Gender Inequality In The Awakening Essay

A woman can’t live a life against the social standard without either being ostracized or dying. This was the situation Kate Chopin presented in her 1899 novel The Awakening, and the concept isn’t too far-fetched. Even though her description of Edna’s emotional epiphany and her subsequent suicide is an example of fiction, it is a rather realistic one nonetheless. In the time period that the book was written, the woman was thought to be an extension of her husband, and if a woman strayed from this role, she would most likely be shunned. Chopin centers the novel around what might happen if a woman challenged the expectations of a subservient wife, and examines how women were treated in the 1890s through the interactions of three characters: the motherly Adele, the spinster Reisz, and the revelation-experiencing Edna, who tries to make a switch from a mother to her own being. Although it wasn’t recognized as the transcendent work it’s known as today until much later, The Awakening brilliantly displays the issues of gender inequality, and then points out the absurdity of such societal requirements. If someone was …show more content…
You could choose to be the obedient mother-woman, garnering the praise of community members, but losing your ability to practice free-will in the process. You could also decide to break away from the common role of the woman in society, gaining independence, as well as seclusion and possibly some insanity. No matter how much effort the female characters in The Awakening put into bettering themselves, there were still major flaws present in each of their lives. Chopin presented the unequal role of women in society, and showed that, unless the world could alter their stance on allowing females to grow into independent women as well as be loyal spouses and mothers, then the ladies of this world would always be forced into servitude or