go from here?\\xa0
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\\xa0And so, in chapter 17, we return with the Pontellier\\u2019s to their home in New Orleans.\\xa0 And, as we have suggested before, New Orleans is not like any other city in America, and it is in these cultural distinctives of Creole life at the turn of the century that Chopin situates our protagonist.\\xa0 But before we can understand some of the universal and psychological struggles Chopin so carefully sketches for us, we need to understand a little of the culture of this time period and this unusual place.\\xa0 Garry, tell us a little about this world.\\xa0 What is so special about Esplanade Street?\\xa0
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Well, one need only Google tourism New Orleans and a description of Esplanade street will be in the first lists of articles you run into.\\xa0 Let me read the opening sentence from the travel website Neworleans.com\\xa0
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One of the quietest, most scenic and historic streets in New Orleans, Esplanade Avenue is a hidden treasure running through the heart of the city. From its beginning at the foot of the Mississippi River levee to its terminus at the entrance of City Park, Esplanade is a slow pace thoroughfare with quiet ambiance and local charm.\\xa0 According to this same website, Esplanade Street, during the days of Chopin, functioned as \\u201cmillionaire row\\u201d- which, of course is why the Pontelliers live there.\\xa0
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It actually forms the border between the French Quarter and the less exclusive Faubourg Marigny.\\xa0 At the turn of the last century it was grand and it was populated by wealthy creoles who were building enormous mansions meant to compete with the mansions of the \\u201cAmericans\\u201d on St. Charles Avenue.\\xa0
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\\u201cThe Americans\\u201d?\\xa0
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Yes, that was the term for the non-Creole white people.\\xa0 The ones that descended from the British or came into New Orleans from other parts of the US.\\xa0
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\\xa0Esplanade Street was life at its most grand- there is no suffering like you might find in other parts of New Orleans.\\xa0 The Pontelliers were wealthy; they were glamorous; these two were living competitively.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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The first paragraph of chapter 17 calls the Pontellier mansion dazzling white. And the inside is just as dazzling as the outside. Mrs. Pontellier\\u2019s silver and crystal were the envy of many women of less generous husbands.\\xa0 Mr. Pontellier was very proud of this and according to our sassy narrator loved to walk around his house to examine everything.\\xa0 He \\u201cgreatly valued his possessions.\\xa0 They were his and I quote \\u201chousehold gods.\\u201d\\xa0
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The Pontelliers had been married for six years, and Edna over this time had adjusted to the culture and obligations of being a woman of the competitive high society of Creole New Orleans.\\xa0 One such obligation apparently centered around the very serious etiquette of calling cards and house calls.\\xa0 This is something we\\u2019re familiar with, btw, since we watch Bridgerton.\\xa0 It was something we saw in Emma, too.\\xa0 Garry, talk to us about the very serious social business of calling cards.\\xa0\\xa0
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Well, this is first and foremost a European custom during this time period. It started with simple cards designed to announce a person\\u2019s arrival, but as in all things human, it grew and grew into something much larger and subtextual- and of course, with rules.\\xa0 During the Victorian era, the designs on the cards as well as the etiquette surrounding were elaborate.\\xa0 A person would leave one\\u2019s calling card at a friend\\u2019s house, and by friend meaning a person in your community- you may or may not actually be friends. Dropping off a card was a way to express appreciation, offer condolences or just say hello.\\xa0 If someone moved into the neighborhood, you were expected to reach out with a card, and a new arrival was expected to do the same to everyone else.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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The process would involve putting the card on an elaborate silver tray in the entrance hall.\\xa0 A tray full of calling cards was like social media for Victorians- you were demonstrating your popularity.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
For example, if we were doing this today, we would have a place in the entrance of our home, and we\\u2019d make sure the cards of the richest or most popular people we knew were on to.\\xa0 We would want people who dropped off cards to be impressed by how many other callers we had AND how impressive our friends were. The entire process was dictated by complicated social rules, and as Leonce explains to Edna, to go against these rules could mean social suicide.\\xa0\\xa0
