My readings thus far have proved this to be a novel of self awareness but with any good novel and further discovery there is drama. Let's talk about the queen of drama, Edna. She's not the dramatic type to destroy something or throw things but she is drama at its finest. Edna is a MARRIED woman, who seems to be unhappy with things at home. However, she meets this man, Robert, who likes the company of women (male Daisy Miller?). I may have read ahead and these two fall for each other, only complicating things.
Aside front there drama of relationships, let's discuss the drama of the interactions of people. Edna and Adele seem pretty mellow, perhaps of their deep rooted friendship. Let's explore the relationship between Edna and Mademoiselle Reisz. After all, Mademoiselle Renzi knows of the "affair" between Edna and Robert. Aside from knowing all the gossip, when they very first meet, she plays a beautiful song on the piano that causes Edna to loose it and break down in front of everyone. She thinks it is because of the beauty of the music, seriously? Maybe she is our dram queen who is slowly realizing what she is doing!
*please don't read the above as angry, I am a person who thinks drama is humorous and I love to read about characters that attract it!*
Here are some questions to think about after reading my little rant about the drama that ensues from the novel.
1. In chapter VIII, Robert tells of the story of Alcee Arobin. Why do you think that is?
2. We are introduced to the relationship/interaction of Edna and Mademoiselle Reisz. How do you think their relationship with further grow and what might be the consequences of it?
3. What relegation did Edna experience when she declined Robert's invitation to walk on the beach in Chapter VI?
-Kellie
I think your discussion of Edna as dramatic is an interesting way to view her and one that I don't think I have ever considered before but that sparks some thoughts in me. Although we normally associate the "dramatic" with a negative connotation in today's society, in this case, as you say that you don't see it as a negative thing, I think that can be viewed in a more positive light as well. It may just be that being dramatic or acting out is the only way in which Edna can be noticed and of course make her unhappiness known to any of those around her rather than suffering in silence. And as the text goes on, like a grand stage, her actions become more and more bold, starting from stepping on her wedding ring in the privacy of her own home, to then actually getting her own home, moving out of the family house and into her own place, furnishing it with her own things and leaving Leonce's back at the house they shared. In being dramatic then Edna is finally having her own space within the world in which she lives, but of course we see as the text closes that the drama that she creates has no place in the world of reality, and so she escapes back into that fantasy land seemingly one last time, her last dramatic act.
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