Edna's Role In The Awakening

In society, the “role” of a mother is to be a role model for their kids, to be involved in their lives, and generally willing to sacrifice yourself for them. In The Awakening, Edna a mother, a wife—struggled to do so. As much as she cared for them, she was never willing to put her children before herself. She sacrifices herself to show how much she values freedom. In additional to my previous statement, Edna was a strong believer of freedom. She valued her freedom, so if she felt like she wasn’t given her freedom that she wasn’t herself. Edna lived in a male dominated society, so she struggled to fulfill her values as an artist because society made it that she needed to be a stay at home mom, and satisfy her husband’s needs. Therefore, Edna chooses to sacrifice herself, and commits suicide because she felt enslaved to the roles of being a mother and a wife that were essentially handed to her as a task from society. As much as she tried to break the roles on how women are supposed to be, she felt like it didn’t work. The constant fight to live the way she wanted to, and how her …show more content…
She could not beat the adversary that happened to be her kids. Her children began to control and overcome her. They were the reason she had to begin to return to the roles of society of being a “perfect” mother. Therefore that made Edna feel if she couldn’t give her children everything they wanted, that she is failing her task. Moreover, Edna begins to doubt herself and the only way she could free herself from the limitations of being a perfect women was to sacrifice her life. Overall, Edna’s sacrifices were meant to help her children because she failed to be what a mother is expected to be. She felt it would be better for her kids if she was no longer a part of their lives. Edna’s sacrifice shows her value of freedom. When taking her life away, she felt as if it was her only option to become a free woman once