Louis, MO in 1850 to an Irish/Creole family. After the death of her parents, she attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic boarding school. Kate spent much time with her French-Creole grandmother and was very interested in music and reading. At a young age, she was against the idea of it being a man's world women were just there to please them and do as they say. At the age of 19 she married Oscar Chopin and moved to Louisiana where she spent the remainder of her life. Written in 1899 and set in the late 1800s The Awakening focuses itself on an upper-middle class Creole woman, Edna Pontellier. Married with two sons and a part of the New Orleans elite social class, as a proper Victorian woman she is expected to be morally pure in thought and conduct, decent and honest. Except when she connects with Robert Lebrun whose mother owns the resort on Grand Isle where Edna and her family frequent. Robert, a very flirtatious man, is always with a different woman every summer. Edna becomes increasingly infatuated with Robert so he decides to try to cool the adulterous behavior and goes away to Mexico. When Edna returns to her husband, children, and life in New Orleans, she begins her awakening, abandoning her social responsibilities and taking up painting as she did in her youth. In addition, she begins doing whatever she wants whenever she wants with whomever she wants; including the free spirit Mademoiselle Reisz, who reads her letters she has received from Robert and plays the piano for her. Léonce, Edna's husband, becomes worried about his wife's behavior but his doctor tells him to leave her as she is, and she will get over whatever she is going through. When Léonce leaves for a long business trip in New England and her sons go to stay with their grandparents, Edna is excited about her newly gained freedom and decides to move out of the house.