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It could also mean financial suicide because business always has a human component.\\xa0 The function of an upper class woman would be to fulfil a very specific social obligation and this involved delivering and accepting these calling cards.\\xa0 Every woman would have a specific day where she would make it known she was receiving cards, and the other ladies would go around town to pay house calls.\\xa0 In some cases, a woman might remain in her carriage while her groom would take the card to the door.\\xa0 During the Regency era like in Jane Austen\\u2019s day, there was a system of bending down the corner of the card if you were there in person, and not if you were sending it, but by Chopin\\u2019s day, I\\u2019m not sure if that was still a thing.\\xa0\\xa0
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The main thing was that the card would be dropped off on this special silver tray. If it were a first call, the caller might only leave a card.\\xa0 But, if you were calling on the prescribed day, the groom would further inquire if the lady of the house were home.\\xa0 A visit would consist of about twenty minutes of polite conversation.\\xa0 It was important that if someone called on you, you must reciprocate and call on then on their visiting day.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Well, the Tuesday they get back, Edna leaves the house on her reception day and does not receive any callers- a social no-no.\\xa0 In fact, as we go through the rest of the book, she never receives callers again. This is an affront to the entire society, and an embarrassment to her husband; it\\u2019s also just bad for business, as Mr. Pontellier tries to explain to his wayward wife, let\\u2019s read this exchange.\\xa0
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\\u201cWhy, my dear, I should think you\\u2019d understand by this time that people don\\u2019t do such things; we\\u2019ve got to observe \\u201cles convenances\\u201d if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession.\\xa0 If you felt that you had to leave this afternoon, you should have left some suitable explanation for your absences.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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One thing I find interesting.\\xa0 Mr. Pontellier assumes that Mrs. Pontellier is on the same page on wanting the same things as he wants, and what he wants is to keep up with the procession.\\xa0 They\\u2019d been doing this for the last six years, and doing it well.\\xa0
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Another thing I notice is that he doesn\\u2019t rail at her for skipping out. Mr. Pontellier, unlike her father, even as we progress through the rest of the book, is not hard on her at all.\\xa0 In fact, he\\u2019s indulgent.\\xa0 The problem in the entire book is not that he\\u2019s been overtly abusive or cruel.\\xa0 Read the part where he tries to kind of help her fix what he considers to be a serious social blunder.\\xa0
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Page 60\\xa0
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Well, if taken in isolation, this exchange doesn\\u2019t seem offensive, and I might even have taken sides with Mr. Pontellier if it weren\\u2019t back to back with this horrid scene of him complaining about his dinner then walking out to spend the rest of the evening at the club where he clearly spends the majority of his time.\\xa0 You have to wonder what is going on at that club, but beyond that.\\xa0 Edna is again left in sadness.\\xa0 \\u201cShe went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of tea garden below\\u201d.\\xa0 (On an aside, if you\\u2019ve read Chopin\\u2019s story, the story of an hour, you should recognize the language here and the image of this open window).\\xa0 Anyway,, Here again we have another image of a caged bird, or a person who is looking out in the world but not feeling a part of it.\\xa0 \\u201cShe was seeing herself and finding herself in just sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars.\\xa0 They jeered and sounded mournful notes without promise, devoid even of home.\\xa0 She turned back into the room and began to walk to and from down its whole length, without stopping, without resting.\\xa0 She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her.\\xa0 Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet.\\xa0 When she saw it there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it.\\xa0 But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet.\\xa0 In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth.\\xa0 She wanted to destroy something.\\xa0 The crash and the clatter were what she wanted to hear.\\u201d\\xa0
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She\\u2019s clearly angry\\u2026and not just because Mr. Pontellier complained about the food and walked out of the house.\\xa0 She\\u2019s angry about everything.\\xa0\\xa0
