The Women In Chopin's The Awakening

As a woman everyone expected me to do this and to do that. And while fulfilling and doing everything that was expected of me. I lost my dream, I lost my wing, and most importantly I lost me. The women in The Awakening can be seen as a representation of Chopin. Chopin’s writing is based off women in transitional periods. Adele Ratignolle, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Edna Pontellier are different versions of Chopin. In the story, The Awakening shows the reality that is not spoken about. That even though we are biologically made to have children doesn’t mean that everyone should have one, that postpartum depression is real for mothers, that there are bits and pieces of Chopin in each and every one of her characters, that the battles they face are …show more content…
Alec awakens Edna’s sexual desires that have been hidden for so long. Alec frees her as a woman. However, she cannot act on her natural desires because it leads to the one thing that she hates the most motherhood. Being expected to care for the children and tend to the home, this conflict intensified Edna’s societal expectations as a woman. Ultimately, in The Awakening, Chopin demonstrates how Edna Pontellier’s societal expectations as a mother and woman negate her romantic longings, for her desires for sexual freedom perpetuate the very thing that enslaves her: family. Edna did not want kids, but she had to have kids because she biologically was made too.Adele is the mother of four.Adele is the mother of all mother. She loves kids and Adele’s liberal Creolean ways of going about motherhood help unleash the Inner Edna. Adele’s kids are her life she puts then before herself. Adele is happy within herself and she enjoys motherhood. Adele is confident in herself. Adele unlike Edna does not fall for Alec the city’s lovers. I don't have any regrets about not having kids. I've just never had those maternal feelings. I am a nurturer by nature, but I