Edna Pontellier: Breaking Society's Barrier.
Kate Chopin, an author of the nineteenth century, is most famous for her novel The Awakening, which is often categorized simply as a feminist work. Yet, from the time of its first publication in 1899 to the present day, the story continues to be scrutinized for what the specific message is that Chopin tries to convey. While the novel explores themes such as identity, fulfillment, individuality, and freedom, the ambiguity of the ending, in which the protagonist commits suicide, often creates a sense of confusion as to the author's point. Throughout the story it becomes clear that the underlying premise is how society forces individuals to conform, thus preventing one's self-possession. This can be defined as the right to control one's own thoughts, actions, body, and soul. Moreover, the novel stresses Edna's rebellion against this conformity as a means to express herself as an individual. .
The novel's setting is in a Creole community in New Orleans, where the characters are all wealthy members of high society. Most of the activities that the characters take part in revolve around socializing or attending dinner parties, and everyone fits into a stereotypical role. Men are husbands, whose primary job is to make money for the family. So long as they adore their wives and treat them like gold, and can occasionally show their children a fun time, they basically have free reign over what they do. Leonce Pontellier, for example, frequents a "club" at night after dinner with his friends, yet it is not expected that he specify his doings or what time he will return home. A woman, on the other hand, is meant to be a housewife, happily bearing children, knitting clothes for them, and being a picture-perfect beautiful, delicate lady. In this society, a woman such as Adele Ratignolle is therefore the epitome of the ideal "mother-woman," those who "idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.
