Female Characters In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening reveals oppressive actions towards its female characters by characterizing them through confined symbols, creating a language barrier between genders, and by setting a standard of silent rules women must uphold. In this novel one female character in particular, Edna Pontellier, begins to comprehend she is being oppressed and then decides to embark on a quest to discover her individuality as a human being. Most other female characters in The Awakening seem to ignore the oppressive environment of nineteenth century New Orleans, and instead see a happy world where their purpose is only to be a “mother-woman” and a good obedient wife.
Edna Pontellier begins as a quite person who does not share her feelings because unlike her Creole female counterparts she was raised to not express her feelings. It is actually Adele, one of Edna’s female counterparts, who helps Edna first learn how to express her feelings freely (Taheri 16). Edna respects words and uses them to speak about individual freedom unlike the other female characters who’s words are meaningless (Taheri 15). Edna awakens as her true self and refuses to take orders from anyone (Taheri 16). This personality change makes her different from the “mother-woman” she is supposed to be. She does not idolize her husband or worship her children and she even begins to run away from society (Clark 4). Edna loves her children, but cannot sacrifice her soul and independence for them (Taheri 15). Stone puts society’s mentality towards Edna’s feelings, …show more content…
Society has put Edna and other women in figurative bird cages, and this has taken way their individuality (Clark 1). Clark notes that like the caged parrot in the beginning of The Awakening, the female characters are isolated and Edna like the parrot develops symbolically a different language than the other women (Clark