The Awakening of Edna Pontellier Essay Example

The Awakening of Edna Pontellier Kate Chopin’s short story The Awakening is set during a time where women were expected to live in a patriarchal society. More specifically, this story tells of the well-to-do Creole lifestyles in New Orleans during the mid to late Nineteenth Century. Chopin’s personal experiences as a woman during this oppressive time and her growth as an individual inspired her to write about Edna Pontellier, a woman who tries to break from the expectations of society to be her own woman. As Edna Pontellier in The Awakening experiments with the oppositional or alternative roles of Adele Ratignolle, Mademoiselle Reisz and of herself in the role of a "free woman," she gradually transforms into an individual apart from the conventional male dominant society, a society in which she craves happiness but never seems to find peace until she ends her life. Married with 6 children, one would certainly think that Kate Chopin was typical of her time ("Kate Chopin Biography" 1). She seemed by all accounts to be a devoted mother and wife who demurely bowed down to societies role for the woman without complaint. However, Chopin was no ordinary woman. Widowed at the age of 32, she managed to write and raise her children alone having never re-married. During these trying times, Chopin experienced personal growth and confidence as an individual; therefore, it is not surprising that Kate Chopin’s own personal awakenings inspired her to write The Awakening in 1899. This short story was met with a great deal of hostility (Bloom 119) to Chopin’s admirers and peers. Women during this time period were sheltered where family, marriage and female dependency was a way of life. In reading this short story, one can see a connection between Kate Chopin herself and Edna. Both struggled for their own identity, an identity that “undercuts the authority of male conventions” (Bloom 120). On a personal level Chopin was struggling to leave behind imprisoning