How Is Edna Pontellier Selfish

A mother is someone put into our lives for us to be nurtured, loved, protected, and raised into an intelligent human being. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier was a selfish and lousy mother to her sons, she fantasizes over being an independent woman without being held back from the duty of being a mother. Edna realizes that her freedom and independence is all she has ever wanted in life. She will do anything in her power to be able to feel like she has a say in her life. Edna is a bad mother due to her lack of responsibility for her children and her various acts of selfishness.

Edna is not a motherly woman because she never puts her children as her first priority. Edna sends her children to their grandmother’s house to get some

Edna is not a motherly woman, her boys knew that if they “took a tumble whilst at play, [they] was not apt to rush crying to [their] mother’s arms for comfort; [they] would more likely pick [themselves] up” (Chopin 10). Although unfortunate her boys were accepting of the fact that their mother would not provide them with the same comfort and support as other kids were given. They have to learn to pick themselves up and carry on with their days as if nothing had happened to them. Edna was not the type of mother that admired her children and spent her free time with them and taking care of them. As the other Victorian mothers would do anything for their children to keep them protected and safe from any harm in the world. Her children learned to be dependent on each other and themselves. Edna would give up whatever she had power over for her children but she expresses that “[she] wouldn’t give up [herself]” (Chopin 64). Her freedom and her independence was more important than her children. A mother is someone that would fight tooth and nail for their children, their safety. A mother wants to be there for their child’s every important moment in life, big and