Femininity In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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In modern day society femininity is considered as an act of women to become independent and equal to men. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, it goes through a story about Edna, the protagonist, and her fight for independence. Feminist believe that what men do they should be able to do too; equality. So feminist abide their actions with the actions of men. However there are always good and bad actions created by men. Edna, as she tries to gain her independence, tries to escape the image set on women during the late 1800’s and tries to set more of an independent feminine image on herself and because of that she creates some formidable acts. Throughout the story Edna sets a feminist image on herself that instead of seeming strong and independent, she seemed pathetic. Edna is portrayed as a woman trying to gain her independence. Just as the title …show more content…
One of which is a sexual awakening that creates a pathetic image on her by the fact that she is married to Leoncé Pontellier. During Edna’s time period, late 1800’s, women would worship their husbands and idolize their kids (Pg. 8). However, Edna began to defy her husband instead of worshipping him. Although this might seem as an act of strong will Edna’s actions created a weakened will to what she thought was strong willed. Edna begins to have an intimate relationship with Robert. What makes Edna so pathetic is that she was married with two kids and her marriage was basically that of an ideal marriage. She was married with Mr. Pontellier who was a fairly wealthy man and everyone considered him to be the best husband to have (Pg. 7). She lived in the time period where women were considered inferior to men and more like possession. So not only did Edna’s action seem to be considered pathetic during her time period and in modern day people are looked down upon for doing such things. Edna didn’t stop there however. Once Robert
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In her daring novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin bravely exposes an unfamiliar attitude of feminism to an unprepared society in the form of Edna Pontellier. At the time, her work of fiction was not yet recognized as being respectable or even credible—due to the fact that the idea of feminism had not yet become popular. Since then, Edna Pontellier’s “awakening” has been viewed in a positive light by many modern feminist critics and described as an “intellectual and social” maturation or liberation of…

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