Gender Roles In The Awakening

In the late 1800s society assigned to women a specific role to play. The role included bearing children, caring for them, and honoring their husbands. People saw women who took jobs outside of the home or who never married as deranged. Kate Chopin highlights the female duties of the time in her novel, The Awakening, through the use of foils Edna and Adele. Adele represents the model of how an ideal women of the 19th century should behave and feel. A wonderful mother, Adele also tends to her husband’s every need. Furthermore, she seems to enjoy this role, apparently thriving in it. Her friend Edna starts off like Adele but then realizes the role is drowning her. Edna and Adele are different people who, though dealt the same cards in life,

Edna’s perspective on this shows after she and Robert have finally confessed their love for each other. Robert, a man, immediately suggests that they ask Mr. Pontellier, Edna’s husband, to set Edna free. Only then would Robert, Edna’s new man, be able to marry Edna. Edna bristles, saying, “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 should laugh at the both of you” (108). Throughout the story Edna’s feelings for Robert grow stronger and deeper, so that by the end of the novel she simply longs to be with him. Yet parallel to that growth Edna has discovered her self and developed her own identity. The idea of a transfer of ownership of her person from one man to another is abhorrent to her, so much so that it would cause her to abandon her dream of being with Robert. Though she wants that very much, she is unwilling to lose her own identity in the process as she did when she was with Mr. Pontellier. Adele’s contrasting perspective shows when Edna visits her at Adele’s New Orleans, home where she watches Adele and her husband interact over dinner: “The Ratignolle’s understood each other perfectly. If ever the fusion of two human beings into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their

Edna sets personhood limits on how much she would give up for her children through a recalled conversation with Adele where Edna spoke her views on motherhood: “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (47). Her statement is revealing because Edna goes against what society says a woman is supposed to feel towards her children. She would give up superficial things like money, or a even a vital thing - her life - for her children. However, Edna states her unwillingness to become a ministering angel where to reach divine status she would have to erase her personhood, who she is as an individual. Edna will not give up her self for anything. Unlike Edna, Adele would do anything for her children. This shown when, as Adele is giving birth, she leans over to Edna and whispers into her ear, “Think of the children Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!” (111). Even while in physical pain herself and needing tending, Adele focuses on children, believing that to be a perfect mother one must be willing to sacrifice anything for her children. Adele tries to get Edna to see her point of view and adopt it. Again, Adele’s unsolicited advice shows how passionately she feels about the subject, which is not her own idea at all but simply society’s rule imposed on