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Never mind the fact that we are never told what goes on at this club, but there are several indications in different parts of the book that Mr. Pontellier may be doing other things besides smoking cigars in crowded rooms.\\xa0 Adele even tells Edna that she disapproves of Mr. Pontellier\\u2019s club.\\xa0 She goes on to say, \\u201cIt\\u2019s a pity Mr. Pontellier doesn\\u2019t stay home more in the evenings.\\xa0 I think you would be more- well, if you don\\u2019t me my saying it- more united.\\u201d\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Although I will add, Edna quickly replies, \\u201c\\u2019Oh dear no!\\u2019 What should I do if he stayed home? We wouldn\\u2019t have anything to say to each other.\\u201d\\xa0 - the fact remains that MR. Pontelier does not see any need to nurture any sort of human or intimate relationship with Edna- theirs comes across as a cordial business arrangement, at best, with Edna in the position of employee.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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True, and although I don\\u2019t know if this is the right place to point this out, but in terms of the sexual indiscretions that may or may not be going on when Mr. Pontellier is at the club, there is likely a lot in the culture at large going on under the surface that a person from the outside wouldn\\u2019t immediately be aware of.\\xa0\\xa0 Edna is na\\xefve at first to all that goes on in her Victorian-Creole world.\\xa0 There just is no such thing as \\u201clofty chastity\\u201d\\xa0 amongst the Creole people, or any people I might add, although Edna initially seems to believe that in spite of all the sexual innuendo in the language, nothing sexual was ever going on.\\xa0 There are just too many indications otherwise in the story that that is not the case.\\xa0 The reader can see it, even though Edna cannot.\\xa0\\xa0
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True, and if you didn\\u2019t catch it on Grand Isle, in the city, it is more obvious, and the farther along we go in the story, it gets more obvious as well.\\xa0 Mrs. James Highcamp is one example.\\xa0 She has married an \\u201cAmerican\\u201d but uses her daughter as a pretext for cultivating relationships with younger men.\\xa0 This is so well-known that Mr. Pontellier tells Edna, after seeing her calling card, that the less you have to do with Mrs. Highcamp the better.\\xa0 But she\\u2019s not the only example.\\xa0 Victor basically details an encounter with Edna of being with a prostitute he calls \\u201ca beauty\\u201d when she comes to visit his mother..ending with the phrase that she wouldn\\u2019t comprehend such things.\\xa0 And of course, most obviously there is the character Arobin with whom Edna eventually does get sexually involved, but his reputation has clearly preceded him.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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\\xa0Well, Edna\\u2019s awakening to all of this would explain part of her anger, but\\xa0 there is more to Edna\\u2019s awakening then just Leonce, or the new culture she\\u2019s a part of, or really any outside factor.\\xa0\\xa0
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Yes, and it is in the universality of whatever is going on inside of Edna that we find ourselves.\\xa0 That\\u2019s what\\u2019s so great about great literature- the setting can be 120 years ago, but our humanity is still our humanity.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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\\xa0I agree and love that, but let\\u2019s get back to her setting for a moment. I think it\\u2019s worth mentioning that the 19th century culture of the Creole people in New Orleans is messy and complicated in its own unique way.\\xa0 It\\u2019s fascinating, but for those who are not of the privileged class, life was often a harsh reality.\\xa0 The world, especially in the South, was problematic for people of mixed race heritage.\\xa0 So, and this is more true the closer we get to the Civil War and the Jim Crow era, but those who called themselves \\u201cwhite creoles\\u201d had a problem because of the large existence of the free people of mixed race ancestry in New Orleans.\\xa0 There was a strong outside pressure to maintain this illusion of racial purity, but the evidence suggests this simply wasn\\u2019t reality.\\xa0 Let me throw out a few numbers to tell you what I\\u2019m talking about.\\xa0 From 1782-1791, the St. Louis Catholic Church in New Orleans recorded 2688 births of mixed race children.\\xa0 Now that doesn\\u2019t seem like a large number, but let me throw this number out- that same congregation at that time same only records 40 marriages of black or mixed race people.\\xa0 Now, I know Catholics are known for having large families, but I\\u2019m not sure 20 women can account for 2688 births.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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No, something feels a little wrong.\\xa0 That number suggests another explanation may be in order.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Exactly, and by 1840 that number grows from 2688 to over 20,000 with mixed raced Creoles representing 18% of the total population of residents of New Orleans.\\xa0 And if that doesn\\u2019t convince you, here\\u2019s another indicator, during this same period many many free women of color were acquiring prime real estate in New Orleans under their own names.