(Dimock 47). This is an uncomfortable narrative stance for in the first place Edna is not a slave to begin with and she has a quadroon to attend to children whereas she gradually neglects all her household duties towards the end of the narrative. Dimock herself refers to Edna’s rights revealing that: “she transforms herself from a performer of duties to a claimant of rights” (Dimock 32). Even at the very beginning of the narrative Mr. Pontellier refers to Edna’s lack of caring of her children: “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children” (Chopin 12). By the time, she commits suicide she is not under any sign of slavery for she becomes an independent woman who lives her own way in her own ‘pigeon house’. Therefore, we cannot admit that death is the only free world for Edna as Dimock attempts to prove. This reaffirms that Edna is a failure whose death portrays her defeat. As explained throughout the answer Edna’s as well as the female protagonists’ death in the above mentioned novels are problematic since they are confronted with death as soon as they have an awakening or self realization. I would like to question whether is it adequate to have a self-discovery when the narrative kills them at the time of their self-realization and independence. Chopin makes both Madam Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz survive in the novel which is tantamount to a warning for the womankind not to seek for extreme independence which would be catastrophic at some point. Most of the nineteenth century novels by women writers deal with feminist issues with the emergence of feminist movement that consequently paved the way for women’s suffrage. In such a backdrop, what is expected of women writers, as I believe, is the depiction of strong female protagonists with alternative life styles who can survive in any circumstance. The women writers mentioned-above have adapted the death of the protagonists to end their narratives comfortably. However, this might cause a conflict for a feminist reader who would question whether such narratives could be identified as feminist novels.
Chamila De Silva (4th year)
32