Character Analysis: The Awakening By Kate Chopin

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A butterfly to come out of its cocoon it has to fully grown and finally be free from it. Freedom is the key to the door, once the key goes into the keyhole the door opens and sets one to be open to everything. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is seen as a woman who is trapped and can’t get out of her comfort zone. Two women, Adele Ratignolle and Madame Reisz, came into her life and influenced her to become more open about herself and express who she really is. They inspire her to break free from the old Edna to the new, and not let anyone or anything break that. Edna expresses and discovers who she really wants to be and what she wants for herself.
A perfect mother and wife are seen as a women who will always be there for their children and husband. It doesn’t have to be that way,
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It helped her express herself the way that she has never done before. Edna’s suicide relates to the ways that she conveyed herself with the influence of Adele and Madame Reisz. They helped her come out of her comfort zone by expressing her emotions with who she can call “friends”. But the thought of expressing too much is frightening to her because it makes her feel to pressured in society and this lead to her suicide. For example, “ Exhaustion was pressing upon and over-powering her ” (Chopin 116), as she was inside the ocean it made her feel calm and didn’t think about the responsibilities that she had and at that moment death was the answer. Her death was lead to all these emotions that she was experiencing and couldn’t contain them. Even though she would try to get rid of the societal desires, they would always come back. But death was the answer to her, and that’s what she did to get rid of all the pressure she felt when she was alive. Too much was accumulating upon her, she didn’t want that anymore, and she did what she wanted to do to end all of societal

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