\\xa0 These women had houses built and passed estates on to their children, but notice this detail, the children of these mixed-raced women had different last names then their mothers.\\xa0 We\\u2019re not talking about small amounts of property here.\\xa0 By 1860 $15 million dollars worth of property was in the name of children with last names that were not the same as that of their mothers, oh and by the way, a lot of that property was in the neighborhood where Edna rents her pidgeon house just around the corner from Esplanade street- in other words around the corner and walking distance from millionaire row.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Well, that\\u2019s really interesting, and I guess, does add a new dimension to the subtext in the language for sure.\\xa0
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Well, it does, and it is likely something readers of the day would have certainly understood, more than we do 100 years later when the stakes of identifying as being of mixed raced heritage are not the difference between freedom and slavery.\\xa0 But beyond just that, it\\u2019s an example of cultures clashing.\\xa0 Edna represents an outwardly prudish Puritan culture coming into a society that is French, Spanish and Caribbean- very different thinking.\\xa0 This is a de-facto multi-cultural world; it\\u2019s Catholic; it\\u2019s French-speaking; it\\u2019s international.\\xa0 She doesn\\u2019t understand what she\\u2019s seeing.\\xa0 And in that regard, her own situational reality is something she\\u2019s realizing she is only beginning to understand, and she comes into it all very gradually. She is not, in Adele\\u2019s words, \\u201cOne of them.\\u201d\\xa0 In fact, there may have been irony in the narrator in Grand Isle suggesting that Robert LeBrun\\u2019s relationships every summer were platonic.\\xa0 His relationship with the girl in Mexico we will see most certainly is not, but nor was his relationship with Mariequeita on Grand Isle, the girl they meet on the day they spent together.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Indeed.\\xa0 You may be right- perhaps there is a real sense that Edna has been blind, and perhaps not just to her husband but by an entire society that presents itself one way but in reality is something entirely different altogether.\\xa0 When she visits Adele and her husband at their home, everything seems perfect- of course.\\xa0 Adele is the perfect woman with this perfect life.\\xa0 Adele is beautiful.\\xa0 Her husband adores her.\\xa0 The Ratignolle\\u2019s marriage is blissful, in fact to use the narrator\\u2019s words, \\u201cThe Ratignolles\\u2019 understood each other perfectly.\\xa0 If ever the fusion of two human beings into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union.\\u201d\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Do you think it\\u2019s sarcasm again?\\xa0 Was it truly perfect, or just presenting itself to be perfect?\\xa0\\xa0
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It\'s really hard to tell.\\xa0 Maybe they have worked out a great life together.\\xa0 I think there is a lot in this passage to suggest they are truly happy together.\\xa0 Edna even expresses that their home is much happier than hers.\\xa0 She quotes that famous Chinese proverb \\u201cBetter a dinner of herbs\\u201d.\\xa0 The entire quote is \\u201cBetter a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is.\\u201d- meaning her house has better food but she thinks of it as a hateful place- whereas this place is the opposite.\\xa0\\xa0
Poor thing- she sees her reality for what it is.\\xa0 I still see a little sarcasm in the narrator\\u2019s language, but even if Adele is every bit as perfect as she seems, and even if her home is every bit as perfect as it seems, and even if her husband is every bit as perfect as he seems, in the most real of ways, that could all be true and it wouldn\\u2019t matter.\\xa0 E\\xa0
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Precisely, The Ratignole\\u2019s life can be every bit as perfect as it appears. and it wouldn\\u2019t make Edna want it any more.\\xa0 Edna leaves Adele\\u2019s happy home, realizing that even if she could have it it\\u2019s not the life she wants.\\xa0 She wouldn\\u2019t want that world even if Leonce loved her.\\xa0 It\\u2019s just not for her.\\xa0 The problem is, that\\u2019s as far as she\\u2019s gotten with her problem solving.\\xa0 All she knows is what she DOESN\\u2019T want.\\xa0 Her new world is a world of negation.\\xa0 She wants to quit, and so she does.\\xa0 She absolutely disregards all her duties to the point that it finally angers Leonce enough to confront her.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
\\u201cIt seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family.\\u201d\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
