Edna Pontellier In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

To commence,In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main character, Edna Pontellier conforms outwardly and questions inwardly. In the novel, Edna is a wife with three children. As the story progresses, she begins to question the submissive nature of females in society.In the story, Edna states “ You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘ Here Robert, take her and be happy, she is yours’, I would at you both” ( Chopin 108 ) . Edna questions the submissive nature of females in society by not wanting to be similar to those females. She does not want to be like a robot who only does what her husband wants her to do. In the quote above, Edna basically declares that she is not just some object that her husband can do whatever he pleases with. She asserts that she alone has the power to give herself to someone, not someone else. She is

He basically wants to become successful. In the story he claims “ Don’t say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don’t breathe it to a soul. Someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll never have to leave home anymore” ( Miller 30 ). Because of his faith in the American Dream, he happily conforms to stereotypes within society and easily bows down to the pressure of society. However as his life starts to spiral out of control and he loses his job, he is forced to question the values of success and the idea that happiness can made possible by hard work and effort. Willy becomes conflict between his desire to conform and succeed in his society, and his despair over the fact that success seems unreachable which causes him to examine the very essence of the American