Gender Roles In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

The difference between genders is obvious throughout the novel "The Awakening". Men and Women both have different expectations that are considered social norms within their genders, but their worlds are overlapped through the pressure of social convention. The pressure that both genders feel is mutual, and the way they interact enforces their belief to follow social convention. Both Men and Women are effected by societies expectations of how they should act individually and with each other. The women's world can change depending on who is being observed in the novel. There are two sides of the women's world, The "mother-women" and the Independent women. The majority of women follow societies expectations of being a wife

This first comes to our attention when Leonce notices Enda's sunburned skin and says, " 'You are burnt beyond recognition, ' he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which had suffered some damage" (Chopin 24). This shows that Leonce is upset that Edna would be so careless to damage her skin because it does not make her look like his perfect property. Leonce loves Edna but it is not always clear to Edna that she is anymore than just his show case to society. This communication problem could stem from the issue of society saying that men should not express emotion. Without Leonce's emotion and passion for his wife, he is slowly losing her interest. Leonce spends most of his time at work or at the Kliens Hotel leaving Edna alone to realize that he does not make her happy. Leonce starts to face different obstacles by trying to control Edna as she begins to find herself. Edna is straying from her motherly and wifely duties which causes Leonce to become frustrated. Leonce finds out the Edna skipped her visitation day with the other mother-wives and becomes extremely upset with her. "Why, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things; we've got to observe les convenances if we ever expects to get on the keep up with the procession" (Chopin 72). Leonce is extremely worried that he is going to lose business because Edna is not attending her meetings with the other women. If he cannot maintain business he will not be able to make enough money to maintain their