In the play Waiting
for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon are alienated from society. They are able
then, through this separation, to perceive a world without societal
expectations and question the true meaning of life. Kate Chopin first gave the
novel The Awakening the title of A Solitary Soul and this is exactly how
Edna begins to act now that summer is over, Robert is gone and she finds no
real diversion in the city. Edna is willingly placing herself in a situation
very similar to the one Vladimir and Estragon where placed in by Samuel Beckett
to reflect upon societal repression and existentialism.
Edna much like the two stooges, Vladimir and Estragon, feel
and anxious need to question their environment and why they have to appeal to
it. Since her arrival to the city Edna has broken every single rule established
for a women like her. She has decided to take long walks through the city
looking for nothing in particular, she has left the kids to the mercy of their
nanny and she is dismaying the key values of her marriage with Leonce. Leonce
is reproachful towards her newly adopted attitude and is seeking help with
doctors and other close friends of his. But Edna is now finding herself
understanding why she wants to swim further out, why that society is not for her.