Journal #29 Kate Chopin: Root, Root, Root...For The Protagonist!

QUOTE:

“You have slept precisely one hundred years. I was left here to guard your slumbers; and for one hundred years I have been out under the shed reading a book. The only evil I couldn’t prevent was to keep a broiled fowl from drying up” (Chopin 564).


SUMMARY:

After Edna wakes up and finds Robert reading under a tree, they playfully make up a little story to explain what happened when Edna was overcome earlier.


RESPONSE:

This point in the story changes my perspective of Robert’s character. The previous introduction to Robert makes him seem like a little puppy; a little, annoying puppy. However, Robert now has some charm, and seems to make a better connection to Edna. I think this actually makes the readers accept the potential relationship (even if it means an adulterous one), between Robert and Edna. Perhaps Kate Chopin solved part of the problem she felt she had with The Storm, or maybe I’m thinking about how I could have made the characters and situation in my short story more understandable.

Whether this was her specific intention or not, Chopin seems to have figured out how to make Mr. Pontellier less likable than Robert, which makes Edna’s feelings for Robert more understandable. However, maybe the incident when Mr. Pontellier makes Edna cry only affects the sympathetic readers, or at least the readers who don’t think Mr. Pontellier should treat a woman he expects to stay faithful, the way he did in that incident. Whatever Chopin’s intentions for her characters may have been, I was hoping Edna would be able to leave her husband for Robert at this point in the story.

It’s surprising how one little factor can change my perspective on a character, and change it enough for me to want Edna to commit adultery. Maybe I’m just a sucker for “true love” though, and it seems like Chopin made the Pontelliers’ marriage far from true love. I also think that most readers, as well as I, usually tend to root for the protagonist in a novel, which puts readers in the position to agree with Edna’s feelings.