Edna Pontellier's Lousy Mother In The Awakening

The role of a mother is to primarily care for her children and lead them in the right direction of growing up and becoming great individuals. Edna Pontellier is a mother and a well-liked woman with a sound family living in New Orleans during the late 1800s. Edna breaks away from societal roles and discovers her own identity that is independent from being a wife or mother to her children. While so, she fails to upkeep the duties any caring mother would withhold. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier demonstrates characteristics of a lousy mother as she neglects her children and leads them to failure. Edna lacks presence in her children’s lives and fails to love them in the way a mother should. During the majority of the summer,

Edna does not partake in her civil duties as a woman. It is assumed that a mother would do anything her children, but she refuses. When talking with a friend, Edna admits that she “would give [her] life for [her] children, but [she] wouldn't give [herself],” (Chopin 64). Although Edna would sacrifice her physical self for her children, she would not give up her morals or self-respect. Edna portrays childish characteristics when she partakes in an illicit relationship, despite being married. Edna begins to fall in love with Robert, a man whom she met one summer at Grand Isle, an island just beside New Orleans. Edna prioritizes spending time with Robert instead of being with her family. This is a reflection of her immature decisions when Edna knows she has motherly responsibilities in her life but does not take care of. When Edna realizes she is unhappy with any outcome of her life, she decides to end it by swimming out to the sea and drowning. As a result, she leaves her children motherless. The decision is led when “despondency had come upon her there in the wakeful night, and had never lifted,” (Chopin 155). Edna believes that committing suicide is the only way of escaping her life as a wife and mother. She feels that she can not escape the responsibilities of her children regardless if she had been in a different situation or