Women In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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The Awakening by Kate Chopin explores the lives of women in a different way in the late 1800’s. The novel explains the story of Edna Pontellier who is a wife with an independent demeanor and seeks to find love outside of her constrained marriage. During the course of the story the male characters have tried to control Edna. None of the men didn’t understand Edna’s need for independence. Edna’s father the Colonel, and her husband, Leonce Pontellier controlled Edna in a way that they felt Edna has a specific duty as a woman. Edna tries to find her love with Robert Lebrun, but realizes that he will not understand that she is an independent woman. Alcee Arobin attempted to repress Edna in his own way. She realizes this in the beginning of the novel. Throughout The Awakening Edna is trying to gain the independence that she wants badly. In The Awakening the men in Edna’s life have attempted to control or repress Edna, by how they saw Edna as just a woman with woman duties. These men would either control Edna with demands and expectations or they repress Edna with lesser means, but still have a little more control. For example The Colonel …show more content…
This could ruin Mr. Pontellier's image. Again it explains itself in chapter 3. “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation” (Pg. 5). This goes back to Leonce not understand Edna’s needs. Edna though still struggles with her relationship with her husband, Leonce. Mr. Pontellier shows more of a repressing side in chapter 10, the Hammock scene. In that scene Mr. Pontellier was asking Edna to move off of the hammock and to come back inside to the house. This scene showed Edna’s defiance to her husband’s request which may give Mr. Pontellier the understanding of Edna’s needs for independence. Edna wants
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