Edna Pontellier's Mother In The Awakening

A mother’s job is to love her children and put them above everything. Edna Pontellier is a married woman who is not content being a wife and mother. Over the course of a summer, Edna begins to discover just how discontent she is and begins to act selfishly, ignoring her children’s emotional and physical needs. Instead, she prioritizes her own desires in her pursuit of independence rather than those of her children. In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a poor mother to her children.

Edna Pontiller should have never become a mother because she lacks maternal instincts. Mothers are meant to take care of their children's emotional and physical needs. Mr. Pontiller is aware that Edna is not a typical mother and confronts her about

Edna develops an infatuation for a man named Robert. She leaves her children and goes away with him for the day without telling anyone. It makes her feel as if she “freed her soul of responsibility” (Chopin 43). Edna demonstrates a lack of commitment to her children and husband, preferring to spend the day with a man she is not married to rather than her own family. She disregards the emotional well-being of her kids so she can pursue her love interest without their interference. As summer comes to a close, Edna decides to move out of the family home. She sends her boys to stay with her mother-in-law. After visiting them, Edna “[breathes] a big, genuine sigh of relief” because she is once again without them (Choin 97). She enjoyed spending a short time with her children but forgets about them shortly after leaving. She finds it easier to be distant and detached rather than engaged with her boys. As Edna returns to her new home, she feels free and happy because she can focus on her own interests without having her children under foot. Unfortunately for Edna, her personal life did not work out the way she planned. She chooses to end her life rather than return to her children knowing that this way “they could [not] possess her body and soul” (Chopin 156). For Edna, downing herself is the only way she is going to have the freedom she wants. She believes her children are a burden to her because