Societal Conflicts In The Awakening

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Often times people suffer from their inner yearnings being different from the societal views. In the novel The Awakening, by allowing her obligations, desires, and influences to pull her in opposing directions, the protagonist Edna faces major issues. These conflicts lead to Edna illuminating the meaning of the work as a whole.

Suffering from her desire to be the woman society demands, Edna constantly questions why only women must do the housework or duties such as watching the children, household chores, and making sure she’s bubbly around her husband's clients, while the men in society only work outside the house. Frequently feeling trapped by these dreary tasks, Edna looks for any way to leave these burdens behind. The societal desires …show more content…
The first conflict between the two desires occurs when she abandons her family and household duties because she believes that women aren’t the only ones responsible for doing them, which pushes the novel towards a theme of femininity. The next conflict initiates when she begins to take up recreational activities, painting and learning to swim, so she can be at peace with herself, leading up to a the second theme of self-expressions. By learning more about her personal desires Edna becomes infatuated with her independence and loses her place in society, thus leading to her fatal flaw and death by drowning in the ocean. Struggling between the desire to be the woman commonly found in society and the woman who is engulfed in freedom, she illuminates the novel towards femininity and self-expression. The novel The Awakening Society has changed the protagonist, Edna, drastically and caused a major conflict that clearly describes the novel to its entirety. Being yanked in opposite directions by her desires of being a common woman or being a unique woman, she is forced to decide which she favors more. Femininity and self-expression are depicted by Edna during her personal
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