How Does Edna Pontellier Conform

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, Edna was truly awakened from her state of constant conformity that had been embedded into her mind as being the write way of living since she was young, because of the social standards that were in place at that time.

Edna Pontellier was born in Kentucky on a farm and was raised with very reserved and conservative values, as most young women were in the nineteenth century. She was taught from an early age that her future was predestined for her, she was to grow up and become a mother. This became a reality when she married Leonce Pontellier and moved to New Orleans with her new husband. She soon was the mother of two boys; only she never truly felt her role as a mother was right for her. She observed

the way other women treated their children. They absolutely adored and idolized them; almost worship at their feet. Edna did not feel this way toward her children, she merely went through the steps and was relieved when their grandparents would take them on trips to the country for weeks at a time, at last feeling like she could breathe again.
The more time Edna spent around the Creole society, which was the Louisiana aristocratic society, which she became a part of when she married Leonce, the more desensitized she became to a freer way of life.

The Creole’s were a very touchy and unreserved group. They would always say what was on their mind, never caring whether what they said was polite or not, and they were constantly joking and playing with one another. It was all n friendly banter, but to Edna it was something she had never experienced back in Kentucky, and even after living around t for years it still shocked her at times. One summer, while vacationing at Grand Isle, she became very close friends with Adele Ratignolle. She had never had a girlfriend before, and she slowly began to adopt the Creole habit of speaking ones mind. The problem arose when Edna didn’t know when to stop, and shared things with Adele about her relationship and feelings about a young boy on the Isle, Robert, which were taken too far. This openness about expressing feelings is what allowed Edna to come to the conclusion she was not truly happy obeying her husband’s orders and doing what he said all the time. She enjoyed the fun of Robert, and remembered how before she was married she would develop deep infatuations with men whom she would never be allowed to have relationships with. This was exactly the case with

Robert.
This time at Grand Isle and the development of her relationship with Robert all took part in “the awakening’ process Edna went through that summer.

After she returned with Leonce form vacation she never truly returned to reality and her duties as a wife and mother. She abandoned her duties as woman of the house, and when Leonce moved to New York for a few months she began seeing another man, Alcee Arobin. In a way Arobin was her way to live out her fantasy of her and Robert’s relationship, because Robert had moved to Mexico that summer and she no longer had his companionship. At the same time Leonce left for New York, the children were also taken to their grandparents indefinitely. Edna had no responsibilities and carried out her life as if she were a single woman. She moved into her own little house around the corner from the mansion her family lived in. She spent her days walking around town, painting, or visiting friends. She even kissed two men while her family was away (Robert and Arobin). She felt quiet satisfied with this new life of hers, and felt this is where she was supposed to be, not tied down by a family and children whom she did not even fully care

for.
Edna was able to find what made her truly happy in life, and not what the rest of society and the people around her had convinced her was what would make her happy. The only downfall to Edna’s story is that she was living in the wrong time period, where these actions were in no way acceptable. She could have possibly been happy if she had come to this conclusion before she married, and just stayed unmarried all her life, pursuing her painting and her infatuations.