An atelier is an artist studio.\\xa0 It\\u2019 seems Edna has left all the responsibilities she had as a housewife as well as a mother.\\xa0 And let me add, Edna was never dusting, cooking, or bathing her children.\\xa0 She has several house keepers and nannies.\\xa0 But now, she\\u2019s not even overseeing what others are doing.\\xa0 Instead, she\\u2019s devoting herself entirely to painting.\\xa0 And surprisingly, Leonce doesn\\u2019t even have a problem with that in and of itself.\\xa0 Edna tells her husband, \\u201cI feel like painting.\\u201d\\xa0 To which he responds, \\u201cThen in God\\u2019s name paint!\\xa0 But don\\u2019t let the family go to the devil.\\xa0 There\\u2019s Madame Ratignolle, because she keeps up her music, she doesn\\u2019t let everything else go to chaos.\\xa0\\xa0 And she\\u2019s more of a musician than you are a painter.\\u201d\\xa0
Yikes, that may be honest, but it does come across as a little harsh.\\xa0
I know.\\xa0 I think it\\u2019s kind of a funny line.\\xa0 To which, Edna has an interesting comeback- it\\u2019s like she knows it\\u2019s not about the painting. She says, \\u201cIt isn\\u2019t on account of the painting that I let things go.\\u201d\\xa0 He asks her then why she\\u2019s let everything go, but she has no answer.\\xa0 She says she just doesn\\u2019t know.\\xa0 Garry, do you want to take a stab at what\\u2019s going on with Edna?\\xa0\\xa0
Well, I do want to tread carefully.\\xa0 What is fascinating about this book is not so much that Chopin is arguing for any specific course of action, or warning against any specific set of behaviors.\\xa0 She doesn\\u2019t condemn Edna for anything, not even the affair she will have with Arobin.\\xa0 Instead of judging, Chopin, to me, seems to be raising questions.\\xa0 And it is the questions that she raises that are so interesting.\\xa0 Edna is desperately trying to rewrite the narrative of her life.\\xa0 There is no question about that.\\xa0 But that is an artistic endeavor, in some ways like painting or singing.\\xa0\\xa0 I guess we can say Chopin is blending her metaphors here.\\xa0 Edna doesn\\u2019t want to be a parrot and copy, but she\\u2019s living her life exactly the way she is painting- it\\u2019s uncontrolled; it\\u2019s undisciplined; it\\u2019s impulsive.\\xa0 I\\u2019d also say, it\\u2019s rather unoriginal.\\xa0 There is no doubt that the social roles offered to her are restrictive.\\xa0 There\\u2019s no doubt her marriage is a problem, but as we get farther into the story, it\\u2019s hard to believe that even if all of these problems could be rectified that Edna would be able define a life for herself.\\xa0 We, as humans, are always more than a reaction to the social and cultural forces in our world- I hate to get back to the word we used last week, but I can\\u2019t get away from it.\\xa0 Even under strict social norms, which I might add, Edna is NOT under for her time period- she is after all one of the most privileged humans on planet Earth at that particular time in human history, but even if she were under severe restrictions, she, as a human, still has agency- we all do.\\xa0
Yes- and to use Chopin\\u2019s words from chapter 6, Mrs Pontellier was beginning to realize her position as an individual as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world WITHIN and about her.\\xa0 I think that Edna is like the rest of us in that it\\u2019s easier to understand and manage the world about us as opposed to the world within.\\xa0 At least I can SEE the world about me- how can I see within?\\xa0 How can I understand myself?\\xa0 And so Edna goes to the world of Madame Reisz having discarded the world of Adele Ratignolle- the world of art, the world of the artist- which is where Edna goes in chapter 21.\\xa0 I would argue that she sees it as the polar opposite of Adele\\u2019s reality.\\xa0 There is the Adele version of being a woman- a totally objectified, sexualized but mothering type of woman= versus this version of womanhood who is basically asexually.\\xa0 Perhaps Madame Reisz isn\\u2019t a woman at all- she\\u2019s an artist.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Except that world, the world of the artist, comes with its own share of difficulties nevermind that it is simply more uncomfortable.\\xa0 Reisz\\u2019 house is described as \\u201cdingy\\u201d.\\xa0 There\\u2019s a good deal of smoke and soot.\\xa0 It\\u2019s a small apartment.\\xa0 There\\u2019s a magnificent piano, but no elegant food or servants or silver trays for calling cards.\\xa0 She cooks her meals on a gasoline stove herself.\\xa0 Let me quote here, \\u201cit was there also that she ate, keeping her belongings in a rare old buffet, dingy and battered from a hundred years use.\\u201d\\xa0
True, but there is also\\xa0 the music and when the music filled the room it floated out upon the night, over the housetops, the crescent of the river, losing itself in the silence of the air and made Edna sob. The art is otherworldly, and there is something to that.\\xa0 Something attractive maybe even metaphysical.\\xa0 I want to talk about Kate Chopin\\u2019s choice of music.\\xa0 I don\\u2019t think we noted this in episode one, but Chopin was an accomplished pianist.\\xa0 She played by ear and read music.\\xa0 She held parties, almost identical to the ones she described Madame Ratignole throwing in the book with dancing and card playing.\\xa0 Music was a very big deal to Kate Chopin, so when she includes specific music in her writing, she\\u2019s not just dropping in commonly used songs, she uses artists she likes for specific reasons, and in this novel, the pianist Frederic Chopin is selected intentionally- and not because he has the same last name, although I did check that out- they are not related.\\xa0 Garry, as a musician yourself, what can you tell us about Frederic Chopin, the Polish composer and pianist?\\xa0
