Edna's Role In The Awakening

To me, Edna is quite an interesting character in the story “The Awakening.” Given that this novella took place during the late 19th century, Edna ambitious and courageous strength to act on her needs and desire is a remarkable trait. Even so, she knows she is restricted due to society implementation on women, and this conflict between a strive for her awakening and her knowledge of her restrictions drives the plot of the story. To me, Mademoiselle Reisz and Adele Ratigonolle is a symbolic representation of her life depending on the choice she could of taken. Due to this, Mademoiselle and Adele serve as a foil for each other.

We were first introduced to Adele in chapter four in which Edna describe her as “mother-woman.” We soon realized she with the perfect definition of a “…women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands” (Chopin). She mostly spends in her days caring for her children, performing household chores, and ensuring her husband needs are satisfied. Even while on vacationing for the summer, she is thinking about her kids needs and begin to start sewing their winter clothes. In a way, she represent the true definition of what a nineteenth-century woman should be.
She was first introduced in chapter nine of the story, with the narrator describing her as “… a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost every one, owing to a temper which was self-assertive and a dispositon to trample upon the rights of others.” She also has “absolutely no taste in dress” as well (Chopin). Late on in the story we learn that she does not have any kid and is not married. In a way, she is an independent woman that only have love for her art as a pianist. This ambition and passion is what dictates her life and she ignore every expectations society has in placed for a