Edna Pontellier Was Not A Mother Woman

Victorian women were not expected to do much more than have and care for children, and were really the only ones expected to do such. This idea is woven into the novel through Leonce’s opinion that “if it was not a mother’s place to look after the children, whose on earth was it?” (Chopin chapter 3). He is frustrated with Edna’s “ habitual neglect of the children” (Chopin chapter 3). This introduces the box that women were forced into and which Edna rejected. She did not complete the traditional duties of women for her children, to the extent of Leonce considering it neglect, showing how society's expectations for motherhood can harm women and children. Furthermore, “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother woman” (Chopin chapter 4). The idea of a

Chopin uses Edna to comment on how Victorian society expected women to be mothers before being a person, damaging women’s autonomy and independence. For a while, Edna sends her children off to be cared for by their grandmother. During the time they’re gone, she sees Madame Ratignolle give birth. While she watched it, she described it as such: “With an inward agony, with a flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature, she witnessed the scene of torture” (Chopin chapter 37). This quote is filled with negative diction that conveys the extent to which Edna abhors and regrets motherhood, seeing birth as something that goes against nature. By this point, Edna is more awakened to her desires and realizes that she really never wanted to be a mother and wasn’t fit for it. It emphasizes the agony caused by social roles that limit women to motherhood. By the end of the book, Edna isn’t only appalled by the action of giving birth, but feels a burden in her soul because of her children, saying “The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days” (Chopin chapter