The Awakening By Kate Chopin

In the feminist bildungsroman The Awakening (1899), Kate Chopin highlights the internal struggles of a Victorian woman restricted from achieving artistic, financial, and sexual freedom due to conventional gender roles and expectations imposed upon her by society. The author explores the journey of Edna Pontellier, a dissatisfied Protestant wife living in the Creole society of late - nineteenth century New Orleans. The protagonist is on a quest to reclaim independence and unity with herself. Along this arduous spiritual trek, Edna is influenced by Adele Ratignolle, a loving and dedicated Creole wife representing the ideal traditional woman, and Mademoiselle Reisz, a recluse who follows her own desires and is often seen as rebellious to the image
Madame Ratignolle was the ideal Creole woman: committed to serving the needs of those around her, leaving little time to pursue her own interests. Edna vividly describes her as “ the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm. (p. 10)” She was the epitome of womanhood, the image that Edna was to imitate. She dismissed her own identity in favor of her family. Despite her representation as the womanly figure that Edna loathed, Adele Ratignolle catalyzed Edna’s movement away from the traditional lifestyle with her liberal manner of speech due to her Creole background. Edna was astonished at the absence of prudery of Creole women for “their freedom of speech was at first incomprehensible to her.(p. 12)” Through the influence of liberal Creole ways, Edna uncovers desires that were suppressed inside her for years. Conversely, Mademoiselle Reisz represented the image of a rebel to the traditional ideology of a woman’s role in late- nineteenth century society. She was a fully self-sufficient woman, ruled by her own desires, not by the expectations of society. Chopin depicts the independent woman as possessing “ a temper which was self- assertive and a disposition to trample upon the rights of others. (p. 33)”An elderly recluse, Mademoiselle rejected
Water’s close association with cleansing and baptism contributes to this declaration. The protagonist’s gradual awakening comes to its zenith as Edna chooses her own ambitions as opposed to succumbing to the desires of others. She rejects the conventional image of a dedicated, selfless, and caring wife and mother in favor of a liberated, independent woman. She achieves spiritual elevation due to the liberal Creole ideas of Adele Ratignolle and the self-ruling and artistic Mademoiselle Reisz. The juxtaposition of caged fowl with the image of the majestic sea illustrates Edna’s growth throughout The