Societal Expectations Of Women In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening women in the 19th century completely lack any role in society besides wives, mothers, and women actively searching men to marry and procreate with. Societal expectations dictate that women must marry a man and obey his every whim, bear children and shelter and protect them. If not married and or mothers, they must seek a man and remain chaste and pure until they do so. While at first Edna Pontellier complies with society’s standards, her enlightenment allows her to challenge and in a feministic finale, free herself from the overpowering patriarchal influence that controls her society. Edna completely contravenes the societal expectations forced upon her. She disregards her husband and their marriage, neglects her children, and in the end, refuses to accept society’s standards and commits suicide. Edna’s tragic end highlights the female struggle that accompanies an enlightened perspective on gender issues.‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍
In 19th century society,

women must primarily focus on marrying a man, catering to his every whim, and obeying his word. Edna completely disregards her expectations as a wife and drifts away from her husband. Completely immoral for modern times, even more so in this era, Edna begins to have an affair. “Alcee Arobin was absolutely nothing to her. Yet his presence, his manners, the warmth of his glances, and above all the touch of his lips upon her hand had acted like a narcotic upon her.” (pg 82). Despite the chastity expected from women, Edna continuously meets with Alcee. She does not develop romantic feelings for him, but purely uses him for the sensual physical pleasures. Not only has Edna awakened intellectually regarding the treatment and place of women in this society, she has awakened sensually. The usually oppressed sexual behavior of women flows freely through Edna. The quote specifically refers to the ‘touch’, for Edna, Alcee only serves for her physical pleasure. She takes her sexuality into her own hands
and uses Alcee, similarly to how men often use women only for pleasure. Interestingly, regarding her affair, Edna says “What would he think?” Closely followed by the narrator’s clarification “She did not mean her Husband; she was thinking of Robert Lebrun.” (pg 82). Edna disregards her husband completely. She’s defied the traditional wife role that society places upon her.
After the wife role, society demands a women to also follow the role of a mother.

A woman must sacrifice their entire begins to care for her children and husband. While the children spend time at a grandparent’s house, the narrator comments “Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her.” (pg 23) The specific diction of ‘blindly assumed’ enforces the idea that society forces women into certain cookie-cutter roles, even though not all women fit the mold. The contempt Edna feels towards her children persists throughout the entire novel. In her last moments she claims that her children tried to “ drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days.” (pg 120). Edna acknowledges that women’s societal expectations often force them to conform as wives and mothers. Unlike Adele Ratignolle, Edna fails to give up herself to care for her

children.
Edna, once awakened, enjoys her new found freedom as she explores herself sensually and intellectually. She ignores her duties as a mother and a wife. Instead of taking care of her children and entertaining guests, she paints, instead of being intimate with her husband, she is intimate with other men. Edna’s new understanding of the world frees her from certain societal expectations, but fails to free her from the society itself. Her realization that the society around her does not support hr and will continue to force her into the mold of wife and mother leads to her suicide. The only escape from her world was is death. Edna’s will to go against her society's beliefs were so strong, she ended up completely leaving the society she lived in.