The Awakening Conformity Quotes

Conformity or Personality? The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel filled with self-discovery, inward doubt, and outward conformity. The protagonist is a middle-aged woman living in a society that forces her to feel that everyone around her is trying to twist her into something she is not. All of the pressure is overwhelming her while she also struggles with the consequences of marrying her husband. He is a man that cares more of societal status and maintaining image than he does for his wife’s feelings. Additionally, Edna feels as though she lives and struggles in a very dull world without the ability to enjoy any of it, due to her current predicaments. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, struggles internally with herself while she conforms …show more content…
“While the book explores themes of self-discovery, independence, and the role of women in society, it is also a critical of irrational action and abandoning family” (“The Awakening”). In this quote, Edna’s actions towards her children and family are being described. While Edna does care for her children, it is obvious to anyone that she is not a motherly-type of woman. “If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother’s arms for comfort….In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle…. fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.” (Chopin, 4.1). In this quote from The Awakening, the reader can infer that Edna is not like many of the other women around her; motherhood does not come naturally to her. She is not a typically nurturing type of mother. Edna knows that she will never be a normal or traditional mother to her children, and she sometimes worries and feels as though she is failing them in some way. She tries to be a good parental …show more content…
Pontellier does not really know how to maintain her status as a suitable woman in society in the pressure of her peers, while coping with her internal struggles of being herself at the same time. Chopin’s publisher, Simon and Brown, describes Edna as a creation “who feels all but physically present.” This is true in reference of some of Edna’s behaviors: from refusing to make any future house calls to yelling at a guest during a dinner to celebrate her moving to a new house. These chapters “chart Edna’s growing independence. In part, Edna’s strength comes as she rejects her social role. Her new house is more modest, and its small size disallows the entertaining that was such a significant part of her former life. Consequently, Edna believes that independence and social rank form an inverse relationship; she has ‘descended the social scale,’ but has ‘risen in the spiritual.’ Ignoring the expectations of those around allows her to act in accordance to her own impulses and opinions.” (Sparknotes) How and why Edna chooses to deny her duties and responsibilities as a lady and wife becomes her mantra. Edna really shows her internal and external struggles through this part of the novel, especially toward the final chapters. She tries to host dinners and be polite. Moving into the more modest lifestyle that she was born into, she deals with, at the same time, rejecting her her duties and silently rebelling towards her peers and