Independence In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Decent Essays
Throughout the novel Edna is seeking independence as a woman, freedom from her husband and a more fulfilling life where she can live in her own skin. Whether she fulfills her mission is definitely debatable because she she was independent and she was free but it didn’t meet her expectations. So maybe she did fulfill her mission but her goal wasn’t as rewarding as she thought it would be. She didn’t feel much different when she got all these things and it shattered her because she realized all the things she gave up for this life and she still wasn’t happy and maybe she'll never be happy.

Her independence was important to her because she wanted to be able to support herself and not owe anything to anyone which is most likely why she stayed with her husband as long as she did among other things. Independence was hard acquired by women of that time. Socially and financially it was hard to be a independent woman at that time but that is what she wanted so she moved into a cheap small home.
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So she of course wanted freedom from her husband but her more controversial want for freedom was from her children. She wasn’t very involved in the her children’s lives in the first place but she didn’t want to take care of them anymore and she even thought that it would be better if she left them. Don’t get it twisted though, she loved her children like any other mother but just from a

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