Ranya Tobin
Professor Pressman
ECL 305
Midterm Essay #2
04/14/2024
Edna Pontilier, a Selkie Incarnate
Selkies have a certain empathetic charm to them that is unmatched by other creatures of myth. Any woman functioning under the stringent pressures of society can identify with the creature whose bodily rights and independence is often preyed upon and held just out of her reach. Similar to how women may also identify with Edna Pontilier, who is victim to the same pitfalls. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening follows the plotline of a classic selkie story, as Edna’s agency, much like a selkie, is usurped by marriage, and she is forced to deny her inherent nature in order to fit a role she was never made to exist in. Edna’s despair in having to deny herself in order to serve her family, her inability to feel fulfilled in the role society has forced her to exist in, and her inevitable return to the ocean makes her a selkie incarnate, framing her death as less of an act of self destruction, and instead as a means of returning to something greater than the man-made institutions of the land.
A Selkie, or “Seal Woman”, is a mythical creature with roots stemming from Viking Ballads of 793 AD to Ancient Ireland and the Northern Isles of Scotland (McEntire). The Selkie is most iconic for their thick, beautiful coats of fur. When hooded, these women roam the sea freely as seals, but when their coats are removed, they become beautiful, alluring humans able to tread upon land. These coats exist as a symbol of the woman’s autonomy, as she decides what form she takes, whether to sunbathe on the sand or swim with her kin in the ocean; however, this liberty, we find, is too easily usurped. Many Selkie stories follow a similar plotline, where a Selkie’s coat is stolen from her by a pirate or leering land-born man, and held ransom against her will. Without the pelt, the Selkie is barred from returning to her natural form and is forced to conform to human life as her assailant’s wife. Her existence on land is in service to her captor, as she is obligated to bear him children and keep his house, however, each retelling of the myth gives the seal woman the chance to make a great escape. Their husband is bound to make a mistake, accidentally revealing the location of where he has hidden the coat through a slip of the tongue or a not well thought out hiding spot, and she seizes the opportunity to steal it back and regain her access to the sea. The selkie will always return to the Ocean at the end of these stories, as she is an animal, not meant to exist within the confines of human constructs. Without looking back, she hastily abandons the life she was made to live on land, including the children she was forced to bear, in exchange for her freedom—which she desires above all else.
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, written in 1898, coincidentally follows the classic Selkie plotline. The story centers around the character Edna Pontillier, a housewife in Louisiana, with two young boys and a husband named Léonce Pontellier—a forty-year-old, wealthy New Orleans businessman. Edna is a victim of the 1898 status quo, where a woman’s only purpose in life and typically only option is to serve a husband and bare him children. Some women happily take to this role, as observed in her friend Adele Ratignolle, but Edna is not one of these women. Edna is different, and something deep within her violently rejects the role that was forced upon her. She feels “an indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, [and] filled her whole being with a vague anguish.” (Chopin 16). Nancy Cassle McEntire’s article, “Supernatural Beings in the Far North: Folkore, Folk Belief, and the Selkie.”, explains the emotions of the Selkie housewives, stating that “[The selkie] often longs for the sea, but she resigns herself to her fate and becomes a dutiful wife and mother.” (McEntire 8). Edna and the Irish Seal Women share each others anquish, forced to be wives to husbands they do not love and mothers to children they were never meant to have—always longing for the life they belonged to and not the life they were chained to. They live in despair wishing to escape the oppression keeping them tethered to their husband’s homes. Despite her role as a wife and mother, Edna feels an undeniable duty to her inherent nature as a woman meant to be more than stuck in a house, more than a servant. Though she feels a natural maternal affection for her children, she is unable to abandon her inner nature for them, stating, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” (116). The core of Edna’s being longs to be free; she yearns for independence and the opportunity to explore a life beyond the house she was made to keep and the men she is forced to serve. This is very similar to how a Selkie, no matter how long she remains on land or how much she may care for her children, she will always long for the sea above all else. The Awakening also features frequent symbolism of the Ocean as a place of freedom and revitalization, and Edna’s frequent draw to it mirrors the connection between Selkies and their home. Edna ponders how, “the voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” (39). The novel’s fixation on the Ocean and how it calls to Edna is uncannily similar to what a Selkie would experience in her situation. The Ocean acts as a refuge, warm and inviting like the home Edna did not have on land. It is a space that welcomes her and promises to revitalize her soul. This puts Edna on track to reaching the sea as an inevitable destination.
Understanding Edna’s connection to the mythical Selkie, women bound to existences they were never meant to live, drastically changes the ending of her story. The Awakening ends with Edna deciding to commit suicide by walking into the Ocean and swimming as far as she possibly can until her body eventually gives in to exhaustion—drowning her. By interpreting The Awakening as a selkie story, Edna’s final act is not one of self destruction or a result of an untreated mental health crisis. Instead, if Edna herself is a selkie, this end is not a death, but a return. In this final scene, Edna is liberating herself. In a reverse-Selkie fashion, “when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.” (268). Where a selkie would throw on her hood to return to her seal form before diving in, Edna strips off the clothes she is made to wear within the rules of the human world and enters the water in only her natural, naked body. She goes on to describe that “she felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world it had never known.” (269). The novel takes care to describe that this is an encompassing transformation of self. Edna is no longer existing within the body she once used to tred the land and live in service. She shifts much like her Selkie predecessors into a new form; a form she was always meant to exist in. A form with which she can enter a new life. The most curious thing about Edna’s “death” however…is the novel never actually states that she passes away. The final sentence of the novel is “there was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.” (270). This is the final Earthly sensation Edna experiences, but she does not perish within the water—at least, the text never states so. This ending is left up to interpretation, with readers assuming she dies. However, when observing this conclusion through the lens of a Selkie story, this would be the moment Edna, following her transformation, escapes into the sea and lives out the free existence she was always meant to achieve.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin was a monumental text of its time, with its ending leaving a lasting, sorrowful impression on its readers. To end the story with a suicide was a powerful choice, insisting to the novel’s readers that the social norm of a woman’s role being defined for her creates an uninhabitable existence for women who desired more. However, The Awakening as a Selkie story offers en ending of hope—promising trapped women that there is somewhere they can be free, somewhere waiting for them, that they do not have to pass through the afterlife to achieve. Edna, and other Selkies like her, are always gifted by their stories with a great escape; an opportunity to transform, shed their societal bounds and embrace themselves, before diving into a new existence that welcomes them with open arms.
Citations:
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Penguin Classics, 2018.
Nancy Cassell McEntire. “Supernatural Beings in the Far North: Folkore, Folk Belief, and the Selkie.” Scottish Studies (Edinburgh), vol. 35, 2010, pp. 120-, https://doi.org/10.2218/ss.v35.2692.
Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown, “Introduction: The Stories We Tell about Mermaids and Other Water Spirits” (Penguin, ix-xxii)