Well, let me make this comparison, Frederic Chopin\\u2019s music in his day was the pelvis gyrating Elvis\\u2019 Rock in Roll of his day.\\xa0 It was provocative.\\xa0 19th century attitudes towards this type of harmony driven romantic music would seem hysterical to us.\\xa0 They were seen as sensual and a destructive force, especially for women.\\xa0 This may even be Chopin\\u2019s sassy narrator playing with us again- Frederic Chopin\\u2019s music is definitely driving sensuality in Edna. To say Kate Chopin is using it ironically is likely taking it too far, but I don\\u2019t know, maybe not.\\xa0 This narrator has been ironic before. The main undeniable connection is that Madame Reisz plays Impromptus.\\xa0 Impromptus are improvisational music.\\xa0 Frederic Chopin wrote only four of them in his career.\\xa0 The one Kate selects here is called Fantasie-Impromptu in C minor- it\\u2019s the only one in a minor key that he ever wrote.\\xa0 You can pull it up on Spotify and hear it for yourself.\\xa0\\xa0 It is full of rhythmical difficulties.\\xa0 It\\u2019s very difficult to play. It\\u2019s quick and full of emotion.\\xa0 There is banging on low notes at times, thrills and rolling notes going faster and slower at others points.\\xa0 Frederic Chopin, by the way, was a very temperamental person and in some ways shares a lot of the personality quirks of Madame Reisz. But he did have an interesting philosophy about music that I really like and does connect to our book.\\xa0 He is recorded to have said this, \\u201cwords were born of sounds; sounds existed before words\\u2026Sounds are used to make music just as words are used to form language.\\xa0 Thought is expressed through sounds.\\xa0 And undefined human utterance is mere sound; the art of manipulating sounds is music.\\u201d\\xa0
Interesting, music is thoughts as sounds.\\xa0 I like the expression \\u201cundefined human utterance\\u201d especially in regard to Edna because she absolutely cannot get her thoughts out nor is she willing to share then with anyone.\\xa0 She expresses more than once that her inner world was hers and hers alone. She can\\u2019t get her thoughts out when she talks to Adele; she can\\u2019t get them out when she talks to her husband, and she can\\u2019t get them out even with Madame Reisz which would have been a very safe space for her to express herself.\\xa0 At the end of chapter 21, she\\u2019s sobbing at the music and holding in her hands a letter from Robert LeBrun crumpled and damp with tears.\\xa0\\xa0
It would have helped her to have found someone to talk to, maybe the Dr. Mandelet that Leonce goes to in chapter 22 for advice about how to help his wife.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
What we find out from Leonce\\u2019s conversation is that Edna has withdrawn from every single person in her world.\\xa0 She won\\u2019t even go to her sister\\u2019s wedding.\\xa0 What the doctor sees when he goes to dinner at their house is a very outwardly engaging woman but an inwardly withdrawn one.\\xa0 The Doctor wonders if she\\u2019s having an affair, but she isn\\u2019t.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
She is, to use the title of the book, One Solitary Soul.\\xa0 As a human being, there are only so many types of relationships we find meaning in: we have our parents and birth family, we have our intimate relationship, we have our children (if we have any), we have our professional relationships, and we have our social friends- at least one of these has to be working for us.\\xa0 Edna finds no satisfaction in any of them.\\xa0 She doesn\\u2019t have a trusting relationship anywhere.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Yes, every single relationship in her life is basically a burden.\\xa0 Edna is trying to relieve herself of every single responsibility in the world hoping that getting out of relationships will help her expand her identity.\\xa0 The problem is getting RID of responsibilities is not really the answer.\\xa0 To find meaning in this world you must DO something worth doing.\\xa0 Something that takes strength and energy.\\xa0 Something you can be proud of.\\xa0 Of course as a classroom teacher, that is what we do everyday.\\xa0 It\\u2019s not helpful to give students high grades or marks for nothing.\\xa0 It weakens them.\\xa0 When you give them a difficult task and then they are able to do that task, they grow, they get strong, they learn they are capable of even great responsibilities.\\xa0 If you want to get strong, you have to take ON responsibilities- you have to practice strength training, Edna goes the opposite way here.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
