Restrictions of Society in The Awakening Essay -- Kate Chopin

Edna Pontelliers Struggle for Freedom in The Awakening by Kate ChopinIn Kate Chopins fiction, The Awakening, the changeless boundaries and restrictions placed on Edna Pontellier by society pass on lead to her struggle for freedom and her ultimate suicide. Her married man Leonce Pontellier, the current wo custody of society, and the rattling(a) Isle make it evident that Edna is trapped in a patriarchic society. Despite these people, Edna has a need to be free and she is able to turn tail from the society that she despises. The sea, Robert Lebrun, and Mademoiselle Reisz serve as Ednas outlets from conformity. Ednas journey for personalized indep prohibitence involves finding the words to express herself. She commits suicide rather than sacrificing her independent, psyche existence as social conventions demand of her (Ewell 153).There are constant boundaries and restrictions imposed on Edna Pontellier that initiate Ednas struggle for freedom. Edna is a unripened Creole wife an d mother in a high-class society. The novel unfolds the life of a woman who feels dissatisfied and restrained by the expectations of society. Leonce Pontellier, her husband is declared the best husband in the world (Chopin 6). Edna is forced to withstand that she knew of none better. Edna married Leonce because he courted her earnestly and her father was opposed to her jointure to a Catholic. Edna felt that her marriage would anchor her to the conventional standards of society and end her infatuation (Skaggs 30). She is fond of Leonce, but he does not incite hot feelings. Edna represents women in the past that were suppressed. These women werent allowed to give their opinions and were often seen as objects, which explains the way her husband never really saw Edna as his wife, but more as a material possession. You are burnt beyond recognition, he added, fount at his wife as one looks at a rich piece of personal property which has suffered great damage (Chopin 2). In this soci ety, men viewed their wives as an object, and she receives only the same respect as a possession. Edna did not respect her husband as the other women did. While he talked to her, Edna was stamp down with sleep and answered him with little half utterances. Leonce thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the resole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and precious so litt... ...e interest of ending the monotony she lives with as a prove of her being confined into her aristocratic society. Throughout the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna seeks independence from society. Her series of wakenings are mostly about achieving this goal. The sea, Robert Lebrun, and Mademoiselle Reisz are her awakenings. In the end, Ednas freedom takes place in death. This is the choice that social convention allows her. Edna cannot experience anything she desires in this world, and therefore removed herself from it in a final awakening of her soul. Her thoughts as she walks into the sea comment profoundly on the identity problems that women face She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not eat thought that they could possess her, body and soul (Chopin 152).Works CitedChopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York picayune Books, 1992. Dyer, Joyce. Symbolism and Imagery in The Awakening. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Ed. Emily Toth. Jackson University infatuation of Mississippi, 1999. 126-130.Ewell, Barbara C. Kate Chopin. New York The Ungar Publishing Company, 1986.Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston Twane Publishers, 1985.