Character Analysis of Robert Lebrun Essay

Kate Chopins The Awakening examines the implications placed on women for self establishion during the 1800s. Banned for several years by critics afterwards its initial publication in 1899 because of its unsettling content, The Awakening afterwards became a slightly cherished account of a charwomans journey towards self-discovery and abandonment of her conventional society. Kester-Shelton) Within that story is where we meet Robert LeBrun, A young, flirtatious and self-confident womanizer with a reputation to match and it is within this paper, that we impart psychoanalyze the influential char traveler of Robert LeBrun who without control, falls in a forbidden sleep with affair with the protagonist, Edna Pontellier. Robert, a younger man with immature tendencies, clean shaved face, yellowish-br make hair, and quick bright eyes maintains a reputation for floating in between different older women every summer. even offtually his affectionate record catches the attention of Mr s.Edna Pontellier, triggering her to go through a series of epiphanies or questionable modifys where she begins the struggle between the woman her society expects her to be and the independent, self-governing woman she craves. Robert, sifting his way in between dynamic and static characteristics, plays a signifi fag endt role in those epiphanies because what begins as an innocent friendship turns into a forbidden esteem affair where Robert shows Edna a kind of admire she had neer seen from any other man, even in her own marriage to Mr. Pontellier.Even though Robert did possess such a reputation of being a womanizer he really does harbor true feelings of jazz for Edna. This is seen in the comparison of Roberts feelings for Edna versus her close friend, Madame Ratignolle. Meanwhile Robert, addressing Mrs. Pontellier, continued to tell mavin of his onetime hopeless passion for Madame RatignolleHe never assumed the humourous tone when alone with Mrs. Pontellier,It was understoo d that he had often spoken run-in of love to Madame Ratignolle, without any intellection of being taken seriously.Mrs.Pontellier was glad he had not assumed a similar role towards herself. It would have been unacceptable and annoying. (Chopin, page 14-15) This really shows the affection he conceals for Edna because he go ons accordant with his portrayal of his feelings rather than with both serious and comic aspects during discussions. Even though throughout his summers of courting older wed women, himself nor his intensions are ever taken seriously, even his relationship with Edna starts out innocent when she treats him as if he were a pet, dragging him along with her like a dog.According to Edna he was eer under her feet like a troublesome dog. (Chopin, page 26) and as their summer progresses, she falls for Robert and realizes she has her own strength and the power to express herself without her husband and it was Robert that led her to that. Their affair turns into actu al love and Edna, along with the readers, begins to motion picture Robert as physically attractive, charming, and charismatic and sees in him, all the things Edna massnot find in her husband.When Robert realizes his true feelings for Edna, he flees to Mexico in hopes of forgetting about her, and in a secondment of weakness he decides that he is not brave enough to fall through on his new tack together love for Edna and it could never be real because Edna is a mother, and most importantly, a married woman. Robert feels that his leaving will only if protect the both of them from acting upon his forbidden love, but this only heightens Ednas awakening. The shock of Roberts quick announcement of his departure to Mexico is seen when the password is broken to Edna over a dinner table. As she seated herself and was about to begin to eat her soup, which had been served when she entered the room, several persons informed her simultaneously that Robert was going to Mexico. She displace h er spoon down and looked about her bewildered. He had been with her, reading to her all the morning, and had never even mentioned such a place as Mexico. She had not seen him during the afternoon she had heard someone say he was at the house, upstairs with his mother.This she had thought nothing of, though she was surprised when he did not join her later in the afternoon, when she went down to the beach. (Chopin, page 55) Even though Edna doesnt plot of land out her exact feelings, its here that you can feel the despair that takes over her when she learns of Roberts plans to depart from New Orleans. The tenderness of Roberts character can be further analyzed as Ednas awakening is graduation exercise Roberts love for her soon brings him back to New Orleans, when he realizes he cannot live away from her.He is hiding in a netherworld of shyness when he returns which is unlike him, but he does in fact, go through with actually telling Edna that he does love her but cannot act on h is love because of her marriage. Robert is a practical man, knowing that it is not respectable to take Edna away from her family and husband, but practically takes the form of a masochist when proclaiming his love for her. Throughout the novel, Robert is compared to Alcee Arobin, a character well known as the townsfolks bad boy who has had numerous sexual encounters with other women, married or not, a comparison that Robert is not fond of.Wayne Batten of the gray Literary Journal, critiques this comparison in saying, Edna, accordingly, could have learned that the fantasies she constructs with Robert Lebrun do not make his attraction fundamentally different from the unembellished lure of Arobin. (Batten) This is merely saying that Edna mistakenly thought of Arobins passion as the alike as the love that Robert feels for her. Later in the story, a doctor by the name of Dr.Mandelet walks Edna home after becoming faint watching Madame Ratignolle go through her fourth round of child birth, he suspects she has returned her attentions back to Alcee, but as the reader knows, she is about to consummate her long-incubating passion for Robert. (Batten)Robert rejects the idea as Edna readily tries to explain wherefore consummating their love is not wrong because she is, in fact, her own independent woman. Robert does not have the same passion for Edna and he cannot go through with his feelings for her although his love is so powerful. She buried her face in his fill in and said good bye again. Her seductive voice, together with his deep love for her, had enthralled his senses, had deprived him of every impulse but the longing to jibe her and keep her. (Chopin, page 147) This only further proves that although he has such a commanding desire to have Edna in every way, he stands starchy in his decision, seeing the impossibility in the situation. As Edna is stuck in a daydream, Robert understands their reality. Robert stands firm in that reality, trying to remain pr actical about the exclusively situation.Finally the last we see of Robert LeBrun is in his heartfelt but penitent flee, only leaving behind a note for Edna that simply states, au revoir because I love you. (Chopin, page 152) And like a moon that never shows its face, the words are not there, but his underlying message contains his feelings for her and the reasons why he cannot act upon them. This shows a true irony as he says goodbye to her for good, a devastating farewell that sends Edna into the final stage of her awakening with her new found sense of independence and self expression as she gives her body to the sea, committing suicide.Looking back over the storyline we see how crucial Robert Lebrun and the way he tried to manage his desire and love for Edna had actually been to the development of both characters. Through the analysis of Robert we learn of his morals and his attempts to remain practical even though he does love Edna and it leads one to wonder if Robert had no t loved Edna in the way he did, if she would have found that reckless sense of independence that eventually consumed her, or if Robert would have develop enough to recognize when to walk away from a forbidden love for the betterment of someone else.It goes to show meet how one person can awaken your soul to a new perspective and change your vitality entirely, whether that may be good, bad, or leave you indifferent and we see only if that in the story of The Awakening as Edna reaches her final stages of reality and Robert brings her to that just by loving her and allowing her to be herself.