\\xa0Edna does look for models, and if she wanted a career path, or a professional life like we think of in\\xa0 our era, Chopin threw in a character that could have served that function.\\xa0 It\\u2019s what I see going on in\\xa0 the chapters about the races.\\xa0 Edna is actually really good at horse gambling.\\xa0 She knows horses.\\xa0 She knows the horse-racing business and knows it well.\\xa0 The text actually says that she knows more about horse-racing than anyone in New Orleans.\\xa0 In fact, it\\u2019s her knowledge about horses that puts her on the radar of the man she eventually has the sexual relationship with, Alcee Arobin.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Let\\u2019s read the section where we see this relationship, if we want to call it that, take shape.\\xa0 Arobin had first seen her perform well at the tracks and to use the narrator\\u2019s words, he admired Edna extravagantly after meeting her at the races with her father.\\xa0
Mrs. Highcamp is also a completely different version of a feminine ideal, although neither Edna nor the narrator seem to think enough of to give her a first name.\\xa0 This confused me some when I read this because in my mind, Mrs. James Highcamp would have been this type of a liberated woman that Chopin might want to have Edna admire.\\xa0 She\\u2019s clearly sexualy liberated, but beyond that she\\u2019s worldly, intelligent, slim, tall.\\xa0 Her daughter is educated, participates in political societies, book clubs, that sort of thing.\\xa0 But nothing about Mrs. James Highcamp is alluring to Edna at all.\\xa0 She suffers Mrs. James Highcamp because of her interest in Arobin.\\xa0\\xa0
Let\\u2019s read about these encounters between Arobin and Edna.\\xa0\\xa0
Here\\u2019s the first one\\xa0
Page 86\\xa0\\xa0
\\xa0
So, Arobin becomes fascinated with Edna, in part because she is so smart and different from other women.\\xa0 At the end of that evening, they dined with the Highcamps. And afterwards Arobin takes Edna home.\\xa0 The text says this \\u201cShe wanted something to happen- something, anything, she did not know what.\\xa0 She regretted that she had not made Arobin stay a half hour to talk over the horses.\\xa0 She counted the money she had won.\\xa0 There was nothing else to do, so she went to bed, and tossed there for hours in a sort of monotonous agitation.\\xa0
And so the relationship with Arobin is born out of boredom.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Yes, the dominant movement in Edna\\u2019s life is always drifting towards boredom.\\xa0 Edna wants to rewrite her social script, but she can\\u2019t seem to define what she wants.\\xa0 She has trouble speaking, so she has no words to write her own story.\\xa0 She doesn\\u2019t want to be a mother; she doesn\\u2019t want to work except in sunny weather; she has an opportunity with Mrs. Highcamp to get involved with political or literary women; but that doesn\\u2019t spark her interest.\\xa0 She could make a name for herself at the races, but the money doesn\\u2019t motivate her- she\\u2019s always had it and in some ways doesn\\u2019t seem to know a world without money.\\xa0 So, she\\u2019s going to default into this relationship with Arobin.\\xa0 I\\u2019m going to suggest that she is again playing the part of the parrot.\\xa0 Messing around with Arobin is just the kind of thing she sees men doing.\\xa0 It\\u2019s what Victor does; it may be what her husband does; it is likely what Robert is doing down in Mexico, so she\\u2019s going to try to mimic male behavior since she hasn\\u2019t really found a female model she\\u2019s interested in emulating, and Arobin is an opportunitiy for this.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
And yet, she\\u2019s self-aware enough to not be seduced by Arobin.\\xa0 The first time he really tries to make a move on her by kissing her hand, this is what she says which I find insightful,\\xa0
\\u201cWhen she was alone she looked mechanically at the back of her hand which he had kissed so warmly.\\xa0 Then she leaned her head down on the mantlepiece.\\xa0 She felt something like a woman who in a moment of passion is betrayed into an act of infidelity, and realizes the significance of the act without being wholly awakened from its glamour.\\xa0 The thought was passing vaguely through her mind, \\u201cwhat would he think?\\u201d\\xa0
She did not mean her husband; she was thinking of Robert LeBrun.\\xa0 Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse.\\xa0 She lit a candle and went up to her room.\\xa0 Alcee Arobin was absolutely nothing to her.\\xa0 Yet his presence, his manners, the warmth of his glances, and above all the touch of his lips upon her hand had acted like a narcotic upon her.\\xa0 She slept a languorous sleep, interwoven with vanishing dreams.\\u201d\\xa0
Garry, is there a connection between Edna\\u2019s boredom with her new life and her desire to pursue this relationship with Arobin.\\xa0\\xa0
