Feminism In The Awakening

Feminism transformation and self-realization in The Awakening
Over time, the rights of women have been taken great care of and evolved. The feminist movement development made all these progressive changes. This happened in the twentieth century. The reason for this development was both political and social. Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, is the story of one of a woman’s self-expedition to free herself from society anticipation. In the beginning, Edna Pontellier is just a subservient wife and mother of two children. However, as the plot of the story develops, she gradually realizes she is not living the life she pleases. Hence, she starts to seek a way to escape her unfulfilling lifestyle after having had new experiences. The Awakening
Edna is becoming despairing at this point in the novel. The desperation spurs in her in this awakening. Edna is totally aware that she can never go back to being her old self, which the society had shaped and created. Nevertheless, because of her children, Edna also sees how she will never be rid of her old life. Moreover, Edna does not want to be looked like she cannot control her life, like the other independent women of her time. She is caught between what she sees as two extremes, with no option in the middle. As critic Xianfeng states: “…one can think Edna acts only for ‘her own pleasure,’ which presumably refers to sexual pleasure. The second level goes deeper and takes the cultural approach, focusing on Edna’s quest for a femine mode of subjectivity.” (Mou 104) This awakening changes Edna so dramatically that instead of trying to find her own place in the world she now decides to free herself from
Even though Edna can decide and lead her way of life as a woman with free will, she is still trapped under her society of the nineteenth century. This is the face she cannot deny. As Mou presents in “Kate Chopin’s Narrative Techniques and Separate Space in The Awakening”: “Many other critics interpret the process differently and accord different degrees of positivity to it. Patrick Shaw thinks that Chopin shows Edna is incapable of bringing lessons from her past to bear on her present and future” (105). In fact, Edna is struggling with her issues of everyday life still because of this lack of reflection and inheritance. She ceaselessly has to fight between her thoughts of her marriage’s loyalty per social standards and wonders whether she has an affair of infidelity or