As with many stories and novels of the late 18th century, the class of the characters plays a big part in how the characters act and what tragedies and positive events befall them. In the novel "The Awakening- by Kate Chopin, the struggle to act a part of a certain class plays a strain on not only the main character, Edna Pontellier, but also her husband Léonce Pontellier, who is trying to keep up the image that himself and Edna portray in the community. Just as Edna starts to open her eyes as to who she is, a person of a lower class, Mademoiselle Reisz, helps to enlighten her as to who she really is and opens her eyes to the world outside of the class system. These issues play a hand in how Edna develops through the story and gives some insights as to what decisions she makes.
Edna was not always of the upper class that she is now a part of. She lived what is considered the normal life and essentially married into the upper class. This gives insight into the comment that Madame Ratignolle says to Robert on a walk home, "She is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously- (Chopin 648). Madame Ratignolle makes this comment because she knows that she and each of her friends are basically in a real life play, where each person acts the way they supposed to and as their character deems so. These people have been in this situation their whole lives so they know the role that each of them is supposed to play and how react to certain situations and how they handle them. Edna, being born into this upper class, does not get what is going on. She has not learned how to handle the things going on around her and, therefore, takes everything for full value when everyone else knows this is all for show. She starts to catch wind of the way the people are acting when she beings to associate with an individual who is not of the same class as her.