Well, again, Dr. Kate Chopin is playing the psychologist.\\xa0 Science has absolutely confirmed there is a relationship with boredom and risk-taking behaviors.\\xa0 In other words, the more bored you find yourself, the more likely you are to do something risky.\\xa0 It\\u2019s one reason teenagers are so prone to dangerous behaviors like drugs.\\xa0 They don\\u2019t know yet how to cope with personal down time.\\xa0 They can\\u2019t manage their own boredom.\\xa0 Bored people don\\u2019t know what they want to do.\\xa0 They also score low on scares that measure self-awareness.\\xa0 Bored people can\\u2019t monitor their own moods or understand what they truly want.\\xa0 And here\\u2019s another characteristic that should sound familiar in the life of Mrs. Edna Pontellier, notice that last line \\u201cvanishing dreams\\u201d, Edna is not dreaming.\\xa0 She\\u2019s not working at writing a script for her life..structuring a story for herself.\\xa0 Her dreams and not building anything, they are vanishing.\\xa0 That\\u2019s not good.\\xa0 And it\\u2019s not that doesn\\u2019t have illusions, she does, but a dream is not an illusion.\\xa0 Dreams are what inspire us to do something different. Both a dream and an illusion are unreal, but an illusion will always be an illusion- it has no chance of becoming real; out of dreams new realities are born.\\xa0 We are not seeing Edna dream.\\xa0 Her dreams are vanishing.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Which brings us to the place where I want to end with this episode- chapter 26 and Edna\\u2019s decision to move out of her husband\\u2019s house.\\xa0 I mentioned that this book is constructed with the archetypal 3 in mind at every point.\\xa0 Edna has been living on Esplanade street- the wealthy gilded cage life, and she doesn\\u2019t want that.\\xa0 She has visited Madame Reisz\\u2019s apartment, but she doesn\\u2019t seem to want that- it\\u2019s, and I quote, \\u201ccheerless and dingy to Edna\\u201d.\\xa0 So what does she do? She moves two steps away from Esplanade Street, to a house Ellen calls, \\u201cthe pigeon house.\\u201d\\xa0 Pigeons are the oldest domesticated bird in the world.\\xa0 They never fly far from home- homing pigeons is actually a term. She\\u2019s building an illusion. Edna is going out of her husband\\u2019s house to a place around the corner, but is she really building a new life of any kind?\\xa0 What is this about?\\xa0\\xa0 Edna describes it to Madame Reisz, this way,\\xa0 \\u201cI know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence.\\u201d\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
But is the feeling of freedom and independence the same as actually having freedom and independence?\\xa0
Well, obviously not.\\xa0 They are worlds apart.\\xa0 But Edna lives in feelings.\\xa0 She works when she feels like it.\\xa0 She plays with her children when she feels like it, and now she admits to Madame Reisz that she\\u2019s in love with Robert LeBrun, who by the way is coming back.\\xa0 And when she finds that out she feels, and I quote \\u201cglad and happy to be alive.\\u201d\\xa0 And what does she do after that, she stops at a candy store, buys a box to send to her children who are with their grandparents in the country and she writes a charming letter to her husband.\\xa0 Her letter was brilliant and brimming with cheerfulness.\\xa0 I\\u2019m sorry, but Edna frustrates the feminist in me.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Well, Edna is struggling for sure.\\xa0 She can\\u2019t connect with people.\\xa0 She can\\u2019t identify a dream worth pursuing.\\xa0 She can\\u2019t write her own story.\\xa0 There is no doubt that a lot of this has to so with cultural and social forces at work in her world.\\xa0\\xa0 These are powerful forces.\\xa0 However,\\xa0 it is not the outside forces of her world that will do her in.\\xa0 Edna is smart.\\xa0 She\\u2019s beautiful.\\xa0 She\\u2019s charming.\\xa0 She actually has a lot going for her, especially for a woman during this time period.\\xa0 If Chopin had wanted to write a story where a woman breaks free and soars, she has a protagonist who is positioned to do that very thing.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
But she\\u2019s in a mess.\\xa0 And maybe that\\u2019s why she\\u2019s so relatable.\\xa0 Many of us have made messes of our lives.\\xa0 We have an incredible ability to screw up, but\\xa0 humans are also incredibly resilient.\\xa0 Look at Chopin\\u2019s own life as an example.\\xa0 In some ways, she\\u2019s both Adele Ragntingole and Madame Reiz, at different points in her life she\\u2019d been both.\\xa0 She may even have been Mrs. James Highcamp to a lesser degree. Why is Edna struggling here?\\xa0
Well, humans are incredibly resilient, but you know what else we are- we are social beings.\\xa0 Let\\u2019s revisit that original book title, \\u201cOne Solitary Soul\\u201d- it\\u2019s my experience that no one gets out alone- not even the rich, the beautiful or the smart.\\xa0 No one gets out alone.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
Ah, Edna is strong enough to confront the forces without, but who will help her confront the forces within?\\xa0
And so next episode, we will see her confront those internal forces.\\xa0 There are no more female characters to meet; no more male characters either for that matter.\\xa0 We will see Edna confront Edna alone, and we will see what happens.\\xa0 Thank you for listening.\\xa0 If you enjoy our podcast, please share it with a friend, a relative, your classmates, your students.\\xa0 We only grow when you share.\\xa0 Also, come visit with us via our social media how to love lit podcast- on Instagram, facebook and our website.\\xa0 Feel free to ask questions, give us your thoughts, recommend books.\\xa0 These are all things we love.\\xa0 Thanks for being with us today.\\xa0
Peace out.\\xa0
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