In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a married woman with children. However many of her actions seem like those of a child. In fact, Edna Pontelliers’ life is an irony, in that her immaturity allows her to mature. Throughout this novel, there are many examples of this because Edna is continuously searching for herself in the novel.
One example of how Edna¡¦s immaturity allows her to mature is when she starts to cry when LeƒVonce, her husband, says she is not a good mother. ¡§He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother¡¦s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?¡¨(13). Edna, instead of telling her husband that she had taken care of her children, began to cry like a baby after her husband reprimanded her. ¡§Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little¡Kshe thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms,¡¨(13,14). These tears made Edna look as if she was still a child and that she is tired of being treated as a child by her husband. These tears also showed her she did not like where she was, a sign of maturity. Her tears symbolize her first awakening.
Although the next morning, after Edna had cried the night before had to go and say good-bye to her husband because he was leaving on a business trip. Edna acted immaturely around him again when he gave her half the money he won the night before. ¡§¡¥It will buy a handsome wedding present for Sister Janet!¡¦ she exclaimed, smoothing out the bills as she counted them one by one,¡¨(15). Edna is spoiled by all of her husbands money.
Another example of how Edna¡¦s immaturity allows her to mature is when Edna swam like a baby when she went swimming for the first time, and she had over estimated her power. ¡§Once she turned and looked toward the shore, toward the people she had left there. She had not gone any great distance¡Kshe made no mention of her encounter with death and her flash of terror, except to say to her husband, ¡¥I thought I should have perished out there alone.
The Good Friar Laurence in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Holy Saint Francis! What a change is here!
Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes…(II, III)
This is only some of the wisdom spoken by Friar Laurence to young Romeo in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on the decision made by him to wed thirteen year old Juliet in such hastiness. Romeo sought after the confidence of Friar Laurence when he first met Juliet as there was no one else he could turn to, especially when the couple decided they were going to be married. There are many are many instances in the play that indicate “Friar Laurence always intended the best for Romeo and Juliet.” That is, no matter the tragic outcome of the play, Friar Laurence’s only intention was for the marriage of Romeo and Juliet to be happy, everlasting and for it to bring peace to the civil feud between the families.
Although he is not seen very much during the play, Friar Laurence’s role is a highly important one. In Romeo and Juliet there are three main events, the marriage, the plan and the death, that relate to him. One of the most true and sensible things told to Romeo by the Friar, was a forewarning to the hastiness of the wedding;
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumphs die, like fire and powder
Which as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in its own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite
Therefor love moderately, long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. (II, VI)
These words aimed directly at Romeo mean that with the metaphor “The sweetest honey/Is loathsome in its own deliciousness” is that something so sweet can become sickly and you could quickly lose your appetite for it. Initially the Friar is trying to convince Romeo that Juliet would be something he would grow out of ie. like his love for Rosaline. In the last two lines of the quote, the Friar is trying to convince Romeo that nothing as important as love and marriage should not be jumped into when it could be done just as slow to be confident that the right decision is made leaving no room for regrets.