Social Convention In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In the 19th century women’s role in society was strict and generally non-negotiable, their place was in the household, and they were expected to be loyal to their husbands. As the century started to end, women increasingly questioned their part in their community. Independence and self-reliance were key aspects to the new mindset that encaptured women, and helped to begin their questioning of the way they could live their lives. In the novella, The Awakening, Kate Chopin portrays the way that Edna defies social convention on what women’s role in society should be and reaches and ultimate awakening at the end of the novella.
In the beginning of the novella, Chopin shows that Edna does not conform to the standards of what women’s roles should …show more content…
Furthermore, Edna feels that such a small amount of people are remembered, “How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!”, and thus sets out to be remembered herself, which explains her sudden contrasting actions. Then Chopin uses personification to characterize the sea as an endorser of Edna’s awakening and is something that she feels comfortable with, “ The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace” (20). Chopin also makes the sea out to be an entity of intimacy and one that Edna is able to trust, which is important later in the novella. After the Pontellier’s stay in their resort, they return to their home in New Orleans, Louisiana. As Edna’s husband leaves on business and her children leave with their grandmother, she is alone with her thoughts of self-reliance and independence. Mrs. Pontellier goes so far as to decide to live separately in a different